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AtlasShruggedCharactersCharacters in Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged.
Balph Eubank
Called "the literary leader of the age", despite the fact that he is incapable of writing anything that people actually want to read. What people want to read, he says, is irrelevant. He complains that it is disgraceful that artists are treated as peddlers, and that there should be a law limiting the sales of books to ten thousand copies. He is a member of the Looters. Balph Eubank appears in section 161.
Ben Nealy
A railroad contractor whom Dagny Taggart hires to replace the track on the Rio Norte Line with Rearden Metal. Nealy is incompetent, but Dagny can find no one better in all the country. Nealy believes that anything can get done with enough muscle power. He sees no role for intelligence in human achievement, and this is manifest in his inability to organize the project and to make decisions. He relies on Dagny and Ellis Wyatt to run things, and resents them for doing it, because it appears to him like they are just bossing people around. Ben Nealy appears in section 171.
Bertram Scudder
Editorial writer for the magazine The Future. He typically bashes business and businessmen, but he never says anything specific in his articles, relying on innuendo, sneers, and denunciation. He wrote a hatchet job on Hank Rearden called The Octopus. He is also vocal in support of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill. Bertram Scudder appears in section 161.
Betty Pope
A wealthy socialite who is having a meaningless sexual affair with James Taggart that coincides with the overall meaninglessness of her life. She regrets having to wake up every morning because she has to face another empty day. She is deliberately crude in a way that casts ridicule on her high social position. Betty Pope appears in sections 142 and 161.
Brakeman
An unnamed employee working on the Taggart Comet train. Dagny Taggart hears Brakeman whistling the theme of a concerto. When she asks him what piece it is from, he says it is Halley's Fifth Concerto. When Dagny points out that Richard Halley only wrote four concertos, Brakeman claims he made a mistake and he doesn't recall where he heard the piece.
Later, after Dagny instructs the train crew how to proceed, he asks a co-worker who she is, and learns she is the one who runs Taggart Transcontinental.
It is later discovered that the unknown brakeman is one of the strikers, when Dagny meets him in the valley. Brakeman appears in sections 112 and 113.
Cherryl Brooks
Dime store shopgirl who marries James Taggart after a chance encounter in her store the night the John Galt Line was deemed his greatest success. She marries him thinking he is the heroic person behind Taggart Transcontinental. She is horrible to Dagny until the night before she commits suicide, when she confesses to Dagny that she married Jim, thinking she was marrying Dagny. Like Eddie Willers, Cherryl is one representation of a "good" person who lacks the extraordinary capacities of the primary heroes of the novel.
Claude Slagenhop
The president of political organization Friends of Global Progress (which is supported by Philip Rearden), and one of Lillian Rearden's friends. He believes that ideas are just air, that this is no time for talk, but for action. He is not bothered by the fact that action unguided by ideas is random and pointless. Global Progress is a sponsor of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill. Claude Slagenhop appears in section 161.
Cuffy Meigs
A Looter who's assigned by Wesley Mouch to keep watch over the workings of Taggart Transcontinental, and later assumes control over the company after Dagny Taggart leaves. He carries a pistol and wears a military uniform. The "intellectual heir" of Dr. Robert Stadler, Meigs comes to a fitting end at the hands of Project X.
Dagny Taggart
The main character in Atlas Shrugged (also the name of her namesake Mrs. Nathaniel Taggart). Dagny is Vice-President in Charge of Operation at Taggart Transcontinental. She is the female hero, the counterpart to John Galt, her journey is the journey of the reader exploring and understanding Galts philosophy. Those in the know know she is the one who really runs the railroad. In the course of the novel, she forms romantic liaisons with three men of ability. Dagny appears in sections 112, 113, 114, 132, 133, 141, 145, 146, 147, 148, 151, 152, and 161.
Dan Conway
The middle-aged president of the Phoenix-Durango railroad. Running a railroad is just about the only thing he knows. When the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule is used to drive his business out of Colorado, he loses the will to fight, and resigns himself to a quiet life of books and fishing. He claims that somebody had to be sacrificed, it turned out to be him, and he has no right to complain, bowing to the will of the majority. When pressed he says he doesn't really believe this is right, but he can't understand why it is wrong and what the alternative might be. He is trapped by a moral code that makes him a willing victim, and rather than challenge that morality, he simply gives up. Dan Conway appears in sections 145 and 146, and is mentioned in section 148.
Dick McNamara
A contractor who finished the San Sebastian Line and who is hired to lay the new Rearden Metal track for the Rio Norte Line. Before he gets a chance to do so, he mysteriously disappears. Dick McNamara is mentioned in sections 133 and 141.
Eddie Willers
Special Assistant to the Vice-President in Charge of Operation at Taggart Transcontinental. He grew up with Dagny Taggart. His father and grandfather worked for the Taggarts, and he followed in their footsteps. He is completely loyal to Dagny and to Taggart Transcontinental. He is also secretly in love with Dagny. Willers is generally assumed to represent the common man: someone who does not possess the promethian creative ability of The Strikers, but nevertheless matches them in moral courage and is capable of appreciating and making use of their creations. Eddie Willers appears in sections 111, 114, 117, 132, 133, 141, 151, and 152.
Ellis Wyatt
The head of Wyatt Oil. He has almost single-handedly revived the economy of Colorado by discovering oil there. Of all the disappearances of industrialists in the novel, Wyatt's, involving the fiery destruction of his oil wells, is surely the most dramatic. Ellis Wyatt is mentioned or appears in sections 111, 114, 132, 146, 147, 148, and 152.
Francisco d'Anconia
One of the central characters in Atlas Shrugged. By all accounts, he is a worthless millionaire playboy, owner by inheritance of the world's largest copper mining empire, the man behind the San Sebastian Mines, and a childhood friend and first love of Dagny Taggart.
Francisco began working on the sly as a teenager in order to learn all he could about business. While still a student at Patrick Henry University, he began working at a copper foundry, and investing in the stock market. By the time he was twenty he had made enough to purchase the foundry. He began working for d'Anconia Copper as assistant superintendent of a mine in Montana, but was quickly promoted to head of the New York office. He took over d'Anconia Copper at age 23, after the death of his father.
When he was 26, Francisco secretly joined the Strikers and began to slowly destroy the d'Anconia empire so the Looters could not get it. He adopted the persona of a worthless playboy, by which he is known to the world, as an effective cover.
His full name is Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastian d'Anconia.
According to [mailto:areed2@calstatela.edu Adam Reed] ([http://www.monmouth.com/~adamreed/Ayn_Rands_jewish_years/Who_is_Francisco_DAnconia.html Who is Francisco D'Anconia?]), d'Anconia is the only Hero-class character who is recognizably Jewish (not in the religious, but in the historical sense, like Ayn Rand herself). Francisco D'Anconia appears or is mentioned in sections 132, 141, 144, 151, and 152 - this last section includes a detailed history of his life.
Hank Rearden
One of the central characters in Atlas Shrugged. He is the founder of Rearden Steel and the inventor of Rearden Metal. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Lillian, his brother Philip, and an elderly woman known only as Rearden's Mother, all of whom he supports. Gwen Ives is his secretary.
The character of Hank Rearden has two important roles to play in the novel. First, he is in the same position as the reader in that he is aware that there is something wrong with the world but is not sure what it is. Rearden is guided toward an understanding of the solution through his friendship with Francisco d'Anconia, who does know the secret, and by this mechanism the reader is also prepared to understand the secret when it is revealed explicitly in Galt's Speech.
Second, Rearden is used to illustrate Rand's theory of sex. Lillian Rearden cannot appreciate Hank Rearden's virtues, and she is portrayed as being disgusted by sex. Dagny Taggart clearly does appreciate Rearden's virtues, and this appreciation evolves into a sexual desire. Rearden is torn by a contradiction because he accepts the premises of the traditional view of sex as a lower instinct, while responding sexually to Dagny, who represents his highest values. Rearden struggles to resolve this internal conflict and in doing so illustrates Rand's sexual theory. Rearden appears in sections 121, 132, 147, and 161, and is mentioned in sections 114 and 131.
Hugh Akston
Identified as "One of the last great advocates of reason." He was a renowned philosopher and the head of the Department of Philosophy at Patrick Henry University, where he taught Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt, and Ragnar Danneskjöld. He was, along with Robert Stadler, a father figure to these three. Akston's name is so hallowed that a young lady, on hearing that Francisco had studied under him, is shocked. She thought he must have been one of those great names from an earlier century. Hugh Akston is mentioned in section 161.
James Taggart
The President of Taggart Transcontinental and a leader of the Looters. Taggart is an expert influence peddler who is incapable of making decisions on his own. He relies on his sister Dagny Taggart to actually run the railroad, but nonetheless opposes her in almost every endeavor.
As the novel progresses, the moral philosophy of the Looters is revealed: it is a code of nihilism. The goal of this code is to not exist, to become a zero. Taggart struggles to remain unaware that this is his goal. He maintains his pretence that he wants to live, and becomes horrified whenever his mind starts to grasp the truth about himself. This contradiction leads to the recurring absurdity of his life: the desire to destroy those on whom his life depends, and the horror that he will succeed at this. James Taggart appears in sections 111, 114, 131, 132, 143, 144, 152 and 161, and is mentioned in sections 146 and 148.
John Galt
- The question "Who is John Galt?" is asked repeatedly throughout Atlas Shrugged. Late into the book we learn that John Galt is the man who stopped the motor of the world and the leader of the Strikers. He is also the same character as the Mystery Worker.
