Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand's greatest achievement is the sheer endurance of her ideas. Her novels have sold over 37 million copies and continue to sell a quarter-million copies each year, decades after her death. In a 1991 Library of Congress survey, readers ranked Atlas Shrugged as the most influential book on American lives, behind only the Bible. Time magazine included Atlas Shrugged on its list of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923. The Modern Library Reader's List placed it at number one. She is the only author to have three works inducted into the Prometheus Award Hall of Fame. Her philosophy, Objectivism, has inspired a global movement with ongoing lectures, institutes, and political activism. No other novelist of the 20th century has had such a direct impact on political thought.