Scope and Content Note
The papers of Ayn Rand (1905-1982) span the years circa 1933 to 1976, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1930s to the 1950s. The papers are largely comprised of manuscripts of her four novels and include drafts, galleys, and proofs. The first drafts of all four novels are handwritten and the second drafts are typescripts. The first drafts for three of the novels bear earlier titles: Anthem was titled Ego, Atlas Shrugged was The Strike, and We The Living was Airtight.
A "Miscellany" series includes typescripts, published newsletters, administrative material from the Ayn Rand Letter, galleys from The Objectivist, and two photographs.
After their receipt in 2002, originals of the first and last page of the first draft of The Fountainhead replaced the copies of those pages that previously were with the manuscript of this novel in the collection.
An Addition to the collection contains handwritten essays written for The Ayn Rand Letter between 1971 and 1974 on subjects such as the Watergate affair, the Supreme Court, economics, and inflation.