“the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”

According to a survey by the Library of Congress and Book-of-the-Month Club, her novel Atlas Shrugged ranked second after the Bible as the book that most influenced people's lives. In addition, total sales of all Ayn Rand’s titles since their original publication date now surpass 23 million copies.
 
Free Online Works

• Philosophy: Who Needs It — the title to her 1974 address to the graduating class of the United States Military Academy at West Point
• Ayn Rand’s interview with Playboy magazine — published in March 1964
• Her novelette Anthem — Anthem is the story of Equality 7-2521 who lives in the Dark Ages of the future, where individualism has all but been destroyed—so much so that the word “I” has disappeared from the language. Equality 7-2521 struggles to find his own individuality. Anthem's theme is the meaning and importance of ego.