''The Fountainhead'' is a 1943 novel by Russian-American author
Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...
, her first major literary success. The novel's protagonist, Howard Roark, is an intransigent young
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, who battles against conventional standards and refuses to compromise with an architectural establishment unwilling to accept innovation. Roark embodies what Rand believed to be the ideal man, and his struggle reflects Rand's belief that
individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...
is superior to
collectivism
Collectivism may refer to:
* Bureaucratic collectivism, a theory of class society whichto describe the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin
* Collectivist anarchism, a socialist doctrine in which the workers own and manage the production
* Collectiv ...
.
Roark is opposed by what he calls "second-handers", who value conformity over independence and integrity. These include Roark's former classmate, Peter Keating, who succeeds by following popular styles but turns to Roark for help with design problems. Ellsworth Toohey, a
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
architecture critic Architecture criticism is the critique of architecture. Everyday criticism relates to published or broadcast critiques of buildings, whether completed or not, both in terms of news and other criteria. In many cases, criticism amounts to an assessmen ...
who uses his influence to promote his political and social agenda, tries to destroy Roark's career. Tabloid newspaper publisher Gail Wynand seeks to shape popular opinion; he befriends Roark, then betrays him when public opinion turns in a direction he cannot control. The novel's most controversial character is Roark's lover, Dominique Francon. She believes that non-conformity has no chance of winning, so she alternates between helping Roark and working to undermine him.
Twelve publishers rejected the manuscript before an editor at the
Bobbs-Merrill Company
The Bobbs-Merrill Company was a book publisher located in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Company history
The company began in 1850 October 3 when Samuel Merrill bought an Indianapolis bookstore and entered the publishing business. After his death in 1 ...
risked his job to get it published. Contemporary reviewers' opinions were polarized. Some praised the novel as a powerful paean to individualism, while others thought it overlong and lacking sympathetic characters. Initial sales were slow, but the book gained a following by word of mouth and became a
bestseller
A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...
. More than 6.5 million copies of ''The Fountainhead'' have been sold worldwide and it has been translated into more than 20 languages. The novel attracted a new following for Rand and has enjoyed a lasting influence, especially among architects,
entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
,
American conservatives
Conservatism in the United States is a Political philosophy, political and social philosophy based on a belief in limited government, individualism, Tradition, traditionalism, Republicanism in the United States, republicanism, and limited ...
and
libertarians
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and Minarchism, minimize the ...
.
The novel has been adapted into other media several times. An illustrated version was syndicated in newspapers in 1945.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
produced a
film version
A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
in 1949; Rand wrote the screenplay, and
Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, a ...
played Roark. Critics panned the film, which did not recoup its budget; several directors and writers have considered developing a new film adaptation. In 2014, Belgian theater director
Ivo van Hove
Ivo van Hove (born 28 October 1958) is a Belgian theatre director known as the artistic director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam in the Netherlands and for his Off-Broadway avant-garde experimental theatre productions. On Broadway, he has directed re ...
created a stage adaptation, which has received mostly positive reviews.
Plot
In early 1922, Howard Roark is expelled from the architecture department of the Stanton Institute of Technology because he has not adhered to the school's preference for historical convention in building design. Roark goes to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and gets a job with Henry Cameron. Cameron was once a renowned architect, but now gets few commissions. In the meantime, Roark's popular, but vacuous, fellow student and housemate Peter Keating (whom Roark sometimes helped with projects) graduates with high honors. He too moves to New York, where he has been offered a position with the prestigious architecture firm, Francon & Heyer. Keating ingratiates himself with Guy Francon and works to remove rivals among his coworkers. After Francon's partner, Lucius Heyer, suffers a fatal
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
brought on by Keating's antagonism, Francon chooses Keating to replace him. Meanwhile, Roark and Cameron create inspired work, but struggle financially.
After Cameron retires, Keating hires Roark, whom Francon soon fires for refusing to design a building in the classical style. Roark works briefly at another firm, then opens his own office but has trouble finding clients and closes it down. He gets a job in a granite quarry owned by Francon. There he meets Francon's daughter Dominique, a columnist for ''The New York Banner'', while she is staying at her family's estate nearby. They are immediately attracted to each other, leading to a rough sexual encounter that Dominique later calls a rape. Shortly after, Roark is notified that a client is ready to start a new building, and he returns to New York. Dominique also returns to New York and learns Roark is an architect. She attacks his work in public, but visits him for secret sexual encounters.