The son of an Ohio garage mechanic, Galt left home at age 12 and began college at Patrick Henry University at age 16. There he befriended Francisco d'Anconia and Ragnar Danneskjöld, all three of whom double-majored in physics and philosophy. They were the cherished students of the brillant scientist Robert Stadler and the brillant philsopher Hugh Akston.
After graduating, Galt became an engineer at the Twentieth Century Motor Works where he designed a revolutionary new motor powered by ambient static electricity with the potential to change the world. Like Ellis Wyatt, he has created what many had for years said was impossible. When the company owners decided to run the factory by the collectivist maxim, 'By each according to his ability, to each according to his need', Galt organized a successful labor strike, proclaiming his promise to halt the world. He began traversing the globe, meeting the world's most successful businessmen, systematically convincing them to follow in his footsteps; one by one, they began abandoning their business empires (which, Galt convinced them, were doomed to failure anyhow, given the increased nationalization of industry by the government).
Secretly, these captains of industry, led by Galt and banker Midas Mulligan, had created their own society — a secret enclave of rational individualists living in "Galt's Gulch", a town secluded high in a wilderness of mountains. Dagny accidentally finds the town — and a shocked John Galt — by crash-landing a light aircraft while pursuing Quentin Daniels.
Since everyone across the country is repeating the phrase, "Who is John Galt?", it is natural that many people have attempted to answer that question. The phrase becomes an expression of helplessness and despair at the current state of the world. Dagny Taggart hears a number of John Galt Legends before finding the real John Galt and eventually joining his cause, and learning that all of the stories have an element of truth to them.
:There is a clothing store in Vail, Colorado called John Galt Ltd. One presumes that, on occasion, a customer unknowingly walks in and asks, "Who is John Galt?"
Lillian Rearden
The wildly unsupportive wife of Hank Rearden. They have been married eight years as the novel begins.
Lillian is a Moocher and a frigid bitch who seeks to destroy her husband. She compares being Rearden's wife with owning the world's most powerful horse. Since she cannot comfortably ride a horse that goes too fast, she must bridle it down to her level, even if that means it will never reach its full potential and its power will be greviously wasted.
Lillian also serves to illustrate Rand's Theory of sex. She believes sex is a base animal instinct and that sexual indulgence is a sign of moral weakness. She is incapable of feeling this kind of desire, which she believes testifies to her moral superiority. However, according to the theory of sex Lillian's lack of sexual capacity results from her inability to experience value in herself; she is therefore unable to respond sexually when she experiences value in others.
Lillian tolerates sex with her husband only because she is 'realistic' enough to know he is just a brute who requires satisfaction of his brute instincts. In section 161 she indicates that she abhors Francisco d'Anconia, because she believes he is a sexual adventurer. Lillian Rearden appears in sections 121 and 161.
The Looters
A group of evil characters sometimes referred to as "James Taggart and his friends". They are similar to the Moochers. The Looters consist of men and women who use force to obtain value from those who produce it. They seek to destroy the producers despite the fact that they are dependent upon them. The Looters include: Mr. Thompson, Balph Eubank, Floyd Ferris, James Taggart, Orren Boyle, Paul Larkin, Robert Stadler, Simon Pritchett, Wesley Mouch, and Cuffy Miegs.
Midas Mulligan
A wealthy banker who mysteriously disappears in protest after he is given a court order to loan money to an incompetent loan applicant. Midas Mulligan is responsible for the creation and distribution of the money that is exclusively used in Galt's Gulch, and is the original owner of the land where Galt's Gulch is located. He is also responsible for the production of the money used there.
The Moochers
A group of characters, similar to the Looters, who use guilt as a weapon against those who produce value. They seek to destroy the producers despite the fact that they are dependent upon them. The Moochers include Lillian Rearden, Philip Rearden, and Hank Rearden's mother. It has been suggested that the term "mooch" received its beginning in this novel and is actually intended to be spelled "mouch," referring to infamous character of Wesley Mouch.
Mort Liddy
A hack composer who writes trite scores for movies and modern symphonies that no one listens to. He believes melody is a primitive vulgarity. He is one of Lillian Rearden's friends and a member of the cultural elite. Mort Liddy appears in section 161.
Mr. Mowen
The president of the Amalgamated Switch and Signal Company, Inc. of Connecticut. He is a businessman who sees nothing wrong with the moral code that is destroying society and would never dream of saying he is in business for any reason other than the good of society. He is unable to grapple with abstract issues, and is frightened of anything controversial. Dagny Taggart hires Mr. Mowen to produce switches made of Rearden Metal. He is reluctant to build anything with this unproven technology, and has to be ridden and cajoled before he is willing to accept the contract. When pressured by public opinion, he discontinues production of the switches, forcing Dagny to find an alternative source. Mr. Mowen appears in section 171.
Mystery Worker
A menial worker for Taggart Transcontinental who often dines with Eddie Willers in the employee's cafeteria. Eddie finds him very easy to talk to, and Mystery Worker not-so-subtly leads him on so that Eddie reveals important information about Dagny Taggart and Taggart Transcontinental. Eddie tells him which suppliers and contractors Dagny is most dependent on, and with remarkable consistency, those are the next men to mysteriously disappear. Mystery Worker is actually John Galt. Mystery Worker appears in section 133.
The unnamed newsstand owner
He works in the Taggart Terminal. Twenty years ago he owned a cigarette factory but it went under, and he's been working at his newsstand ever since. He is a collector of cigarettes, and knows every brand ever made. He occasionally chats with Dagny Taggart when she comes by. On one occasion, in section section 132, after Dagny asks him about his collection, he bemoans the fact that there are no new brands and the old brands are all disappearing. He examines a cigarette given to Dagny by Hugh Akston, but it is a new brand that he has never seen before. It carries the sign of the dollar. In his first appearance, the Newsstand Owner likens the fire of a cigarette to the fire of the mind. This alludes to the Greek myth of Prometheus, who gave mankind the gift of fire, allowing it to raise itself up and become civilized. In Atlas Shrugged, it is the mind of man that raises mankind. Thus the cigarettes become symbolic of the men of the mind. The disappearance of the old brands represents the disappearance of the men of the mind, and the Newsstand Owner's discovery of the new brand foreshadows Dagny's discovery of a new kind of men of the mind.
Orren Boyle
The head of Associated Steel and a friend of James Taggart. He is one of the Looters. He is an investor in the San Sebastian Mines. Orren Boyle appears or is mentioned in sections 111, 114, 131, 132, 144, and 152.
Owen Kellogg
Assistant to the Manager of the Taggart Terminal in New York. He catches Dagny Taggart's eye as one of the few competent men on staff. After seeing the sorry state of the Ohio Division she decides to make him to its new Superintendent. However, as soon as she returns to New York, Kellogg informs her that he is quiting his job. He admits that he loves his work, but that's not enough to keep him. He won't say why he is leaving or what he will do. Later, he is noticed working as transient labor by the unsuccessful/unmotivated businessman Mr. Mowen. Owen Kellog eventually reaches, and settles in Atlantis. Owen Kellogg appears in sections 112 and 114.
Paul Larkin
An unsuccessful, middle-aged businessman, a friend of the Rearden family, and a member of the Looters. In section 121 Larkin visits Philadelphia to warn Hank Rearden of possible trouble from Washington. In section 131 he meets with the other Looters to work out a plan to bring Rearden down. James Taggart knows he is friends with Hank Rearden and challenges his loyalty, and Larkin assures Taggart that he will go along with them. Paul Larkin appears in sections 121 and 132.
Philip Rearden
The younger brother of Hank Rearden, and a Moocher. He lives in his brother's home in Philadelphia and is completely dependent on him. He believes that the source of his sustenance is evil and would love to see him destroyed. He has never had a career and spends his time perfunctorily working for various social groups.
He becomes resentful of his brother's charity. He then requests that he be granted a job from his brother because he should not have to be burdened by the feeling of inadequacy of not earning his own livelihood. When confronted by his brother on how this job would be a mutually beneficial arrangement, Philip shrugs the argument off as irrelevant and that the job should be entitled to him solely based on his need for money and the fact of familial ties. Philip Rearden appears in sections 121 and 161.
Quentin Daniels
An enterprising engineer hired by Dagny Taggart to reconstruct John Galt's motor. Partway through this process, Quentin withdraws his effort for the same reasons John Galt himself had. Dagny sets out to meet Quentin in hopes of convincing him to resume his work. John Galt narrowly gets to him first. Dagny's pursuit of Quentin leads her to "Galt's Gulch"
Ragnar Danneskjöld
One of the original Strikers. He is now world famous as a pirate. Ragnar was from Norway, the son of a bishop and the scion of one of Norway's most ancient, noble families. He attended Patrick Henry University and became friends with John Galt and Francisco d'Anconia, while studying under Hugh Akston and Robert Stadler.
Ragnar seizes relief ships that are being sent from the United States to Europe. No one knows what he does with the goods he seizes. As the novel progresses, Ragnar begins, for the first time, to become active in American waters, and is even spotted in Delaware Bay. Reportedly, his ship is better than any available in the fleets of the world's navies.
When he became a pirate, he was disowned and excommunicated. There is a price on his head in Norway, Portugal, Turkey.
According to Ayn Rand (verbal report), his name is a tribute to Victor Hugo. In Hugo's first novel, Hans of Iceland, the hero becomes the first of the Counts of Danneskjöld. His name may be a pun on 'Dane's Gold', although "skjöld" means shield, not gold. Ragnar Danneskjöld appears in section 161.
