![]() ![]() In 1999, Rand even made it onto a United States postage stamp. ![]() “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged” still sell 130,000 to 150,000 copies a year. Fifteen million copies of her books have been sold. Are “Fountainhead’s” Roark and “Atlas’s” Galt really plausible heroes, with their stolid ritualistic proclamations and their unwavering self-regard? Did Rand really believe that the world should be run by such creators while second-handers (ordinary workers like most of us) humbly deferred? Her sharpest satire can be found in some of her caricatures of collectivity.īut the good guys are another story. Petersburg apartment and managed to get to the United States in 1926. And when she argued against collectivism, her cynicism had some foundation in experience: she was born in czarist Russia in 1905, witnessed the revolutions of 1917 from her St. Toohey, the Mephistophelean architecture critic in “The Fountainhead,” could be her finest creation. At times, Rand even grants them a bit of compassion. Here is what she did want: Howard Roark, John Galt, individualism, selfishness, capitalism, creation.īut her villains have the best names, the most memorable quirks, the whiniest or most insinuating voices. Toohey, “second-handers,” Wesley Mouch, looters, relativists, collectivists, altruists. Here is what she didn’t want: Ellsworth M. She divided her world – and her characters – in similarly stark fashion into what she wanted and what she didn’t want. It is still possible, more than 20 years after her death, to find readers choosing sides: those who see her as a subtle philosopher pitted against those who see her as a pulp novelist with pretensions. Her scorn was unmistakable in her two novel-manifestos, “The Fountainhead” (1943), about a brilliant architect who stands proud against collective tastes and egalitarian sentimentality, and “Atlas Shrugged” (1957), about brilliant industrialists who stand proud against government bureaucrats and socialized mediocrity. Today is the centennial of her birth, and while newsletters and Web sites devoted to her continue to proliferate, and while little about her private life or public influence remains unplumbed, it is still easier to understand what she didn’t want than what she did. ![]() The New York Times has published its piece on the Rand centennial ? “ Considering the Last Romantic, Ayn Rand, at 100,” written by Edward Rothstein.Īlternately condescending and confused, the article is not flattering, but does contain some intriguing photos from the Ayn Rand Archives. ![]()
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