Ellsworth M. Toohey, who writes a popular architecture column in the ''Banner'', is an outspoken
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
who shapes public opinion through his column and a circle of influential associates. Toohey sets out to destroy Roark through a smear campaign. He recommends Roark to Hopton Stoddard, a wealthy acquaintance who wants to build a Temple of the Human Spirit. Roark's unusual design includes a nude statue modeled on Dominique; Toohey persuades Stoddard to sue Roark for malpractice. Toohey and several architects (including Keating) testify at the trial that Roark is incompetent as an architect due to his rejection of historical styles. Dominique also argues for the prosecution in tones that can be interpreted to be speaking more in Roark's defense than for the plaintiff, but he loses the case. Dominique decides that since she cannot have the world she wants, in which men like Roark are recognized for their greatness, she will live entirely in the world she has, which shuns Roark and praises Keating. She marries Keating and turns herself over to him, doing and saying whatever he wants, and actively persuading potential clients to hire him instead of Roark.
To win Keating a prestigious commission offered by Gail Wynand, the owner and editor-in-chief of the ''Banner'', Dominique agrees to sleep with Wynand. Wynand is so strongly attracted to Dominique that he pays Keating to divorce her, after which Wynand and Dominique are married. Wanting to build a home for himself and his new wife, Wynand discovers that Roark designed every building he likes and so hires him. Roark and Wynand become close friends; Wynand is unaware of Roark's past relationship with Dominique.
Washed up and out of the public eye, Keating pleads with Toohey to use his influence to get the commission for the much-sought-after Cortlandt housing project. Keating knows his most successful projects were aided by Roark, so he asks for Roark's help in designing Cortlandt. Roark agrees in exchange for complete anonymity and Keating's promise that it will be built exactly as designed. After taking a long vacation with Wynand, Roark returns to find that Keating was not able to prevent major changes from being made in Cortlandt's construction. Roark dynamites the project to prevent the subversion of his vision.
Roark is arrested and his action is widely condemned, but Wynand decides to use his papers to defend his friend. This unpopular stance hurts the circulation of his newspapers, and Wynand's employees go on strike after Wynand dismisses Toohey for disobeying him and criticizing Roark. Faced with the prospect of closing the paper, Wynand gives in and publishes a denunciation of Roark. At his trial, Roark makes a lengthy speech about the value of ego and integrity, and he is found not guilty. Dominique leaves Wynand for Roark. Wynand, who has betrayed his own values by attacking Roark, finally grasps the nature of the power he thought he held. He shuts down the ''Banner'' and commissions a final building from Roark, a skyscraper that will serve as a monument to human achievement. Eighteen months later, the Wynand Building is under construction. Dominique, now Roark's wife, enters the site to meet him atop its steel framework.
Major characters
Howard Roark
Rand's stated goal in writing fiction was to portray her vision of an ideal man. The character of Howard Roark, the
protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
of ''The Fountainhead'', was the first instance where she believed she had achieved this. Roark embodies Rand's
egoistic
Egoism is a philosophy concerned with the role of the self, or , as the motivation and goal of one's own action. Different theories of egoism encompass a range of disparate ideas and can generally be categorized into descriptive or normativ ...
moral ideals, especially the virtues of independence and integrity.
The character of Roark was at least partly inspired by American architect
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
. Rand described the inspiration as limited to specific ideas he had about architecture and "the pattern of his career". She denied that Wright had anything to do with the philosophy expressed by Roark or the events of the plot. Rand's denials have not stopped commentators from claiming stronger connections between Wright and Roark. Wright equivocated about whether he thought Roark was based on him, sometimes implying that he did, at other times denying it. Wright biographer
described significant differences between Wright's philosophy and Rand's, and quoted him declaring, "I deny the paternity and refuse to marry the mother." Architecture critic
Martin Filler
Martin Myles Filler (born September 17, 1948) is an American architecture critic. He is best known for his long essays on modern architecture that have appeared in ''The New York Review of Books'' since 1985, and which served as the basis for his ...
said that Roark resembles the Swiss-French modernist architect
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
more closely than Wright.