Rearden's mother
Named Gertrude, she is a Moocher who lives with her son Hank Rearden at his home in Philadelphia. She is involved in church-based charity work, and berates Rearden whenever she can. She insults him by saying he was always selfish, even as a child. She dotes on her weak son Philip Rearden. Rearden's mother appears in section 121.
Richard Halley
Dagny Taggart's favorite composer, who mysteriously disappeared after the evening of his greatest triumph. In section 141 we learn that Richard Halley spent years as a struggling and unappreciated composer. At age 24 his opera Phaethon was performed for the first time, to an audience who booed and heckled it. (It was based on the Greek myth in which Phaethon steals his father's chariot, and dies in an audacious attempt to drive the sun across the sky. Halley changed the story, though, into one of triumph, in which Phaethon succeeds.) For years Halley wrote in obscurity. After nineteen years, Phaethon was performed again, but this time it was received to the greatest ovation the opera house had ever heard. It appears his critics felt he had paid his dues long enough that he was at last worthy of their approval. The following day, Halley retired, sold the rights to his music, and disappeared. Richard Halley is mentioned in sections 112, 114, 133, and 141, and appears in section 152.
Dr. Robert Stadler
A former professor at Patrick Henry University, mentor to Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt and Ragnar Danneskjöld. He has since become a sell-out, one who had great promise but squandered it for social approval, to the detriment of the free. He works at the State Science Institute where all his inventions are perverted for use by the military, including the instrument of his demise: Project X.
Dr. Simon Pritchett
The prestigious head of the Department of Philosophy at Patrick Henry University and is considered the leading philosopher of the age. He is also a Looter. He is certainly representative of the philosophy of the age - he is a crude reductionist who believes man is nothing but a collection of chemicals; he believes there are no standards, that definitions are fluid, reason is a superstition, that it is futile to seek meaning in life, and that the duty of a philosopher is to show that nothing can be understood. He explains all this in his book The Metaphysical Contradictions of the Universe, and at cocktail parties. Dr. Pritchett appears in section 161.
The Strikers
People of the mind who go on strike because they do not appreciate being exploited by the Looters and demonized by a society who depends on them for its very existence. The leader of the Strikers is John Galt. Other Strikers include: Hugh Akston, Francisco d'Anconia, Ragnar Danneskjöld, Richard Halley, and the Brakeman. Characters who join the Strikers in the course of the book include: Dagny Taggart, Ellis Wyatt, Hank Rearden, Dick McNamara, and Owen Kellogg.
Mr. Thompson
The "Head of the State," which essentially means that he's the President of the United States, though he's never specifically referred to as such. In the world of Atlas Shrugged all Presidents and Prime Ministers are refered to simply as "Head of the State" and "Mr. ____." This is because countries have been standardized as "People's States" which seem to share a common form of government. Thomspon's title can thus be seen as reflecting the fact that the US is in the process of evolving into one of these "People's States." One of the Looters, he's not particularly intelligent and has a very undistinguished look. He knows politics, however, and is a master of public relations and back-room deals. Rand's notes indicate that she modelled him on President Harry S. Truman.
Wesley Mouch
A member of the Looters and, at the beginning of the storyline, the incompetent lobbyist whom Hank Rearden reluctantly employs in Washington. Initially Wesley Mouch is the least powerful and least significant of the Looters - the other members of this group feel they can look down upon him with impunity. Eventually he becomes the most powerful Looter, and the country's economic dictator, thereby illustrating Rand's belief that a government-run economy places too much power in the hands of incompetent bureaucrats who would never have positions of similar influence in a private sector business. Wesley Mouch appears in section 131 and is mentioned in section 161.
See also
- Minor characters in Atlas Shrugged
Category:Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged characters
Ayn Rand,
best known for her philosophy of Objectivism]]
Ayn Rand (February 2 1905–March 6 1982; first name pronounced (IPA) (rhymes with 'mine')), born Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum, was best known for her philosophy of Objectivism and her novels "We the Living", Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged. Her philosophy and her fiction both emphasize, above all, her concepts of individualism, rational egoism ("rational self-interest"), and capitalism. Believing government has a legitimate but relatively minimal role in a free society, she was not an anarchist, but a minarchist (though she did not use the term). Her novels were based upon the projection of the Randian hero, a man whose ability and independence causes conflict with the masses, but who perseveres nevertheless to achieve his values. Rand viewed this hero as the ideal and made it the express goal of her literature to showcase such heroes. She believed:
#That man must choose his values and actions by reason;
#That the individual has a right to exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing self to others nor others to self; and
#That no one has the right to seek values from others by physical force, or impose ideas on others by physical force.
Biography
Early life
Rand was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and was the eldest of three daughters of a Jewish family. Her parents were agnostic and largely non-observant. From an early age, she displayed a strong interest in literature and films. She started writing screenplays and novels from the age of seven. Her mother undertook to teach her French and subscribed to a magazine featuring stories for boys, where Rand found her first childhood hero: Cyrus Paltons, an Indian army officer in a Rudyard Kipling-style story called "The Mysterious Valley". Throughout her youth, she read the novels of Sir Walter Scott, Alexandre Dumas and other Romantic writers, and expressed a passionate enthusiasm toward the Romantic movement as a whole. She discovered Victor Hugo at the age of thirteen, and fell deeply in love with his novels. Later, she would cite him as her favorite novelist and the greatest novelist of world literature. She studied philosophy and history at the University of Petrograd. Her major literary discoveries in university were the works of Edmond Rostand, Friedrich Schiller and Fyodor Dostoevsky. She admired Rostand for his richly romantic imagination and Schiller for his grand, heroic scale. She admired Dostoevsky for his sense of drama and his intense moral judgments, but was deeply against his philosophy and his sense of life. She continued to write short stories and screenplays and wrote sporadically in her diary, which contained intensely anti-Soviet ideas. She also encountered the philosophical ideas of Nietzsche, and loved his exaltation of the heroic and independent individual in Thus Spoke Zarathustra; nevertheless she was strongly critical of his philosophy, going so far as to attack it in the introductions of her novels. Her greatest influence by far is Aristotle, especially his work Organon (Logic). She considered him the greatest philosopher ever. She then entered the State Institute for Cinema Arts in 1924 to study screenwriting; in late 1925, however, she was granted a visa to visit American relatives. She arrived in the United States in February 1926, at the age of twenty-one. After a brief stay with her relatives in Chicago, she resolved never to return to the Soviet Union, and set out for Hollywood to become a screenwriter. She then changed her name to "Ayn Rand". There is a story told that she named herself after the Remington Rand typewriter, but recent evidence has proved that this is not the case. She stated that her first name, 'Ayn', was an adaptation of the name of a Finnish writer. This may have been the Finnish-Estonian author Aino Kallas. Others have suggested that her name is derived from the South African rand, but the rand was not used until 1961.
Michael Berliner and Richard Ralston, working for the Ayn Rand Institute and with access to Miss Rand’s records, have hypothesized an explanation derived from the appearance of Russian script of "Rozenbaum" (depicted [http://arname.davidhayes.net/ here] with an animation). A further refinement of this interpretation is to make "Rand" from the letters Rznb (Рзнб), again using script letters rather than type. The superiority of this method allows the name to be transformed entirely from Rozenbaum (Розенбаум) without changing the order of the letters, by:
splitting: "Розенб аум"
reversing: "аум Розенб"
dropping two vowels: "аум Рзнб"
At that point, the script version is very reminiscent of the name Ayn Rand.
Image:ayn_rand_name.gif
Major works
Initially, Rand struggled in Hollywood and took odd jobs to pay her basic living expenses. While working as an extra on Cecil B. DeMille's King of Kings, she intentionally bumped into an aspiring young actor, Frank O'Connor, who caught her eye. The two were married in 1929. In 1931, Rand became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Her first literary success came with the sale of her screenplay Red Pawn in 1932 to Universal Studios. Rand then wrote the play The Night of January 16th in 1934, which was highly successful, and published two novels, We the Living (1936), and Anthem (1938). The two novels failed to gain any significant financial/critical success. She was up against The Red Decade in America, and Anthem did not even find a publisher in the United States; it was first published in England. Besides that, Rand had still not perfected her literary style and the novels cannot be considered fully representative.
Without Rand's knowledge or permission, We The Living was made into a pair of films, Noi vivi and Addio, Kira in 1942 by Scalara Films, Rome. The films were nearly censored by the Italian government under Benito Mussolini, but they were allowed to be featured because the novel they were based upon was ostensibly anti-Soviet. The films were successful and the public easily realised that it was as much against Fascism as it was against Communism, and the government banned it quickly thereafter. These films were re-edited into a new version which was approved by Rand and re-released as We the Living in 1986.
Rand's first major professional success came with her best-selling novel The Fountainhead (1943). She took seven years to write it. The novel was rejected by twelve publishers, who thought it was too intellectual and opposed to the mainstream of American thought, and that there would be no public for it. It was finally accepted by the Bobbs-Merrill Company publishing house, thanks mainly to a member of the editorial board, Archibald Ogden, who praised the book in the highest terms and finally prevailed. Despite these initial struggles The Fountainhead was a worldwide success, bringing Rand fame and financial security.
The theme of The Fountainhead is "individualism and collectivism in man's soul". It features the lives of five main characters. The hero, Howard Roark, is Rand's ideal, a noble soul par excellence, an architect who is firmly and serenely devoted to his own ideals and believes that no man should copy the style of another in any field, and especially in architecture. All the other characters in the novel demand the renunciation of his values with varying degrees of intensity, but Roark maintains his integrity. A most interesting feature of Roark is that he does this unlike traditional heroes who launch into long and passionate monologues about their integrity and the unfairness of the world; Roark, by contrast, does it with a disdainful, almost contemptous taciturnity and laconicism.
