Overview

The Ayn Rand Archives consist of two major holdings: the Ayn Rand Papers and the Special Collections.

The papers and effects of novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand are made available to the Ayn Rand Archives in accordance with the deposit of her literary executor, Leonard Peikoff. Documents comprising the Special Collections are the result of the Archives acquisition program.

Finding aids for each holding are in preparation and will be made available online.

Ayn Rand Papers

The Ayn Rand Papers comprises the personal papers and effects left by Ayn Rand at her death in 1982. Approximately 50 linear ft. in nearly 200 document cartons, this collection includes: manuscripts, notes and outlines of her novels and philosophic articles; business correspondence with publishers, agents, and attorneys; personal correspondence with colleagues and relatives, including 900 letters from her family in Leningrad; philosophic journals; research files on architecture and current events; marginalia; clippings on political topics for proposed articles; more than 1,000 photographs; daily calendars (1943–79); address books; 150 78 r.p.m. phonograph records; memorabilia; 50 hours of recorded biographical interviews; and more than 350 hours of recorded speeches, interviews and workshops. The collection includes more than 3,000 handwritten pages and thousands more with handediting.

A recent and major supplement includes microfilm of the Ayn Rand Papers at the Library of Congress. These papers are drafts, typescripts and galleys of her novella, Anthem, and her three novels, We the Living, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, plus some administrative material.

Special Collections

The Special Collections is an ongoing collection of Ayn Rand-related material acquired since her death. It includes: recordings of Ayn Rand’s radio programs, lectures and interviews; oral history interviews of friends and relatives; Russian academic and legal documents; translations of her work into more than 20 languages; biographical and philosophical articles about Ayn Rand; reviews and press mentions; screenplays; correspondence; Objectivist periodicals; and materials from Objectivist organizations.