Peter Keating
In contrast to the individualistic Roark, Peter Keating is a
conformist
Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms, politics or being like-minded. Norms are implicit, specific rules, shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others. People often choo ...
who bases his choices on what others want. Introduced to the reader as Roark's classmate in architecture school, Keating does not really want to be an architect. He loves painting, but his mother steers him toward architecture instead.Smith, Tara. "Unborrowed Vision: Independence and Egoism in ''The Fountainhead''". In In this as in all his decisions, Keating does what others expect rather than follow his personal interests. He becomes a
social climber
A ''parvenu'' is a person who is a relative newcomer to a high-ranking socioeconomic class. The word is borrowed from the French language; it is the past participle of the verb ''parvenir'' (to reach, to arrive, to manage to do something).
Orig ...
, focused on improving his career and social standing using a combination of personal manipulation and conformity to popular styles. He follows a similar path in his private life: he chooses a loveless marriage to Dominique instead of marrying the woman he loveswho lacks Dominique's beauty and social connections. By middle age, Keating's career is in decline and he is unhappy with his path, but it is too late for him to change.
Rand did not use a specific architect as a model for Keating. Her inspiration for the character came from a neighbor she knew while working in Hollywood in the early 1930s. Rand asked this young woman to explain her goals in life. The woman's response was focused on social comparisons: the neighbor wanted her material possessions and social standing to equal or exceed those of other people. Rand created Keating as an archetype of this motivation, which she saw as the opposite of self-interest.
Dominique Francon
Dominique Francon is the heroine of ''The Fountainhead'', described by Rand as "the woman for a man like Howard Roark". Rand described Dominique as similar to herself "in a bad mood". Philosopher
Andrew Bernstein
Andrew Bernstein is an American philosopher. He is a proponent of Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, and the author of several books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Education and career
He is the author of ''The Capitalist Manifesto: Th ...
wrote: "For much of the novel, Dominique is a tortured soul, tormented by a profound inner conflict between her imperishable idealism and a deep-seated conviction that a debased society will inexorably crush the towering genius she so fervently hero-worships". Believing that the values she admires cannot survive in the real world, she chooses to turn away from them so that the world cannot harm her. Only at the end of the novel does she accept that she can be happy and survive.
The character has provoked varied reactions from commentators. Philosopher
Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Chris Matthew Sciabarra (born February 17, 1960) is an American political theorist based in Brooklyn, New York. He is the author of three scholarly books—''Marx, Hayek, and Utopia''; '' Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical''; and ''Total Freedom: To ...
called her "one of the more bizarre characters in the novel". Literature scholar
Mimi Reisel Gladstein
Mimi Reisel Gladstein (born 1936) is a professor of English and Theatre Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso. Her specialties include authors such as Ayn Rand and John Steinbeck, as well as women's studies, theatre arts and 18th-century ...
called her "an interesting case study in perverseness". Writer Tore Boeckmann described her as a character with conflicting beliefs and saw her actions as a logical representation of how those conflicts might play out.
Gail Wynand
Gail Wynand is a wealthy newspaper mogul who rose from a destitute childhood in the
ghetto
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
es of New York (
Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton, is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is considered to be bordered by 34th Street (or 41st Street) to the south, 59th Street to the north, Eighth Avenue to the eas ...
) to control much of the city's print media. While Wynand shares many of the character qualities of Roark, his success is dependent upon his ability to pander to public opinion. Rand presents this as a
tragic flaw
The term ''hamartia'' derives from the Greek , from ''hamartánein'', which means "to miss the mark" or "to err". It is most often associated with Greek tragedy, although it is also used in Christian theology. The term is often said to depi ...
that eventually leads to his downfall. In her journals Rand described Wynand as "the man who could have been" a heroic individualist, contrasting him to Roark, "the man who can be and is". Some elements of Wynand's character were inspired by real-life newspaper tycoon
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
,Berliner, Michael S. "Howard Roark and Frank Lloyd Wright". In including Hearst's
yellow journalism
Yellow journalism and yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate, well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include e ...
and mixed success in attempts to gain political influence. Wynand ultimately fails in his attempts to wield power, losing his newspaper, his wife (Dominique), and his friendship with Roark. The character has been interpreted as a representation of the master morality described by philosopher
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
; his tragic nature illustrates Rand's rejection of Nietzsche's philosophy. In Rand's view, a person like Wynand, who seeks power over others, is as much a "second-hander" as a conformist such as Keating.