Rand's magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, was published in 1957, becoming an international bestseller. Atlas Shrugged is often seen as Rand's most complete statement of the Objectivist philosophy in any of her works of fiction. In its appendix, she offered this summary:
:"My philosophy, in essence, is 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."
The theme of Atlas Shrugged is "The role of man's mind in society". Rand upheld the industrialist as one of the most admirable members of any society and fiercely opposed the popular resentment accorded to industrialists. This led her to envision a novel wherein the industrialists of America go on strike and retreat to a mountainous hideaway. The American economy and its society in general slowly start to collapse. The government responds by increasing the already stifling controls on industrial concerns. The novel, despite having a political theme at its centre, deals with issues as complex and divergent as sex, music, medicine, and human ability.
Along with Nathaniel Branden, his wife Barbara, and others including Alan Greenspan and Leonard Peikoff, (jokingly designated "The Collective"), Rand launched the Objectivist movement to promote her philosophy.
The Objectivist movement
Main article: The Objectivist movement
In 1950 Rand moved to New York City, where in 1951 she met the young psychology student Nathaniel Branden [http://www.nathanielbranden.com], who had read her book, The Fountainhead, at the age of 14. Branden, then 19, enjoyed discussing Rand's emerging Objectivist philosophy with her. Together, Branden and some of his other friends formed a group that they dubbed the Ayn Rand Collective, which included some participation by future Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. After several years, Rand and Branden's friendly relationship blossomed into a romantic affair, despite the fact that both were married at the time. This affair was accepted by their spouses but led to the separation and then divorce of Nathaniel Branden from his wife.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Rand developed and promoted her Objectivist philosophy through both her fiction [http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_fiction] and non-fiction [http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_nonfiction] works, and by giving talks at several east-coast universities, largely through the Nathaniel Branden Institute ("the NBI") which Branden had established to promote her philosophy.
After a convoluted series of separations, Rand abruptly ended her relationship with both Nathaniel Branden and his wife, Barbara Branden, in 1968 when she learned of Nathaniel Branden's affair with Patrecia Scott (this later affair did not overlap chronologically with the earlier Branden/Rand affair). Rand refused to have any further dealings with the NBI. She then published a letter in "The Objectivist" announcing her repudiation of Branden for various reasons, including dishonesty, but did not mention their affair or her role in the schism. The two never reconciled, and Branden remained a persona non grata in the Objectivist movement.
1968 honoring Rand.]]
Barbara Branden presented an account of the breakup of the affair in her book, The Passion of Ayn Rand. She describes the encounter between Nathaniel and Rand, saying that Rand slapped him numerous times, and denounced him in these words: "If you have an ounce of morality left in you, an ounce of psychological health — you'll be impotent for the next twenty years! And if you achieve any potency, you'll know it's a sign of still worse moral degradation!"
Conflicts continued in the wake of the break with Branden and the subsequent collapse of the NBI. Many of her closest "Collective" friends began to part ways, and during the late 70's, her activities within the formal Objectivist movement began to decline, a situation which increased after the death of her husband in 1979. One of her final projects was work on a television adaptation of Atlas Shrugged.
Rand died of heart failure on March 6, 1982 in New York City, years after having successfully battled cancer, and was interred in the Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York.
Valhalla, New York
Philosophical influences
Rand rejected virtually all other philosophical schools. She acknowledged a shared intellectual lineage with Aristotle and John Locke, and more generally with the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment and Age of Reason. She occasionally remarked with approval on specific philosophical positions of, e.g., Baruch Spinoza and Thomas Aquinas. She seems also to have respected the American rationalist Brand Blanshard. However, she regarded most philosophers as at best incompetent and at worst downright evil. She singled out Immanuel Kant as the most influential of the latter sort.
Nonetheless, there are connections between Rand's views and those of other philosophers. She acknowledged that she had been influenced at an early age by the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. Though she later repudiated his thought, and reprinted her first novel, We The Living, with some wording changes in 1959, her own thought grew out of critical interaction with it. Generally, her political thought is in the tradition of classical liberalism. She expressed qualified enthusiasm for the economic thought of Ludwig von Mises and Henry Hazlitt. Though not mentioned as an influence by her specifically, parallels between her works and Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay Self-Reliance do exist. Later Objectivists, such as Richard Salsman, have claimed that Rand's economic theories are implicitly more supportive of the doctrines of Jean-Baptiste Say, though Rand herself was likely not acquainted with his work.
Politics and House Committee on Un-American Activities testimony
Rand's political views were radically pro-capitalist, anti-statist, and anti-communist. Her writings praised above all the human individual and the creative genius of which one is capable. She exalted what she saw as the heroic American values of egoism and individualism. Rand also had a strong dislike for mysticism, religion, and compulsory charity (forced extraction), all of which she believed helped foster a crippling culture of resentment towards individual human happiness and success. Rand detested many prominent liberal and conservative politicians of her time, even including prominent anti-communist crusaders like Presidents Harry S. Truman and Ronald Reagan and Senators Hubert H. Humphrey and Joseph McCarthy.
In 1947, during the Red Scare, Rand testified as a "friendly witness" before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. [http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/texts/huac.html]. Rand's testimony involved analysis of the 1943 film Song of Russia. While many believe that Ayn Rand disclosed the names of members of the Communist Party in the U.S., thus exposing them to blacklisting, her testimony consisted entirely of comments regarding the disparity between her experiences in the Soviet Union and the fanciful portrayal of it in the film.
Rand argued that the movie grossly misrepresented the socioeconomic conditions in the Soviet Union. She told the committee that the film presented life in the USSR as being much better than it actually was. Apparently this 1943 film was intentional wartime propaganda by U.S. patriots, trying to put their Soviet allies in World War II under the best possible light. After the HUAC hearings, when Ayn Rand was asked about her feelings on the effectiveness of their investigations, she described the process as "futile."
Legacy
Rand's funeral was attended by some of her prominent followers, including Alan Greenspan. A six-foot floral arrangement in the shape of a dollar sign was placed on her casket. [http://www.eckerd.edu/aspec/writers/atlas_shrugged.htm]
In 1985, Leonard Peikoff, a surviving member of "The Collective" and Ayn Rand's designated heir, established "The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism". The Institute has since registered the name Ayn Rand as a trademark, despite Rand's desire that her name never be used to promote the philosophy she developed. Rand expressed her wish to keep her name and the philosophy of Objectivism separate to ensure the survival of her ideas.
Another schism in the movement occurred in 1989, when Objectivist David Kelley wrote an article called "A Question of Sanction," [http://www.wetheliving.com/boston/sanction.html] in which he defended his choice to speak to non-Objectivist libertarian groups. Kelley wrote that Objectivism was not a "closed system" and should engage with other philosophies. Peikoff, in an article for The Intellectual Activist called "Fact and Value" [http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_f-v], argued that Objectivism is, indeed, a closed system, and that truth and moral goodness are intrinsically related. Peikoff expelled Kelley from his movement, whereupon Kelley founded The Institute for Objectivist Studies (now known as "The Objectivist Center").
Rand and Objectivism are less well known outside North America, though there are pockets of interest in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and her novels are reported to be very popular in India ([http://www.theatlasphere.com/metablog/000058.php]). Her work has had little effect on academic philosophy, for her followers are mostly (with some notable exceptions) drawn from the non-academic world.
Controversy
Rand's views are controversial. Religious and socially conservative thinkers have criticized her atheism. Many adherents and practicioners of continental philosophy would criticize her celebration of rationality and self-interest. Her extremely pro-capitalism political views have not been positively received within the American academy. Within the dominant philosophical movement in the English-speaking world, analytic philosophy, Rand's work has been mostly ignored. No leading research university in this tradition considers Rand or Objectivism to be an important philosophical specialty or research area, as is documented by Brian Leiter's report at [http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/]. Some academics, however, are trying to bring Rand's work into the mainstream. For instance, there is an Ayn Rand Society [http://www.aynrandsociety.org/], founded in 1987, affiliated with the American Philosophical Association.
A notable exception to the general lack of attention paid to Rand in the analytic community is the essay "On the Randian Argument" by Harvard University philosopher Robert Nozick, which appears in his collection Socratic Puzzles. Nozick's own libertarian political conclusions are similar to Rand's, but his essay is critical of her foundational argument in ethics, which claims that one's own life is, for each individual, the only ultimate value because it makes all other values possible. Nozick says that to make this argument sound, Rand still needs to explain why someone could not rationally prefer the state of eventually dying and having no values. Thus, he argues, her attempt to deduce the morality of selfishness is essentially an instance of assuming the conclusion or begging the question and that her solution to David Hume's famous is-ought problem is unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, Nozick did respect Rand as an author and noted that he found her books enjoyable and thought-provoking.
Rand has sometimes been viewed with suspicion for her practice of presenting her philosophy in fiction and non-fiction books aimed at a general audience rather than publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Rand's defenders note that she is part of a long tradition of authors who wrote philosophically rich fiction — including Dante, John Milton, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Albert Camus, and that other philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre presented their philosophies in both fictional and non-fictional forms.
