The Influence of Ayn Rand's Objectivism

On May 14 of this year, the Ayn Rand Institute announced total sales for all of the author’s books for the year 2012 at one million copies.  Of those, Atlas Shrugged sold 359,105 behind 2009 (best ever) and 2011 (second place).  According to them “Rand’s books have sold a total of 29,500,000 copies.”  I believe that total sales of all books by and about Ayn Rand probably exceed 40 million.  That said, the number of active “Rand fans” is probably one-tenth of that, at most.

The ARI released these sales tallies back on April 7, 2008:

1- We the Living - 3 million

2- Anthem- 4 million

3- The Fountainhead - 6.5 million

4- Atlas Shrugged - 6 million

5- For the New Intellectual - 1 million

6- Virtue of Selfishness- 1.5 million

7- Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal - .650 million

8- The Romantic Manifesto - .350 million

Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart find the remnants of
John Galt's Motor in Atlas Shrugged, Part 1.

Since then, other sources such as The Economist reported "over half a million" copies of Atlas Shrugged sold in 2009. Similar reports gave 445 thousand for 2011.  The 2012 volume narrowly outpaced 2010’s purchases of 350,000.  That comes to 1.65 million, a 27% increase since 2008.  Extrapolating a 25% increase across the eight most popular books yields these estimates:

1- We the Living – 3.75 million

2- Anthem- 5 million

3- The Fountainhead – 8.1 million

4- Atlas Shrugged – 7.5 million

5- For the New Intellectual – 1.25 million

6- Virtue of Selfishness- 1.8 million

7- Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal - .810 million

8- The Romantic Manifesto - .437 million

The total (28.647 million) is close to the ARI number of 29 million.  However, it does not take into account 30 other books. 

9. Introduction to the Objectivist Epistemology by Ayn Rand

10. Philosophy: Who Needs It? by Ayn Rand

11. Return of the Primitive (formerly The New Left: the Anti-Industrial Revolution) by Ayn Rand

12. The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought by Ayn Rand, et al

13. Early Ayn Rand vol. 1-

14. Three Plays- (Early Ayn Rand vol. 2)

15. The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z by Harry Binswanger

16. Ayn Rand Answers: The Best of Her Q&A by Robert Mayhew

17. Who is Ayn Rand? by Nathaniel Branden and Barbara Branden

18. The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand edited by by Douglas J. Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen

19. The Psychology of Self Esteem by Nathaniel Branden

20. What Art Is: The Esthetic Theory of Ayn Rand by Louis Torres and Michelle Marder Kamhi

21. Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (film and accompanying book) by Michael Paxton

22. Judgment Day: My Years with Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden

23. The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden

24. Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical by Chris Matthew Sciabarra

25. The Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics by James S. Valliant

26. Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns

27. Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller

28. Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty

29. It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille

30. Is Objectivism a Religion? by Albert Ellis

31. Objectivism in One Lesson by Bernstein

32. On Ayn Rand by Gotthelf

33. Ayn Rand and Alienation by Greenberg

34. Ayn Rand and Business by Geiner and Rinni

35. The Contested Legacy of Ayn Rand by David Kelley

36. Metaethics, Egoism, and Virtue by Gotthelf and Lennox

37. With Charity Toward None by William F. O'Neill

38. Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics by Tara Smith

39. Blue Water Comics Female Force #1 (May 2011): Ayn Rand by John Blundell, et al.
40. Anthem (Graphic Novel) Charles Santino and Joe Staton (New American Library).

[Addendum: Since the original posting, I found these, the first two of which I should have known.]
41. Ayn Rand Explained: From Tyranny to Tea Party (2012) Merrill, Ronald E., Chicago, IL : Open Court, 2012.
42.  Ayn Rand nation : the hidden struggle for America's soul (2012) Gary Weiss, New York : St. Martin's Press, 2012.
43. Ayn Rand and alienation : the Platonic idealism of the objectivist ethics and a rational alternative by Sid Greenberg. San Francisco : Greenberg, c1977.

[And again, at the library today (August 3), I found five more at the University of Texas library. In addition to Who is Ayn Rand? (#17 above), the Brandens also wrote three other books, one of which prompted another book in response.]
44.  The Ayn Rand Companion by Mimi Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
45.  Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand by Mini Reisel Gladstein
46.  Ayn Rand by Tibor Machan
47.  Essays on We the Living by Robert Mayhew
48.  The Fountainheads: Wright, Rand, the FBI and Hollywood by Donald Leslie Johnson
49.  Judgment Day by Nathaniel Branden
50.  My Years with Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden
51.  The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden

[August 10, 2013]
52. Ayn Rand: In Her Own Words (DVD: 72 mins), John Little, Northern River Productions (2011).
53. Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed. Marlene Podritske and Peter Schwartz, eds. Lexington Books, 2009.

[September 14, 2014] On MSK's Objectivist Living site, contributor Jerry Biggers told of this:

54.  The Vision of Ayn Rand: The Basic Principles of Objectivism, by Nathaniel Branden. LaissezFaire Books/Cobden Press, 2009. Also issued in Kindle eBook format on Amazon.com in 2014. This is a transcription of the original NBI set of lectures.