Ellsworth Toohey
Ellsworth Monkton Toohey is Roark's antagonist. He is Rand's personification of evilthe most active and self-aware villain in any of her novels. Toohey is a socialist, and represents the spirit of collectivism more generally. He styles himself as representative of the will of the masses, but his actual desire is for power over others. He controls individual victims by destroying their sense of self-worth, and seeks broader power (over "the world", as he declares to Keating in a moment of candor) by promoting the ideals of
ethical altruism
In ethical philosophy, altruism (also called the ethic of altruism, moralistic altruism, and ethical altruism) is an ethical doctrine that holds that the moral value of an individual's actions depends solely on the impact on other individuals, re ...
and a rigorous
egalitarianism
Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hu ...
that treats all people and achievements as equally valuable. Rand used her memory of the
democratic socialist
Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a ...
British Labour Party
The Labour Party is a List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of Social democracy, social democrats, Democratic socialism, democratic socialists and trade u ...
Chairman
Harold Laski
Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist. He was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School of ...
to help her imagine what Toohey would do in a given situation. She attended a New York lecture by Laski as part of gathering material for the novel, following which she changed the physical appearance of the character to be similar to that of Laski. New York intellectuals
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a wr ...
and
Clifton Fadiman
Clifton Paul "Kip" Fadiman (May 15, 1904 – June 20, 1999) was an American intellectual, author, editor, radio and television personality. He began his work with the radio, and switched to television later in his career.
Background
Born in Bro ...
also helped inspire the character.
History
Background and development
When Rand first arrived in New York as an immigrant from the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in 1926, she was greatly impressed by the
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
skyline's towering
skyscrapers
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
, which she saw as symbols of freedom, and resolved that she would write about them. In 1927, Rand was working as a junior screenwriter for movie producer
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...
when he asked her to write a script for what would become the 1928 film ''
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
''. The original story by
Dudley Murphy
Dudley Bowles Murphy (July 10, 1897 – February 22, 1968) was an American film director.
Early life
Murphy was born on July 10, 1897 in Winchester, Massachusetts, to the artists Caroline Hutchinson (Bowles) Murphy (1868-1923) and Hermann D ...
was about two construction workers working on a skyscraper who are rivals for a woman's love. Rand rewrote it, transforming the rivals into architects. One of them, Howard Kane, was an idealist dedicated to erecting the skyscraper despite enormous obstacles. The film would have ended with Kane standing atop the completed skyscraper. DeMille rejected Rand's script, and the completed film followed Murphy's original idea. Rand's version contained elements she would use in ''The Fountainhead''.
In 1928, Rand made notes for a proposed, but never written, novel titled ''The Little Street''. Rand's notes for it contain elements that carried over into her work on ''The Fountainhead''. David Harriman, who edited the notes for the posthumously published ''
Journals of Ayn Rand
''Journals of Ayn Rand'' is a book derived from the private journals of the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. Edited by David Harriman with the approval of Rand's estate, it was published in 1997, 15 years after her death. Some reviewers consid ...
'' (1997), described the story's villain as a preliminary version of the character Ellsworth Toohey, and this villain's assassination by the protagonist as prefiguring the attempted assassination of Toohey.
Rand began ''The Fountainhead'' (originally titled ''Second-Hand Lives'') following the completion of her first novel, ''
We the Living
''We the Living'' is the debut novel of the Russian American novelist Ayn Rand. It is a story of life in post-revolutionary Russia and was Rand's first statement against communism. Rand observes in the foreword that ''We the Living'' was the cl ...
'', in 1934. That earlier novel was based in part on people and events familiar to Rand; the new novel, on the other hand, focused on the less-familiar world of architecture. She therefore conducted extensive research that included reading many biographies and other books about architecture. She also worked as an unpaid typist in the office of architect
Ely Jacques Kahn
Ely Jacques Kahn (June 1, 1884September 5, 1972) was an American commercial architect who designed numerous skyscrapers in New York City in the twentieth century. In addition to buildings intended for commercial use, Kahn's designs ranged throug ...
. Rand began her notes for the new novel in December 1935.
Rand wanted to write a novel that was less overtly political than ''We the Living'', to avoid being viewed as "a 'one-theme' author". As she developed the story, she began to see more political meaning in the novel's ideas about
individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...
. Rand also planned to introduce the novel's four sections with quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche, whose ideas had influenced her own intellectual development, but she eventually decided that Nietzsche's ideas were too different from hers. She edited the final manuscript to remove the quotes and other allusions to him.
