Total Sales of "Ayn Rand" Books Perhaps 40 million
The May 14 press release from ARI touted sales of one million copies of all books by Ayn Rand in 2012 for a total of 29 million for all time. I believe those numbers are under-reports.
First of all, they do not tally these books by Ayn Rand:
Introduction to the Objectivist Epistemology
Philosophy: Who Needs It?
Return of the Primitive (formerly The New Left: the Anti-Industrial Revolution)
Early Ayn Rand vol. 1-
Three Plays- (Early Ayn Rand vol. 2)
And then you have to consider all of the re-castings of her ideas by the ARI and others. The Ayn Rand Lexicon is a perfect example of a book she did not write, but is clearly her own work. Leonard Peikoff's
Biographical works must also be tallied. Pros and cons are easy to argue and perhaps pointless, except as they underscore the attraction that Ayn Rand and her ideas continue to have for very many people.
How many, though, is difficult to assess The fact that "Anthem" is a standard assignment in middle schools and high schools - along with Lord of the Flies, Brave New World, and similar short and declarative books - means than millions of young people have some introduction to her ideas before they buy their first book by her -- if they ever do. And, like LOF, BNR, 1984, etc., it is hard to imagine that any teenager could read Anthem and NOT be "influenced" by it. (No, no! I choose to overcome my teenage angst so that I can be a mindless moron!)
It is easy to predict from the gross sales numbers that anyone who volitionally buys Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, or Anthem, will buy the other two.
Also, library reads are not tallied.
All in all, over 40 books have been published by or about Ayn Rand. Consider the "Female Foce" comic. They have published biographies of Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama, and Caroline Kennedy. Female Force #1 was Ayn Rand.
How many people actually are attracted to the philosophy of Objectivism is different question entirely.
First of all, they do not tally these books by Ayn Rand:
Introduction to the Objectivist Epistemology
Philosophy: Who Needs It?
Return of the Primitive (formerly The New Left: the Anti-Industrial Revolution)
Early Ayn Rand vol. 1-
Three Plays- (Early Ayn Rand vol. 2)
And then you have to consider all of the re-castings of her ideas by the ARI and others. The Ayn Rand Lexicon is a perfect example of a book she did not write, but is clearly her own work. Leonard Peikoff's
Biographical works must also be tallied. Pros and cons are easy to argue and perhaps pointless, except as they underscore the attraction that Ayn Rand and her ideas continue to have for very many people.
How many, though, is difficult to assess The fact that "Anthem" is a standard assignment in middle schools and high schools - along with Lord of the Flies, Brave New World, and similar short and declarative books - means than millions of young people have some introduction to her ideas before they buy their first book by her -- if they ever do. And, like LOF, BNR, 1984, etc., it is hard to imagine that any teenager could read Anthem and NOT be "influenced" by it. (No, no! I choose to overcome my teenage angst so that I can be a mindless moron!)
It is easy to predict from the gross sales numbers that anyone who volitionally buys Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, or Anthem, will buy the other two.
Also, library reads are not tallied.
All in all, over 40 books have been published by or about Ayn Rand. Consider the "Female Foce" comic. They have published biographies of Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama, and Caroline Kennedy. Female Force #1 was Ayn Rand.
How many people actually are attracted to the philosophy of Objectivism is different question entirely.
44. The Ayn Rand Companion by Mimi Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
45. Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand by Mini Reisel Gladstein
46. Ayn Rand by Tibor Machan
47. Essays on We the Living by Robert Mayhew
48. The Fountainheads: Wright, Rand, the FBI and Hollywood by Donald Leslie Johnson
49. Judgment Day by Nathaniel Branden
50. My Years with Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden
51. The Passion of Ayn Rand by Barbara Branden
52. Passion of Ayn Rand's Critics by James S. Valliant
54. Objectively Speaking: Ayn Rand Interviewed. Marlene Podritske and Peter Schwarts, eds. Lexington Books, 2009.
42. Ayn Rand and alienation : the Platonic idealism of the objectivist ethics and a rational alternative by Sid Greenberg. San Francisco : Greenberg, c1977.
43. Ayn Rand nation : the hidden struggle for America's soul (2012) Gary Weiss, New York : St. Martin's Press, 2012.