Other critics argue that Rand’s idealistic philosophy and her Romantic literary style are not applicable to the inhabited world. In particular, these critics claim that Rand's novels are made up of unrealistic and one-dimensional characters. They criticize the portrayal of the Objectivist heroes as incredibly intelligent, unencumbered by doubt, wealthy, and free of flaws, in contrast to the frequent portrayal of the antagonists as weak, pathetic, full of uncertainty, and lacking in imagination and talent. Defenders of Rand point out counterexamples to these criticisms: neither Eddie Willers nor Cherryl Taggart (both positive characters) is especially gifted or intelligent, but both are characters of dignity and respect; Leo Kovalensky suffers enormously due to his inability to cope with the brutality and banality of communism; Andrei Taganov dies after realizing his philosophical errors; Dominique Francon is initially bitterly unhappy because she believes evil is powerful; and Dagny Taggart thinks that she is capable of saving the world alone. Two of her main protagonists, Howard Roark and John Galt, did not begin life as rich. Though Rand believed that, under capitalism, valuable contributions will routinely be rewarded by wealth, she certainly did not think that wealth made a person virtuous. In fact, she presents various vicious apparatchiks and plutocrats who use statism to enrich themselves. Moreover, Hank Rearden is exploited because of his social naïveté. As for the purportedly weak and pathetic villains, Rand's defenders point out that Ellsworth Toohey is represented as being a great strategist and communicator from an early age, and Dr. Robert Stadler is a brilliant scientist.
Rand herself replied to these literary criticisms (and in advance of much of them) with her essay "The Goal of My Writing" (1963). There, and in other essays collected in her book The Romantic Manifesto: A Philosophy of Literature (2nd rev. ed. 1975), Rand makes it clear that her goal is to project her vision of an ideal man: not man as he is, but man as he might and ought to be.
Bibliography
Fiction
- Night of January 16th (1934)
- We The Living (1936)
- Anthem (1938)
- The Fountainhead (1943)
- Atlas Shrugged (1957)
Posthumous fiction
- Three Plays (2005)
Nonfiction
- For the New Intellectual (1961)
- The Virtue of Selfishness (with Nathaniel Branden) (1964)
- Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (with Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, and Robert Hessen) (1966)
- Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1967)
- The Romantic Manifesto (1969)
- The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (1971)
- Philosophy: Who Needs It (1982)
Posthumous nonfiction
- The Early Ayn Rand (edited and with commentary by Leonard Peikoff) (1984)
- The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought (edited by Leonard Peikoff; additional essays by Leonard Peikoff and Peter Schwartz) (1989)
- Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology second edition (edited by Harry Binswanger; additional material by Leonard Peikoff) (1990)
- Letters of Ayn Rand (edited by Michael S. Berliner) (1995)
- Journals of Ayn Rand (edited by David Harriman) (1997)
- Ayn Rand's Marginalia : Her Critical Comments on the Writings of over Twenty Authors (edited by Robert Mayhew) (1998)
- The Ayn Rand Column: Written for the Los Angeles Times (edited by Peter Schwartz) (1998)
- Russian Writings on Hollywood (edited by Michael S. Berliner) (1999)
- Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution (expanded edition of The New Left; edited and with additional essays by Peter Schwartz) (1999)
- The Art of Fiction (edited by Tore Boeckmann) (2000)
- The Art of Nonfiction (edited by Robert Mayhew) (2001)
- The Objectivism Research CD-ROM (collection of most of Rand's works in CD-ROM format) (2001)
- Ayn Rand Answers (2005)
References
In addition to Rand's own works (listed above), the following references discuss Rand's life and/or literary work. References that discuss her philosophy can be found in the bibliography of work on Objectivism.
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External links
General information
- [http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/bio/biofaq.html Ayn Rand FAQ]
- [http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/bio/biofaq-notes.html Ayn Rand FAQ-notes]
- [http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ayn_rand_faq_index2 Frequently Asked Questions on Ayn Rand]
- [http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/r/rand.htm "Ayn Rand" entry from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
- [http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/bio/biofaq.html#Q0/ Rand's biography]
- [http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/ Objectivism Reference Center]
Organizations promoting Ayn Rand's philosophy
- [http://www.aynrand.org/ The Ayn Rand Institute]
- [http://www.ariwatch.com/ ARI Watch]
- [http://www.objectivistcenter.org/ The Objectivist Center]
- [http://www.capitalismcenter.org/ The Center for the Advancement of Capitalism]
Articles
- [http://chronicle.com/colloquy/99/rand/background.htm Ayn Rand Has Finally Caught the Attention of Scholars] by Jeff Sharlet
- [http://www.mclemee.com/id39.html The Heirs of Ayn Rand by Scott McLemee] An article published in Lingua Franca which covers the arc of her publishing career, while alive and posthomous, as well as the continuing scholarship.
- [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n23/turn03_.html As Astonishing as Elvis by Jenny Turner] Essay review of Ayn Rand by Jeff Britting
Articles critical of Ayn Rand
- [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult by Murray Rothbard] Written in 1972, this was the first piece of Rand revisionism from the libertarian standpoint.
- [http://www.2think.org/02_2_she.shtml The Unlikeliest Cult in History by Michael Shermer]
- [http://world.std.com/~mhuben/critobj.html "Extensive list of critical essays that Objectivists must answer"]
- [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliography_of_work_on_Objectivism] "The works of numerous philosophers that are critical of Rand's Objectivism are included at this internal link #11"
Rand's associates
- [http://www.leonardpeikoff.com/ Leonard Peikoff's website]
- [http://www.barbarabranden.com/ Barbara Branden's website]
- [http://www.nathanielbranden.com/ Nathaniel Branden's website]
Online groups and blogs
- [http://www.TIADaily.com/ TIA Daily] — Daily news and commentary from the Objectivist perspective by e-mail
- [http://www.DrHurd.com/ Dr. Michael J. Hurd, psychologist] — The Daily Dose of Reason: psychology, life coaching and comments on cultural/political topics from an Objectivist perspective — also, The Living Resources Newsletter and Dr. Hurd's publications
- [http://www.theatlasphere.com/ Ayn Rand Admirers] — The Atlasphere: Member directory, dating service, columns, and news for admirers of Rand's novels
- [http://www.objectivismonline.net/ ObjectivismOnline.Net] — Contains [http://forum.objectivismonline.net/ forums], blogs, essays, chat room, and a [http://wiki.objectivismonline.net wiki on Objectivism]
- [http://www.solopassion.com Sense of Life Objectivists] — Online columns and discussion, by and for Objectivists - hosted by Lindsay Perigo
- [http://forums.4aynrandfans.com The Forum for Ayn Rand Fans]
- [http://www.objectivistblogs.com Objectivist Blogs] — A list of Rand-influenced bloggers
- [http://www.hblist.com Harry Binswanger List] — E-mail-based discussion group
- [http://randex.org/ Randex] — Index of online media references to Ayn Rand and Objectivism
- [http://www.objectivism.net Objectivism.net] — Ayn Rand on CD-ROM, and good links
- [http://wiki.objectivismonline.net/ The Objectivism Wiki]
- [http://www.aynrandstudies.com The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies] — Contains abstracts of articles, author bios, links to several articles, and submission guidelines.
- [http://www.starshipaurora.com/aynrand100.html Ayn Rand 100 Tribute] — includes reference to a tribute album, "Concerto of Deliverance", inspired by Rand's words describing such music.
Rand's writing and speeches
- [http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/texts/anthem/complete.html Anthem] — The complete text of the novel, which has fallen into the public domain
- [http://www.ayn-rand.com/ayn-rand-atlas-shrugged.asp Atlas Shrugged ] — Book outline
- [http://www.ayn-rand.com/ayn-rand-fountainhead.asp The Fountainhead] — Book outline
- [http://www.ayn-rand.com/ayn-rand-we-the-living.asp We The Living] — Book outline
- [http://www.tracyfineart.com/usmc/philosophy_who_needs_it.htm "Philosophy: Who Needs It?"] — Address To The Graduating Class Of The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York - March 6, 1974
- [http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/texts/huac.html Rand's HUAC testimony] — Transcript
- [http://www.libertyhaven.org/bookstore/B00004LC7UAMUS169912.shtml We the Living] — Video outline
- [http://www.americanwriters.org/writers/rand.asp Rand featured on C-Span's "American Writers"] — RealVideo discussions on Rand's writing
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Ayn Rand Art
[http://www.yoyita.com/portrait.htm A portrait of Ayn Rand]
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Structure of Atlas ShruggedWikibooks:Structure of Atlas Shrugged
Structure of Atlas ShruggedWikibooks:Structure of Atlas Shrugged
Structure of Atlas ShruggedWikibooks:Structure of Atlas Shrugged
Structure of Atlas ShruggedWikibooks:Structure of Atlas Shrugged
Characters in Atlas ShruggedCharacters in Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged.
Balph Eubank
Called "the literary leader of the age", despite the fact that he is incapable of writing anything that people actually want to read. What people want to read, he says, is irrelevant. He complains that it is disgraceful that artists are treated as peddlers, and that there should be a law limiting the sales of books to ten thousand copies. He is a member of the Looters. Balph Eubank appears in section 161.
Ben Nealy
A railroad contractor whom Dagny Taggart hires to replace the track on the Rio Norte Line with Rearden Metal. Nealy is incompetent, but Dagny can find no one better in all the country. Nealy believes that anything can get done with enough muscle power. He sees no role for intelligence in human achievement, and this is manifest in his inability to organize the project and to make decisions. He relies on Dagny and Ellis Wyatt to run things, and resents them for doing it, because it appears to him like they are just bossing people around. Ben Nealy appears in section 171.
Bertram Scudder
Editorial writer for the magazine The Future. He typically bashes business and businessmen, but he never says anything specific in his articles, relying on innuendo, sneers, and denunciation. He wrote a hatchet job on Hank Rearden called The Octopus. He is also vocal in support of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill. Bertram Scudder appears in section 161.