Rand's work on ''The Fountainhead'' was repeatedly interrupted. In 1937, she took a break from it to write a novella called ''
Anthem
An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...
''. She also completed a stage adaptation of ''We the Living'' that ran briefly in 1940. That same year, she became active in politics. She first worked as a volunteer in
Wendell Willkie
Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 Republican nominee for President. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican ...
's presidential campaign, and then attempted to form a group for conservative intellectuals. As her royalties from earlier projects ran out, she began doing freelance work as a
script reader
Script coverage is a filmmaking term for the analysis and grading of screenplays, often within the "script development" department of a production company.
While coverage may remain entirely oral, it usually takes the form of a written report, gui ...
for movie studios. When Rand finally found a publisher, the novel was only one-third complete.
Publication history
Although she was a previously published novelist and had a successful Broadway play, Rand had difficulty finding a publisher for ''The Fountainhead''.
Macmillan Publishing
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
, which had published ''We the Living'', rejected the book after Rand insisted they provide more publicity for her new novel than they had done for the first one. Rand's agent began submitting the book to other publishers; in 1938,
Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
signed a contract to publish the book. When Rand was only a quarter done with the manuscript by October 1940, Knopf canceled her contract. Several other publishers rejected the book. When Rand's agent began to criticize the novel, Rand fired the agent and decided to handle submissions herself. Twelve publishers (including Macmillan and Knopf) rejected the book.
While Rand was working as a script reader for
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
, her boss put her in touch with the Bobbs-Merrill Company. A recently hired editor, Archibald Ogden, liked the book, but two internal reviewers gave conflicting opinions. One said it was a great book that would never sell; the other said it was trash but would sell well. Ogden's boss, Bobbs-Merrill president D.L. Chambers, decided to reject the book. Ogden responded by
wiring
Electrical wiring is an electrical installation of cabling and associated devices such as switches, distribution boards, sockets, and light fittings in a structure.
Wiring is subject to safety standards for design and installation. Allowable ...
to the head office, "If this is not the book for you, then I am not the editor for you." His strong stand won Rand the contract on December 10, 1941. She also got a $1,000
advance
Advance commonly refers to:
*Advance, an offensive push in sports, games, thoughts, military combat, or sexual or romantic pursuits
*Advance payment for goods or services
*Advance against royalties, a payment to be offset against future royalty pa ...
so she could work full-time to complete the novel by January 1, 1943.
Rand worked long hours through 1942 to complete the final two-thirds of her manuscript, which she delivered on December 31, 1942. Rand's working title for the book was ''Second-Hand Lives'', but Ogden pointed out that this emphasized the story's villains. Rand offered ''The Mainspring'' as an alternative, but this title had been recently used for another book. She then used a
thesaurus
A thesaurus (plural ''thesauri'' or ''thesauruses'') or synonym dictionary is a reference work for finding synonyms and sometimes antonyms of words. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea:
Synonym diction ...
and found 'fountainhead' as a synonym. ''The Fountainhead'' was published on May 7, 1943, with 7,500 copies in the first printing. Initial sales were slow, but they began to rise in late 1943, driven primarily by word of mouth. The novel began appearing on bestseller lists in 1944. It reached number six on ''The New York Times'' bestseller list in August 1945, over two years after its initial publication. By 1956, the hardcover edition sold over 700,000 copies. The first paperback edition was published by the
New American Library
The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publishe ...
in 1952.
A 25th anniversary edition was issued by the New American Library in 1971, including a new introduction by Rand. In 1993, a 50th anniversary edition from Bobbs-Merrill added an afterword by Rand's heir,
Leonard Peikoff
Leonard Sylvan Peikoff (; born October 15, 1933) is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is an Objectivist and was a close associate of Ayn Rand, who designated him heir to her estate. He is a former professor of philosophy and host of a natio ...
. The novel has been translated into more than 25 languages.
Themes
Individualism
Rand indicated that the primary theme of ''The Fountainhead'' was "individualism versus collectivism, not in politics but within a man's soul". Philosopher
Douglas Den Uyl
Douglas J. Den Uyl (born 1950) is vice president of educational programs at Liberty Fund.
Biography
Den Uyl earned his B.A. from Kalamazoo College, his MA from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. from Marquette University. Den Uyl's areas o ...
identified the individualism presented in the novel as being specifically of an American kind, portrayed in the context of that country's society and institutions. Apart from scenes such as Roark's courtroom defense of the American concept of
individual rights
Group rights, also known as collective rights, are rights held by a group ''wikt:qua, qua'' a group rather than individually by its members; in contrast, individual rights are rights held by Individuality, individual people; even if they are grou ...