Through all of this, realize that the Ayn Rand Institute is the single largest consumer of books by Ayn Rand.  They buy them from the publisher and then give them away.

October 14, 2010 ARI Press release

ARI has given high school teachers more than 185,000 copies of “Atlas Shrugged” to date, and over 1.6 million copies of Rand’s “Anthem” and “The Fountainhead.”

Yet another detail expands the number of readers over the numbers of books sold. When teaching middle school in Albuquerque 2002-2003, I saw cartloads of Anthem coming and going as assigned reading along with other easy books such as Call of the Wild and Animal Farm. How many young people come to Ayn Rand's ideas via this route cannot be tallied by book sales alone.  Considering the assigned reading from middle school through college, we have to at least recognize the CliffsNotes, Monarch Notes, and Sparknotes for Anthem, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. 

A recent Zogby Poll raised more questions.  Touted by the ARI in a November 30, 2010 press release, the poll found “that 29 percent of the 2,100 adult respondents have read Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged.” Of those who read the book, 49 percent agreed that Atlas Shrugged changed the way they think about political or ethical issues….”

And that is all well and fine, but the same poll claimed: “… that 21 percent of respondents have read Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead; 7 percent, Anthem; 4 percent, We the Living 3 percent, The Virtue of Selfishness; and 3 percent Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal. “  Contrasted against the number of middle school and high school students who are assigned Anthem every year, those numbers seem like under-reports compared to the tallies for Atlas Shrugged.

The numbers at the top actually indicate that anyone who buys Anthem, The Fountainhead, or Atlas Shrugged will buy the other two, though not always.  Sales of Atlas slightly outpace the others. 

I also believe from the numbers that while only a few may buy Philosophy: Who Needs It? or Introduction to the Objectivist Epistemology these are acquired by those who are interested in the technical philosophy having been introduced to it from the novels.  That points to the claim at the top that 40 million books sold might reveal only four million people with a passion for Ayn Rand: I own 20 different titles by and about. 

In addition, I have three copies of Atlas Shrugged: a 95-cent "gold cover" paper back 7th printing November 1960; another ppb to read and annotate; and the Highbridge Company audio tapes read by Edward Herrmann.  I have both ppb and hard cover editions of The Fountainhead, Anthem, Virtue of Selfishness, and Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal (I bought it as a first edition because I was taking the "Basic Principles" class when it came out.)  And not tallied above, I have a bootleg VHS tape of Ayn Rand's last public lecture. Among the other ephemera is a January 1944 Reader's Digest with Rand's essay, "The Only Path to Tomorrow: The Moral Basis of Individualism".   And I archive two copies of "Female Force" (in bags, with boards, of course).

(This post was edited from my April 6, 2013, commentary "Objectivism as a Strong Undercurrent" on the Rebirth of Reason website.)

Also on Necessary Facts

Ayn Rand and Star Trek

That Goddam Ayn Rand Book

Reflections on Atlas Shrugged Part 1 

Objectivism and the Gold Standard 

To Make Money 

The Rational Optimist and The Grand Complication

Finding a quotable quote is a challenge because all 359 pages are exciting and pithy.  This is an antidote to the ever-popular doomsaying.  Pessimism has been an easy sale for hundreds of years.  Predictions for the end of the world transcend religion and take on mathematical precision during the very Industrial Revolution that disproved the claims.

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves

by Matt Ridley (Harper, 2010).

“If this goes on…” by 2030, China will need more paper than Earth produces… we will run out of petroleum (of course)… we will be crowded, starved, polluted, ignorant; and the few survivors will be poorer than dirt to the end of their days.  True enough, says Ridley.  But the big “if” never obtains because the world is constantly changing, improving, getting better. “If this goes on…” fails because “this” never “goes on” but in fact is altered by something unexpected.  Yes, there are dark ages, plagues, famines, and wars, but generally, since the invention of trade about 18,000 years ago, our lives have gotten exponentially better.  Taking a word from Austrian economics, Ridley calls this “the great catallaxy.” 

The book opens with a photograph of a stone hand ax and a computer mouse.  Both fit the human hand.  The stone tool was made by one person for their own use.  Thousands of people made the mouse and no one of them knew how.  From the petroleum for the plastic to the software driver, each person did one thing; and it comes to you in exchange for the one thing you know how to do.  The maker of the hand ax enjoyed nothing they did not get for themselves.  (Among homo erectus including Neanderthal, it seems that both males and females hunted by the same methods.)  The hunter-gather was limited to their own production – and so could not consume very much.  We enjoy unlimited access to the productive work of others.  Each of us has, in effect, hundreds of servants; and would be the envy of any warrior, peasant, chief, or king for our cheap, easy, and sanitary lives.

Each chapter begins with a graphic showing the exponential improvement in life span, health, prosperity, and invention.  Another one shows the hyperbolic fall in homicides and yet another shows the dramatic decline in US deaths by water-borne diseases.  Ridley examines barter and trade (“the manufacture of trust”), the agricultural revolution, urbanization, and the invention of invention.  Each turn of the page overturns a common assumption.  Just for instance, shopping for locally produced food more often results in less efficient use of petroleum; and, of course, it penalizes farmers in poor countries. 