Betty Pope
A wealthy socialite who is having a meaningless sexual affair with James Taggart that coincides with the overall meaninglessness of her life. She regrets having to wake up every morning because she has to face another empty day. She is deliberately crude in a way that casts ridicule on her high social position. Betty Pope appears in sections 142 and 161.
Brakeman
An unnamed employee working on the Taggart Comet train. Dagny Taggart hears Brakeman whistling the theme of a concerto. When she asks him what piece it is from, he says it is Halley's Fifth Concerto. When Dagny points out that Richard Halley only wrote four concertos, Brakeman claims he made a mistake and he doesn't recall where he heard the piece.
Later, after Dagny instructs the train crew how to proceed, he asks a co-worker who she is, and learns she is the one who runs Taggart Transcontinental.
It is later discovered that the unknown brakeman is one of the strikers, when Dagny meets him in the valley. Brakeman appears in sections 112 and 113.
Cherryl Brooks
Dime store shopgirl who marries James Taggart after a chance encounter in her store the night the John Galt Line was deemed his greatest success. She marries him thinking he is the heroic person behind Taggart Transcontinental. She is horrible to Dagny until the night before she commits suicide, when she confesses to Dagny that she married Jim, thinking she was marrying Dagny. Like Eddie Willers, Cherryl is one representation of a "good" person who lacks the extraordinary capacities of the primary heroes of the novel.
Claude Slagenhop
The president of political organization Friends of Global Progress (which is supported by Philip Rearden), and one of Lillian Rearden's friends. He believes that ideas are just air, that this is no time for talk, but for action. He is not bothered by the fact that action unguided by ideas is random and pointless. Global Progress is a sponsor of the Equalization of Opportunity Bill. Claude Slagenhop appears in section 161.
Cuffy Meigs
A Looter who's assigned by Wesley Mouch to keep watch over the workings of Taggart Transcontinental, and later assumes control over the company after Dagny Taggart leaves. He carries a pistol and wears a military uniform. The "intellectual heir" of Dr. Robert Stadler, Meigs comes to a fitting end at the hands of Project X.
Dagny Taggart
The main character in Atlas Shrugged (also the name of her namesake Mrs. Nathaniel Taggart). Dagny is Vice-President in Charge of Operation at Taggart Transcontinental. She is the female hero, the counterpart to John Galt, her journey is the journey of the reader exploring and understanding Galts philosophy. Those in the know know she is the one who really runs the railroad. In the course of the novel, she forms romantic liaisons with three men of ability. Dagny appears in sections 112, 113, 114, 132, 133, 141, 145, 146, 147, 148, 151, 152, and 161.
Dan Conway
The middle-aged president of the Phoenix-Durango railroad. Running a railroad is just about the only thing he knows. When the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule is used to drive his business out of Colorado, he loses the will to fight, and resigns himself to a quiet life of books and fishing. He claims that somebody had to be sacrificed, it turned out to be him, and he has no right to complain, bowing to the will of the majority. When pressed he says he doesn't really believe this is right, but he can't understand why it is wrong and what the alternative might be. He is trapped by a moral code that makes him a willing victim, and rather than challenge that morality, he simply gives up. Dan Conway appears in sections 145 and 146, and is mentioned in section 148.
Dick McNamara
A contractor who finished the San Sebastian Line and who is hired to lay the new Rearden Metal track for the Rio Norte Line. Before he gets a chance to do so, he mysteriously disappears. Dick McNamara is mentioned in sections 133 and 141.
Eddie Willers
Special Assistant to the Vice-President in Charge of Operation at Taggart Transcontinental. He grew up with Dagny Taggart. His father and grandfather worked for the Taggarts, and he followed in their footsteps. He is completely loyal to Dagny and to Taggart Transcontinental. He is also secretly in love with Dagny. Willers is generally assumed to represent the common man: someone who does not possess the promethian creative ability of The Strikers, but nevertheless matches them in moral courage and is capable of appreciating and making use of their creations. Eddie Willers appears in sections 111, 114, 117, 132, 133, 141, 151, and 152.
Ellis Wyatt
The head of Wyatt Oil. He has almost single-handedly revived the economy of Colorado by discovering oil there. Of all the disappearances of industrialists in the novel, Wyatt's, involving the fiery destruction of his oil wells, is surely the most dramatic. Ellis Wyatt is mentioned or appears in sections 111, 114, 132, 146, 147, 148, and 152.
Francisco d'Anconia
One of the central characters in Atlas Shrugged. By all accounts, he is a worthless millionaire playboy, owner by inheritance of the world's largest copper mining empire, the man behind the San Sebastian Mines, and a childhood friend and first love of Dagny Taggart.
Francisco began working on the sly as a teenager in order to learn all he could about business. While still a student at Patrick Henry University, he began working at a copper foundry, and investing in the stock market. By the time he was twenty he had made enough to purchase the foundry. He began working for d'Anconia Copper as assistant superintendent of a mine in Montana, but was quickly promoted to head of the New York office. He took over d'Anconia Copper at age 23, after the death of his father.
When he was 26, Francisco secretly joined the Strikers and began to slowly destroy the d'Anconia empire so the Looters could not get it. He adopted the persona of a worthless playboy, by which he is known to the world, as an effective cover.
His full name is Francisco Domingo Carlos Andres Sebastian d'Anconia.
According to [mailto:areed2@calstatela.edu Adam Reed] ([http://www.monmouth.com/~adamreed/Ayn_Rands_jewish_years/Who_is_Francisco_DAnconia.html Who is Francisco D'Anconia?]), d'Anconia is the only Hero-class character who is recognizably Jewish (not in the religious, but in the historical sense, like Ayn Rand herself). Francisco D'Anconia appears or is mentioned in sections 132, 141, 144, 151, and 152 - this last section includes a detailed history of his life.
Hank Rearden
One of the central characters in Atlas Shrugged. He is the founder of Rearden Steel and the inventor of Rearden Metal. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Lillian, his brother Philip, and an elderly woman known only as Rearden's Mother, all of whom he supports. Gwen Ives is his secretary.
The character of Hank Rearden has two important roles to play in the novel. First, he is in the same position as the reader in that he is aware that there is something wrong with the world but is not sure what it is. Rearden is guided toward an understanding of the solution through his friendship with Francisco d'Anconia, who does know the secret, and by this mechanism the reader is also prepared to understand the secret when it is revealed explicitly in Galt's Speech.
Second, Rearden is used to illustrate Rand's theory of sex. Lillian Rearden cannot appreciate Hank Rearden's virtues, and she is portrayed as being disgusted by sex. Dagny Taggart clearly does appreciate Rearden's virtues, and this appreciation evolves into a sexual desire. Rearden is torn by a contradiction because he accepts the premises of the traditional view of sex as a lower instinct, while responding sexually to Dagny, who represents his highest values. Rearden struggles to resolve this internal conflict and in doing so illustrates Rand's sexual theory. Rearden appears in sections 121, 132, 147, and 161, and is mentioned in sections 114 and 131.
Hugh Akston
Identified as "One of the last great advocates of reason." He was a renowned philosopher and the head of the Department of Philosophy at Patrick Henry University, where he taught Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt, and Ragnar Danneskjöld. He was, along with Robert Stadler, a father figure to these three. Akston's name is so hallowed that a young lady, on hearing that Francisco had studied under him, is shocked. She thought he must have been one of those great names from an earlier century. Hugh Akston is mentioned in section 161.
James Taggart
The President of Taggart Transcontinental and a leader of the Looters. Taggart is an expert influence peddler who is incapable of making decisions on his own. He relies on his sister Dagny Taggart to actually run the railroad, but nonetheless opposes her in almost every endeavor.
As the novel progresses, the moral philosophy of the Looters is revealed: it is a code of nihilism. The goal of this code is to not exist, to become a zero. Taggart struggles to remain unaware that this is his goal. He maintains his pretence that he wants to live, and becomes horrified whenever his mind starts to grasp the truth about himself. This contradiction leads to the recurring absurdity of his life: the desire to destroy those on whom his life depends, and the horror that he will succeed at this. James Taggart appears in sections 111, 114, 131, 132, 143, 144, 152 and 161, and is mentioned in sections 146 and 148.
John Galt
- The question "Who is John Galt?" is asked repeatedly throughout Atlas Shrugged. Late into the book we learn that John Galt is the man who stopped the motor of the world and the leader of the Strikers. He is also the same character as the Mystery Worker.
The son of an Ohio garage mechanic, Galt left home at age 12 and began college at Patrick Henry University at age 16. There he befriended Francisco d'Anconia and Ragnar Danneskjöld, all three of whom double-majored in physics and philosophy. They were the cherished students of the brillant scientist Robert Stadler and the brillant philsopher Hugh Akston.
After graduating, Galt became an engineer at the Twentieth Century Motor Works where he designed a revolutionary new motor powered by ambient static electricity with the potential to change the world. Like Ellis Wyatt, he has created what many had for years said was impossible. When the company owners decided to run the factory by the collectivist maxim, 'By each according to his ability, to each according to his need', Galt organized a successful labor strike, proclaiming his promise to halt the world. He began traversing the globe, meeting the world's most successful businessmen, systematically convincing them to follow in his footsteps; one by one, they began abandoning their business empires (which, Galt convinced them, were doomed to failure anyhow, given the increased nationalization of industry by the government).
Secretly, these captains of industry, led by Galt and banker Midas Mulligan, had created their own society — a secret enclave of rational individualists living in "Galt's Gulch", a town secluded high in a wilderness of mountains. Dagny accidentally finds the town — and a shocked John Galt — by crash-landing a light aircraft while pursuing Quentin Daniels.
