Teachers Request a Quarter Million Ayn Rand Novels
Dec 21, 2005

IRVINE, CA--Since 2002, the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI) has offered free copies of Anthem and The Fountainhead to teachers all across North America. This school year began with a flood of requests from high school English teachers who wish to teach Ayn Rand's novels in their classrooms. ARI has now received requests for approximately 257,000 copies of Anthem or The Fountainhead.

This figure far exceeds the combined total number of requests received since ARI's Free Books to Teachers program began three years ago.

In 2002-03 ARI mailed out 9,000 books; 54,000 the following year; and 100,955 last year. Including this year's (still growing) total, ARI will have fulfilled requests for more than 420,000 copies of Ayn Rand's novels. If each of these books is used for five years, ARI's program will have reached more than two million students.

The project's phenomenal growth has been made possible in part by a specially earmarked million-dollar gift to the Institute. The donation was both the largest single contribution in the Institute's history and the most the Institute has so far received from a single donor during one fiscal year. The donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, made the gift in July. To help fulfill the requests for books that have been pouring in from around the country, ARI has used the $1 million gift to create a matching fund.

More information on this program is available at the Ayn Rand Institute's Web site, www.aynrand.org/freebooks.

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Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews. To interview Dr. Brook or book him for your show, please e-mail media@aynrandcenter.org

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