, she avoided direct discussion of political issues. As historian James Baker described it, "''The Fountainhead'' hardly mentions politics or economics, despite the fact that it was born in the 1930s. Nor does it deal with world affairs, although it was written during World War II. It is about one man against the system, and it does not permit other matters to intrude." Early drafts of the novel included more explicit political references, but Rand removed them from the finished text.
Architecture
Rand chose the profession of architecture as the background for her novel, although she knew nothing about the field beforehand.Berliner, Michael S. "Howard Roark and Frank Lloyd Wright". In As a field that combines art, technology, and business, it allowed her to illustrate her primary themes in multiple areas. Rand later wrote that architects provide "both art and a basic need of men's survival". In a speech to a chapter of the
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
, Rand drew a connection between architecture and individualism, saying time periods that had improvements in architecture were also those that had more freedom for the individual.
Roark's modernist approach to architecture is contrasted with that of most of the other architects in the novel. In the opening chapter, the dean of his architecture school tells Roark that the best architecture must copy the past rather than innovate or improve. Roark repeatedly loses jobs with architectural firms and commissions from clients because he is unwilling to copy conventional architectural styles. In contrast, Keating's mimicry of convention brings him top honors in school and an immediate job offer. The same conflict between innovation and tradition is reflected in the career of Roark's mentor, Henry Cameron.
Philosophy
Den Uyl calls ''The Fountainhead'' a "philosophical novel", meaning that it addresses philosophical ideas and offers a specific philosophical viewpoint about those ideas. In the years following the publication of ''The Fountainhead'', Rand developed a philosophical system that she called
Objectivism
Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian Americans, Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with prod ...
. ''The Fountainhead'' does not contain this explicit philosophy, and Rand did not write the novel primarily to convey philosophical ideas. Nonetheless, Rand included three excerpts from the novel in ''
For the New Intellectual
''For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand'' is a 1961 work by the philosopher Ayn Rand. It is her first long non-fiction book. Much of the material consists of excerpts from Rand's novels, supplemented by a long title essay that focu ...
'', a 1961 collection of her writings that she described as an outline of Objectivism. Peikoff used many quotes and examples from ''The Fountainhead'' in his 1991 book on Rand's philosophy, '' Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand''.
Reception and legacy
Critical reception
''The Fountainhead'' polarized critics and received mixed reviews upon its release.Berliner, Michael S. "''The Fountainhead'' Reviews", in In ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'',
Lorine Pruette
Lorine Livingston Pruette (November 3, 1896 – December 20, 1976) was an American feminist, psychologist, and writer.
Early life
Lorine Pruette was born in Millersburg, Tennessee, to college-educated parents. Her mother and her maternal grandmo ...
praised Rand as writing "brilliantly, beautifully and bitterly", stating that she had "written a hymn in praise of the individual" that would force readers to rethink basic ideas. Writing for the same newspaper,
Orville Prescott Orville Prescott (September 8, 1906, Cleveland, Ohio – April 28, 1996, New Canaan, Connecticut) was the main book reviewer for ''The New York Times'' for 24 years.
Born in Cleveland, Prescott graduated from Williams College in 1930. He began his ...
called the novel "disastrous" with a plot containing "coils and convolutions" and a "crude cast of characters". Benjamin DeCasseres, a columnist for the ''
New York Journal-American
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
'', described Roark as "one of the most inspiring characters in modern American literature". Rand sent DeCasseres a letter thanking him for explaining the book's themes about
individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...
when many other reviewers did not. There were other positive reviews, although Rand dismissed many of them as either not understanding her message or as being from unimportant publications. A number of negative reviews focused on the length of the novel, such as one that called it "a whale of a book" and another that said "anyone who is taken in by it deserves a stern lecture on paper-
rationing
Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...
". Other negative reviews called the characters unsympathetic and Rand's style "offensively pedestrian".
In the years following its initial publication, ''The Fountainhead'' has received relatively little attention from literary critics. Assessing the novel's legacy, philosopher
Douglas Den Uyl
Douglas J. Den Uyl (born 1950) is vice president of educational programs at Liberty Fund.