Since everyone across the country is repeating the phrase, "Who is John Galt?", it is natural that many people have attempted to answer that question. The phrase becomes an expression of helplessness and despair at the current state of the world. Dagny Taggart hears a number of John Galt Legends before finding the real John Galt and eventually joining his cause, and learning that all of the stories have an element of truth to them.
:There is a clothing store in Vail, Colorado called John Galt Ltd. One presumes that, on occasion, a customer unknowingly walks in and asks, "Who is John Galt?"
Lillian Rearden
The wildly unsupportive wife of Hank Rearden. They have been married eight years as the novel begins.
Lillian is a Moocher and a frigid bitch who seeks to destroy her husband. She compares being Rearden's wife with owning the world's most powerful horse. Since she cannot comfortably ride a horse that goes too fast, she must bridle it down to her level, even if that means it will never reach its full potential and its power will be greviously wasted.
Lillian also serves to illustrate Rand's Theory of sex. She believes sex is a base animal instinct and that sexual indulgence is a sign of moral weakness. She is incapable of feeling this kind of desire, which she believes testifies to her moral superiority. However, according to the theory of sex Lillian's lack of sexual capacity results from her inability to experience value in herself; she is therefore unable to respond sexually when she experiences value in others.
Lillian tolerates sex with her husband only because she is 'realistic' enough to know he is just a brute who requires satisfaction of his brute instincts. In section 161 she indicates that she abhors Francisco d'Anconia, because she believes he is a sexual adventurer. Lillian Rearden appears in sections 121 and 161.
The Looters
A group of evil characters sometimes referred to as "James Taggart and his friends". They are similar to the Moochers. The Looters consist of men and women who use force to obtain value from those who produce it. They seek to destroy the producers despite the fact that they are dependent upon them. The Looters include: Mr. Thompson, Balph Eubank, Floyd Ferris, James Taggart, Orren Boyle, Paul Larkin, Robert Stadler, Simon Pritchett, Wesley Mouch, and Cuffy Miegs.
Midas Mulligan
A wealthy banker who mysteriously disappears in protest after he is given a court order to loan money to an incompetent loan applicant. Midas Mulligan is responsible for the creation and distribution of the money that is exclusively used in Galt's Gulch, and is the original owner of the land where Galt's Gulch is located. He is also responsible for the production of the money used there.
The Moochers
A group of characters, similar to the Looters, who use guilt as a weapon against those who produce value. They seek to destroy the producers despite the fact that they are dependent upon them. The Moochers include Lillian Rearden, Philip Rearden, and Hank Rearden's mother. It has been suggested that the term "mooch" received its beginning in this novel and is actually intended to be spelled "mouch," referring to infamous character of Wesley Mouch.
Mort Liddy
A hack composer who writes trite scores for movies and modern symphonies that no one listens to. He believes melody is a primitive vulgarity. He is one of Lillian Rearden's friends and a member of the cultural elite. Mort Liddy appears in section 161.
Mr. Mowen
The president of the Amalgamated Switch and Signal Company, Inc. of Connecticut. He is a businessman who sees nothing wrong with the moral code that is destroying society and would never dream of saying he is in business for any reason other than the good of society. He is unable to grapple with abstract issues, and is frightened of anything controversial. Dagny Taggart hires Mr. Mowen to produce switches made of Rearden Metal. He is reluctant to build anything with this unproven technology, and has to be ridden and cajoled before he is willing to accept the contract. When pressured by public opinion, he discontinues production of the switches, forcing Dagny to find an alternative source. Mr. Mowen appears in section 171.
Mystery Worker
A menial worker for Taggart Transcontinental who often dines with Eddie Willers in the employee's cafeteria. Eddie finds him very easy to talk to, and Mystery Worker not-so-subtly leads him on so that Eddie reveals important information about Dagny Taggart and Taggart Transcontinental. Eddie tells him which suppliers and contractors Dagny is most dependent on, and with remarkable consistency, those are the next men to mysteriously disappear. Mystery Worker is actually John Galt. Mystery Worker appears in section 133.
The unnamed newsstand owner
He works in the Taggart Terminal. Twenty years ago he owned a cigarette factory but it went under, and he's been working at his newsstand ever since. He is a collector of cigarettes, and knows every brand ever made. He occasionally chats with Dagny Taggart when she comes by. On one occasion, in section section 132, after Dagny asks him about his collection, he bemoans the fact that there are no new brands and the old brands are all disappearing. He examines a cigarette given to Dagny by Hugh Akston, but it is a new brand that he has never seen before. It carries the sign of the dollar. In his first appearance, the Newsstand Owner likens the fire of a cigarette to the fire of the mind. This alludes to the Greek myth of Prometheus, who gave mankind the gift of fire, allowing it to raise itself up and become civilized. In Atlas Shrugged, it is the mind of man that raises mankind. Thus the cigarettes become symbolic of the men of the mind. The disappearance of the old brands represents the disappearance of the men of the mind, and the Newsstand Owner's discovery of the new brand foreshadows Dagny's discovery of a new kind of men of the mind.
Orren Boyle
The head of Associated Steel and a friend of James Taggart. He is one of the Looters. He is an investor in the San Sebastian Mines. Orren Boyle appears or is mentioned in sections 111, 114, 131, 132, 144, and 152.
Owen Kellogg
Assistant to the Manager of the Taggart Terminal in New York. He catches Dagny Taggart's eye as one of the few competent men on staff. After seeing the sorry state of the Ohio Division she decides to make him to its new Superintendent. However, as soon as she returns to New York, Kellogg informs her that he is quiting his job. He admits that he loves his work, but that's not enough to keep him. He won't say why he is leaving or what he will do. Later, he is noticed working as transient labor by the unsuccessful/unmotivated businessman Mr. Mowen. Owen Kellog eventually reaches, and settles in Atlantis. Owen Kellogg appears in sections 112 and 114.
Paul Larkin
An unsuccessful, middle-aged businessman, a friend of the Rearden family, and a member of the Looters. In section 121 Larkin visits Philadelphia to warn Hank Rearden of possible trouble from Washington. In section 131 he meets with the other Looters to work out a plan to bring Rearden down. James Taggart knows he is friends with Hank Rearden and challenges his loyalty, and Larkin assures Taggart that he will go along with them. Paul Larkin appears in sections 121 and 132.
Philip Rearden
The younger brother of Hank Rearden, and a Moocher. He lives in his brother's home in Philadelphia and is completely dependent on him. He believes that the source of his sustenance is evil and would love to see him destroyed. He has never had a career and spends his time perfunctorily working for various social groups.
He becomes resentful of his brother's charity. He then requests that he be granted a job from his brother because he should not have to be burdened by the feeling of inadequacy of not earning his own livelihood. When confronted by his brother on how this job would be a mutually beneficial arrangement, Philip shrugs the argument off as irrelevant and that the job should be entitled to him solely based on his need for money and the fact of familial ties. Philip Rearden appears in sections 121 and 161.
Quentin Daniels
An enterprising engineer hired by Dagny Taggart to reconstruct John Galt's motor. Partway through this process, Quentin withdraws his effort for the same reasons John Galt himself had. Dagny sets out to meet Quentin in hopes of convincing him to resume his work. John Galt narrowly gets to him first. Dagny's pursuit of Quentin leads her to "Galt's Gulch"
Ragnar Danneskjöld
One of the original Strikers. He is now world famous as a pirate. Ragnar was from Norway, the son of a bishop and the scion of one of Norway's most ancient, noble families. He attended Patrick Henry University and became friends with John Galt and Francisco d'Anconia, while studying under Hugh Akston and Robert Stadler.
Ragnar seizes relief ships that are being sent from the United States to Europe. No one knows what he does with the goods he seizes. As the novel progresses, Ragnar begins, for the first time, to become active in American waters, and is even spotted in Delaware Bay. Reportedly, his ship is better than any available in the fleets of the world's navies.
When he became a pirate, he was disowned and excommunicated. There is a price on his head in Norway, Portugal, Turkey.
According to Ayn Rand (verbal report), his name is a tribute to Victor Hugo. In Hugo's first novel, Hans of Iceland, the hero becomes the first of the Counts of Danneskjöld. His name may be a pun on 'Dane's Gold', although "skjöld" means shield, not gold. Ragnar Danneskjöld appears in section 161.
Rearden's mother
Named Gertrude, she is a Moocher who lives with her son Hank Rearden at his home in Philadelphia. She is involved in church-based charity work, and berates Rearden whenever she can. She insults him by saying he was always selfish, even as a child. She dotes on her weak son Philip Rearden. Rearden's mother appears in section 121.
Richard Halley
Dagny Taggart's favorite composer, who mysteriously disappeared after the evening of his greatest triumph. In section 141 we learn that Richard Halley spent years as a struggling and unappreciated composer. At age 24 his opera Phaethon was performed for the first time, to an audience who booed and heckled it. (It was based on the Greek myth in which Phaethon steals his father's chariot, and dies in an audacious attempt to drive the sun across the sky. Halley changed the story, though, into one of triumph, in which Phaethon succeeds.) For years Halley wrote in obscurity. After nineteen years, Phaethon was performed again, but this time it was received to the greatest ovation the opera house had ever heard. It appears his critics felt he had paid his dues long enough that he was at last worthy of their approval. The following day, Halley retired, sold the rights to his music, and disappeared. Richard Halley is mentioned in sections 112, 114, 133, and 141, and appears in section 152.
