[sawsalimb]

Good points. Atlas Shrugged is an important book,and as you pointed out,an enduring one. Rand indeed made some good arguments,and as a fairly hard core libertarian,I find myself agreeing with her,most of the time.(Note:I haven't read anything but Atlas Shrugged,so I can't claim to be anything of an authority on her work.)

Had I done what she did-escaping a country in the grip of statist monsters that I can't even begin to comprehend,I'd probably be on every soapbox in sight. As a short treatise on a personal philosophy,Galt's speech is a good one. One thing that I wish Rand had done-and she might have,come to think-is to have written more work that's shorter,focused on specific positions. I understand that she was employed as a screenwriter for a fair amount of time;if this is true,is there anywhere that her out-of-print stuff is archived? My comp skills are limited,at best.

[Prodigal Son]

is there anywhere that her out-of-print stuff is archived?

I don't know. It's been ages since I've read any of Rand's main books. When I was in my late teens and early twenties I read most of her body of published work. You can find her focusing on specific issues in her non fiction work such as The Romantic Manifesto, The New Left- The Anti Industrial Revolution, Capitalism- The Unkown Ideal and the Virtue of Selfishness. Also a while back I read The Early Ayn Rand which had short works from early in her career.

I haven't really dug into her archived works that much but I can relate an anecdote. I read the book "Hanta Yo" by Ruth Beebe Hill when I was about 12 or 13. Loved it. Years later I found out that Miss Hill and Ayn Rand were actually fairly good friends while Hill was doing her research for Hanta Yo. Went back and reread Hanta Yo and it's interesting to note some possible Objectivist influence in the book, which is interesting as Hanta Yo is a book about Native Americans living on the plains and just starting to be influenced by the white man.

As far as the archives go, Leornard Peikoff, as her heir, has total control over them. It is not known for certain how much he has or what exactly it amounts to. I do know that he has iniated legal action against writers who have tried to publish books concerning Rand and her philosophy. If you really want to dig into it more, I would suggest doing a Google search for the terms "objectivist campfire" which is a running forum for Objectivists. You can sign up and talk to some of those guys about it. But be warned, it's best to have your arguments squared away before you go diving in- they can be pretty harsh if they find inconsistencies in your points.

Cheers.