Ayn Rand here sets for the the moral principles of Objectivism, the philosophy that holds man's life - the life proper to a rational being - as the standard of moral values and regards altruism as imcompatible with man's nature, with the creative requirements of his survival and with a free society. Ayn Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged, philosophically the most challenging bestseller in its time. Her first novel, We the Living, was published in 1936. With the publication of The Fountainhead in 1943, she achieved a spectacular and enduring success. Miss Rand's unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience. The fundamentals of her philosophy are set forth in four nonfiction books: Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, For the New Intellectual, The Virtue of Selfishness, and Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal. The magnificent statement of her artistic credo, The Romantic Manifesto, is also available in a Signet edition.

Ayn Rand is the best-selling author of The Fountainhead and the most philosophically challenging novel of the century—Atlas Shrugged. Her philosophy, Objectivism, influences an ever-growing number of "new intellectuals" throughout the world. As Ayn Rand read books and periodicals by various writers, she habitually wrote critical comments in the margins. Ayn Rand's Marginalia contains these philosophical analyses and the texts to which they refer. Though not her final, considered viewpoint, her marginalia do offer a fascinating glimpse of her unique mind at work.