A recent Los Angeles Times Magazine article noted the significant position held by novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand, reporting that "[s]ixteen years after her death . . . the poetess/philosopher of freedom, capitalism and the individual, is still inspiring millions of Americans."
     On April 22, 1999, the United States Postal Service (USPS) released its Ayn Rand postage stamp. The Ayn Rand stamp is the 16th entry in the Literary Arts Commemorative Series, joining such American authors as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck.
     A 1991 survey conducted jointly by the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club, named Ayn Rand's epic philosophical novel, Atlas Shrugged, second only to the Bible as the most influential book in Americans' lives. And in a 1998 Modern Library Association-Random House survey, readers chose Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead as the two best English language novels of the 20th century.
     Since 1936, readers have bought 20 million copies of Ayn Rand's books, and they continue to buy them at the rate of 400,000 copies every year.
     This growing audience has found an ally in the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), an educational organization established in 1985 to advance knowledge of Objectivism, the philosophy originated by Ayn Rand. "Our goal has been to reach those people who are open to her ideas, specifically to the basic tenets of Objectivism: reason, rational egoism and laissez-faire capitalism," says Michael Berliner, ARI's executive director.

     Through its activities, ARI has been helping to create an even wider audience for Ayn Rand's ideas:

• The 1997 Academy Award nominated Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, a documentary film of Ayn Rand, has been released on video. The film recently won a Golden Satellite Award for best feature-length documentary. Writer-director Michael Paxton created the documentary with the assistance of the Institute's Ayn Rand Archives.
• Ever since Bill Clinton and Colin Powell demanded that Americans embrace "volunteerism" as a moral duty, ARI's "Campaign against Servitude" has been challenging their program. As a result of editorials, media mentions and interviews, audiences have learned that Objectivism is the only principled, moral opponent of volunteerism. ARI has answered mandatory school service with its own Anti-Servitude Internship Program, which gives high school students the opportunity to complete class "service" requirements by working to promote its abolition.
• Since 1985, more than 70,000 high school students have entered the Institute's annual high school essay contest on Ayn Rand's bestseller The Fountainhead and novelette Anthem. Last fall an Atlas Shrugged essay contest was introduced to business students at both the graduate and undergraduate level. This year, high school debaters nationwide will continue using Objectivist materials in their debates.
• ARI's Objectivist Graduate Center, the only institute in the country training Objectivists to be active, professional intellectuals, is entering its sixth academic year.
•  Commentators, now aware of the influence of Ayn Rand, are themselves acknowledging her importance.
• Hollywood producers are turning Ayn Rand novels into theatrical films. Her first novel, We the Living, has been optioned to be produced as a major motion picture, and both Anthem and Atlas Shrugged are in development.
• During the last year, ARI op-eds have been published in more than 100 newspapers -- the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and San Francisco Chronicle among them. Dozens of radio/TV producers have booked Objectivist professionals and professors drawn from ARI's speakers bureau.
• Ayn Rand's ideas are also being heard on an increasing number of college campuses throughout the U.S. and Canada. College-level textbooks discussing Ayn Rand's philosophic ideas are being published. And at more than 85 colleges, students have formed clubs in order to study Objectivism.
• Newsweek magazine has recognized this Ayn Rand phenomenon. Citing evidence of what it described as a "virtual Ayn Rand Fest," the magazine concluded that Ayn Rand ". . . she's everywhere" (9/11/95).