MARINA DEL REY, CA--March 6 marks twenty years since the death of novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand, author of the classic novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
      Since she was first published in 1936, readers have bought 20 million copies of Ayn Rand's books--and they continue to sell at the rate of 400,000 copies every year. Her works are studied on college campuses around the world, and scholars are producing shelves of books analyzing her novels and her philosophy, Objectivism.
      Ten other indications of Ayn Rand's growing fame and influence in the last 20 years:
        · An Ayn Rand postage stamp was issued in 1999
        · Atlas Shrugged was voted best novel of the 20th century in several polls
        · A movie biography of her life was nominated for an Oscar
        · 86,000 students have entered Ayn Rand Institute essay contests
        · Objectivist professors are receiving tenure
        · University foundations are being created to study her works
        · Scores of politicians, jurists and wealthy businessmen cite her influence
        · Her ideas are routinely quoted by columnists, commentators and writers
        · All of her novels are being developed as films by Hollywood
        · Ayn Rand Institute speakers/writers are broadcast/published hundreds of times each year