Dr. Robert Stadler
A former professor at Patrick Henry University, mentor to Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt and Ragnar Danneskjöld. He has since become a sell-out, one who had great promise but squandered it for social approval, to the detriment of the free. He works at the State Science Institute where all his inventions are perverted for use by the military, including the instrument of his demise: Project X.
Dr. Simon Pritchett
The prestigious head of the Department of Philosophy at Patrick Henry University and is considered the leading philosopher of the age. He is also a Looter. He is certainly representative of the philosophy of the age - he is a crude reductionist who believes man is nothing but a collection of chemicals; he believes there are no standards, that definitions are fluid, reason is a superstition, that it is futile to seek meaning in life, and that the duty of a philosopher is to show that nothing can be understood. He explains all this in his book The Metaphysical Contradictions of the Universe, and at cocktail parties. Dr. Pritchett appears in section 161.
The Strikers
People of the mind who go on strike because they do not appreciate being exploited by the Looters and demonized by a society who depends on them for its very existence. The leader of the Strikers is John Galt. Other Strikers include: Hugh Akston, Francisco d'Anconia, Ragnar Danneskjöld, Richard Halley, and the Brakeman. Characters who join the Strikers in the course of the book include: Dagny Taggart, Ellis Wyatt, Hank Rearden, Dick McNamara, and Owen Kellogg.
Mr. Thompson
The "Head of the State," which essentially means that he's the President of the United States, though he's never specifically referred to as such. In the world of Atlas Shrugged all Presidents and Prime Ministers are refered to simply as "Head of the State" and "Mr. ____." This is because countries have been standardized as "People's States" which seem to share a common form of government. Thomspon's title can thus be seen as reflecting the fact that the US is in the process of evolving into one of these "People's States." One of the Looters, he's not particularly intelligent and has a very undistinguished look. He knows politics, however, and is a master of public relations and back-room deals. Rand's notes indicate that she modelled him on President Harry S. Truman.
Wesley Mouch
A member of the Looters and, at the beginning of the storyline, the incompetent lobbyist whom Hank Rearden reluctantly employs in Washington. Initially Wesley Mouch is the least powerful and least significant of the Looters - the other members of this group feel they can look down upon him with impunity. Eventually he becomes the most powerful Looter, and the country's economic dictator, thereby illustrating Rand's belief that a government-run economy places too much power in the hands of incompetent bureaucrats who would never have positions of similar influence in a private sector business. Wesley Mouch appears in section 131 and is mentioned in section 161.
See also
- Minor characters in Atlas Shrugged
Category:Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged characters
Structure of Atlas ShruggedWikibooks:Structure of Atlas Shrugged
Structure of Atlas ShruggedWikibooks:Structure of Atlas Shrugged
Things in Atlas ShruggedThis is a list of general items in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule
The Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule is passed by the National Alliance of Railroads in section 145, allegedly to prevent "destructive competition" between railroads. The rule gives the Alliance the authority to forbid competition between railroads in certain parts of the country. It was crafted by Orren Boyle as a favor for James Taggart, with the purpose of driving the Phoenix-Durango out of Colorado.
Bracelet
The very first thing made from Rearden Metal is a bracelet. The bracelet is used to illustrate Rand's Theory of Sex.
The bracelet symbolizes the value created by Hank Rearden's long struggle to invent Rearden Metal. When he gives it to Lillian Rearden as a present in section 121; she says, "It's fully as valuable as a piece of railroad rails." However, Lillian fully grasps the significance of the gift; her snide remark is her way of denigrating her husband's ethos.
In section 161, Lillian wears this bracelet at a party thrown on her anniversary. She makes fun of it all night long, and when Dagny Taggart hears Lillian say she would gladly trade it for a common diamond bracelet, Dagny takes her up on it.
Lillian later asks for it back upon realizing her power over her husband was slowly diminishing. Dagny denies the offer.
The bracelet appears in sections 121 and 161.
Cub Club
A night club in New York. When Francisco d'Anconia returns to New York in section 141, he explains he came because of a hat-check girl at the Cub Club and the liverwurst at Moe's Delicatessen on Third Avenue.
Equalization of Opportunity Bill
A bill designed by the Looters that proposes to limit the number of businesses any one person can own to one. It is aimed primarily at Hank Rearden, who uses Rearden Ore to guarantee Rearden Steel with a supply of iron ore. By passing this Bill, the Looters can seize Rearden's other businesses for themselves, and then deny him the iron he needs to run his steel mills.
The Looters claim the Bill is meant to give a chance to the little guy.
The Equalization of Opportunity Bill is appears in section 161.
Galt's Gulch
A secluded refuge in a valley of Colorado where the men of ability have retreated after relinquishing participation in American society. Nicknamed "Galt's Gulch" by its inhabitants, it is in fact the property of "Midas" Mulligan, one of the early strikers to follow John Galt's call. This call was to the great men of mind and action to abandon the increasingly slave-state inclinations of a decaying United States - to go on strike - thereby withdrawing the only thing supporting the parasites and looters.
Sarcastically nicknamed Midas in the press because everything he seemed to touch turned to gold, Mulligan adopted the nickname during his explosive investment career before dropping out of sight. He had purchased this land among his far-ranging speculative endeavors, and subsequently retreated to it upon his disappearance. Other strikers soon followed him there, including John Galt, renting or buying land for summer retreats as a respite from continuing their search for fellow strikers among the increasingly collapsing American society. Eventually, a society develops in Galt's Gulch as more people live there year-round as the outside world becomes virtually unsafe to visit.
We are introduced to Galt's Gulch in the final section of the Novel, in the first chapter, entitled Atlantis. The people live with each other in completely free society and embody everything which is the thesis of the Novel, the appropriate values for a society of Mankind: philosophical, moral, economic, legal, aesthetic, and sexual, among others too numerous to mention.
We find industrious, ambitious, happy people continuing their chosen fields of endeavor without the yokes of any taxation or regulation. Conversely, there is a reverence for private property; everything transacted is paid for with the re-invented currency of solid gold coin struck from the reserves of Midas Mulligan's bank which now resides in the valley. The townspeople receive services from the various heroes we have met throughout the Novel, who all now reside and produce in the valley. They purchase power inexpensively from Galt and his invention of the static electricity motor, maintain their anonymity from the outside world via Galt's invention of the air-wave reflection device (giving the view from above the camouflage of reflected images of other mountainsides nearby), and some attend Galt's lectures on Physics, where he explains his discoveries on new fundamental laws and applied mathematics. The people purchase medical treatment from the care of Dr. Hendricks, who uses his invention of a portable X-ray machine to initially diagnose Dagny Taggart upon her crash landing into the valley, attend concerts of new musical compositions of Richard Halley who has continued to compose in the Valley, acquire raw materials from the efforts of Francisco D'Anconia's excavations around the valley, attend philosophy lectures from the now-retired pirate Ragnar Danneskjöld, receive loans from Midas Mulligan, etc.
Rand's description of Galt's Gulch was inspired by a visit she and her husband Frank O'Connor took to Ouray, Colorado while researching Colorado for the novel.
Halley's Fifth Concerto
Richard Halley disappeared after he had written only four concertos. In section 112, Dagny Taggart, an enthusiastic fan of Halley's music, hears an unfamiliar theme being whistled by a brakeman on the Taggart Comet. She asks him what it is; he responds Halley's Fifth Concerto. When Dagny says Halley only wrote four concertos, the brakeman says he made a mistake and denies knowing what the song was.
Later, Dagny calls Mr. Ayers to find out if Halley wrote a fifth concerto. Ayers says Halley did not.
Halley's Fifth Concerto is mentioned in sections 112, 114 and 152.
Halley's Fourth Concerto
The last thing Richard Halley wrote before he disappeared. It is a song of rebellion and defiance that seemed to say agony and suffering were not necessary. Dagny Taggart listened to this song in section 141.
It is mentioned in section 152.
Heaven's In Your Backyard
A film. Mort Liddy wrote the score, using a bastardized version of Halley's Fourth Concerto. It is mentioned in section 161.
John Galt Legends
Since everyone across the country is asking, "Who is John Galt?", it is not surprising that some people have come up with answers. A number of John Galt Legends are told, each of which, ironically, turns out to be true, at least symbolically.
Legend 1 (section 161): A spinster at Lillian Rearden's party tells Dagny the story. John Galt was a man of inestimable wealth who found the sunken island of Atlantis while fighting the worst storm ever wreaked upon the world. The site was so beautiful that, having seen it, he could never go back to the world, so he sank his ship and took his fortune down with him.
The actual John Galt was a man who created something of inestimable value, a new motor, and who discovered the secret to what was wrong with the world while fighting the most evil social philosophy ever put into practice. The world he envisioned was so beautiful that he refused to live in the world that was, and disappeared, taking the secret of motor with him.
Atlantis, the Isles of the Blessed, is a place where no one could enter except those who had the spirit of a hero. Described in these terms, it is the same as Galt's Gulch.
Moe's Delicatessen
A delicatessen in New York. When Francisco d'Anconia returns to New York in section 141, he explains he came because of a hat-check girl at the Cub Club and the liverwurst at Moe's Delicatessen on Third Avenue.
National Alliance of Railroads
An industry group formed to promote the welfare of the industry as a whole, requiring members to sacrifice their individual interests for the common good. Orren Boyle has friends on the National Alliance of Railroads, and he gets them to support the Anti-dog-eat-dog Rule, which uses a string of pretenses to drive the Phoenix-Durango out of Colorado.
The National Alliance of Railroads is mentioned in sections 131, 145 and 146.
National Council of Metal Industries
An industry group th | | |