Ridley supports his claims with citations found at the back and linked to the page on which the assertion is made or fact is asserted.  That said, it is important to keep your calculator handy.  I found out about this book from a review (here) on the Objectivist website, Rebirth of Reason.  There, one of the frequent contributors cited this from the book:

Time you would have to spend working, in order to earn an hour's worth of reading light (and the ancillary benefits that reading brings to mankind)
--1750 BC (sesame oil lamp): over 50 hours
--1800 (tallow candle): over 6 hours
--1880 (kerosene lamp): 15 minutes
--1950 (incandescent light bulb): 8 seconds
--Today (compact fluorescent bulb): less than 0.5 seconds

I replied there:

Nonetheless, it is important to see through the razzledazzle.  Ridley presents the same information twice in two different formats. First, how much light an hour of labor would buy; then, how long you would have to have worked to have earned the equivalent of an 18-watt compact fluorescent reading light for one hour.

In the first case, he offers for 1750 BCE, 24 lumen-hours.  A lumen is about 1/12 of a candle (.079). So, one hour of labor then would buy you about 2 hours of reading light. ... but not the 18 watts of a modern fluorescent lamp. (A lumen is about 1/700 of an effective watt of spherical light -- .00147 -- so 18 watts is like 12,000 lumens.). I agree that we get more light - incredibly more - but the presentation of numbers does little to illuminate the subject. A modern lamp gives the same light as 1000 candles, but you would never put 1000 candles in one place just for reading. 

More stunning to me is the growth in fractional machines: fractional horsepower motors and fractional watt lamps. My internet modem is showing six lights, each less than a candle (maybe a lumen; maybe less) and all of them not generating but the merest fraction of the heat.

Again, I liked the book, but I am reminded of Richard Feynman's injunction that we not fool ourselves with what we want to believe.

That said, if you want to sprinkle your social chat with positive endorsements of modern times, get this book and memorize a few facts.  Life is great now.  Comparisons to the Ice Age are easy.  Ridley compares our world of 2010 to the world we left behind in 1955.  Think about your cellphone, GPS, the amount of music on a CD or your choice of DVDs.  I add that even organic food – for all the intellectual errors in that movement – is easier to get at any grocery store today as major retailers cater to our tastes.  Imagine going to McDonald’s of 1955 and asking for a salad.  If you are not an optimist now, this book could change your worldview.

The Grand Complication: a novel by Allen Kurzweil (Theia, 2001) is a delightful story that delivers an overstuffed display case of trivia centered on libraries.  Each of the Acknowledgments at the back begins with a Dewey Decimal call number (“case mark”).  I made four pages of notes for myself.  And I found some problems.  The story is easy enough: boy meets girl; boy loses girl; boy finds girl. 

Our librarian hero and his artist wife are torn apart by his obsession with work for a private collector who entices him to search for a grand piece of mechanical jewelry, “The Marie Antoinette” made by Abraham-Louis Breuget (his catalog number 160), stolen in 1983 from a Jerusalem museum.  (Wikipedia here.)  It was recovered after this book was published. (Breuget website here.)

As a good title, this one is a pun because like the timepiece, the antagonist himself is a complication.  Eventually, our hero triumphs, of course, with the help of his friends, and his wife. 

Going back over my notes, I find that some of the vocabulary seems local to the author’s own library.  Not all of the special terms were corroborated by these glossaries:

http://guides.library.fullerton.edu/slis/libraryterms.htm

http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/odlis_c.aspx

(Both of those found via http://vault.lib.byu.edu/term/english.php)

http://lib.colostate.edu/lingo/

http://bindery.berkeley.edu/libraries/glossary

http://www.alibris.com/glossary/

However, I was happy to learn the both the proper name for when pages are uncut at the edges (“unopened gathering”) and the proper way to cut them apart.  Deckle, finding aid, class marks, phase box, … KWIC (key word in context), and a slew of Dewey Decimal numbers (Rock Music 781.66) to add to those which I did know. 

The attention to detail made the errors I caught stand out.  On page 23 is a “blond woman.”  On page 147 is an allusion to a mathematician who won a Nobel Prize.  It is not impossible for a mathematician to garner the award for work in medicine or world peace, etc., but it is famously known that there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics.  On page 338, to activate old automata, the hero uses old coins, including a Liberty dime for which there are several possibilities from the Draped Bust and Seated through the so-called “Mercury” or “Winged Head Liberty.”  There follows a simple typographical error, no capital B in “Buffalo nickel” (properly called the Indian Head or Buffalo 5-cent nickel coin.).  But such oversights made this book even more fun to read.

An interesting glitch from my local library is their catalog citation:

The grand complication
    Kurzweil, Allen.

Publisher:: Hyperion, Pub date:: c2001. Pages:: 359 p. ;

In the book itself,  our hero says that he has written a book about this adventure and had it carefully typeset to a perfect 360 pages for the 360 degrees in a circle.  Indeed, the book runs 360 - not 359 - pages.