Biography
Den Uyl earned his B.A. from Kalamazoo College, his MA from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. from Marquette University. Den Uyl's areas o ...
described ''The Fountainhead'' as relatively neglected compared to her later novel, ''
Atlas Shrugged
''Atlas Shrugged'' is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand. It was her longest novel, the fourth and final one published during her lifetime, and the one she considered her '' magnum opus'' in the realm of fiction writing. ''Atlas Shrugged'' includes eleme ...
'', and said, "our problem is to find those topics that arise clearly with ''The Fountainhead'' and yet do not force us to read it simply through the eyes of ''Atlas Shrugged''." Among critics who have addressed it, some consider ''The Fountainhead'' to be Rand's best novel, although in some cases this assessment is tempered by an overall negative judgment of Rand's writings. Purely negative evaluations have also continued; a 2011 overview of American literature said "mainstream literary culture dismissed [] in the 1940s and continues to dismiss it".
Feminist criticisms
Feminism, Feminist critics have condemned Roark and Dominique's first sexual encounter, accusing Rand of endorsing rape. This was one of the most controversial elements of the book. Feminist critics have attacked the scene as representative of an
antifeminist
Antifeminism, also spelled anti-feminism, is opposition to some or all forms of feminism. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, antifeminists opposed particular policy proposals for women's rights, such as the right to vote, educat ...
viewpoint in Rand's works that makes women subservient to men.
Susan Brownmiller
Susan Brownmiller (born Susan Warhaftig; February 15, 1935) is an American journalist, author and feminist activist best known for her 1975 book '' Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape'', which was selected by The New York Public Library as o ...
, in her 1975 work '' Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape'', denounced what she called "Rand's philosophy of rape", for portraying women as wanting "humiliation at the hands of a superior man". She called Rand "a traitor to her own sex". Susan Love Brown said the scene presents Rand's view of sex as
sadomasochism
Sadomasochism ( ) is the giving and receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation. Practitioners of sadomasochism may seek sexual pleasure from their acts. While the terms sadist and masochist refer ...
involving "feminine subordination and passivity".
Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (September 14, 1934 – April 24, 2002) was an American journalist, essayist and memoirist. She is best known for her autobiographical work, particularly her account of growing up as a Jehovah's Witness, and for her tra ...
suggested women who enjoy such "masochistic fantasies" are "damaged" and have low self-esteem. While Mimi Reisel Gladstein found elements to admire in Rand's female protagonists, she said that readers who have "a raised consciousness about the nature of rape" would disapprove of Rand's "romanticized rapes".
Rand's posthumously published working notes for the novel indicate that when she started on the book in 1936, she conceived of Roark's character that "were it necessary, he could rape her and feel justified". She denied that what happened in the finished novel was actually rape, referring to it as "rape by engraved invitation". She said Dominique wanted and "all but invited" the act, citing, among other things, a passage where Dominique scratches a marble slab in her bedroom to invite Roark to repair it. A true rape, Rand said, would be "a dreadful crime". Defenders of the novel have agreed with this interpretation. In an essay specifically explaining this scene,
Andrew Bernstein
Andrew Bernstein is an American philosopher. He is a proponent of Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, and the author of several books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Education and career
He is the author of ''The Capitalist Manifesto: Th ...
wrote that although much "confusion" exists about it, the descriptions in the novel provide "conclusive" evidence of Dominique's strong attraction to Roark and her desire to have sex with him. Individualist feminist
Wendy McElroy
Wendy McElroy (born 1951) is a Canadian individualist feminist and voluntaryist writer. She was a co-founder along with Carl Watner and George H. Smith of ''The Voluntaryist'' magazine in 1982 and is the author of a number of books. McElroy ...
said that while Dominique is "thoroughly taken", there is nonetheless "clear indication" that Dominique both gave consent for and enjoyed the experience.McElroy, Wendy. "Looking Through a Paradigm Darkly". In Both Bernstein and McElroy saw the interpretations of feminists such as Brownmiller as based in a false understanding of sexuality.Bernstein, Andrew. "Understanding the 'Rape' Scene in ''The Fountainhead''". In
Effect on Rand's career
Although Rand had some mainstream success previously with her play ''
Night of January 16th
''Night of January 16th'' (sometimes advertised as ''The Night of January 16th'') is a theatrical play by Russian-American author Ayn Rand, inspired by the death of the "Match King", Ivar Kreuger. Set in a courtroom during a murder trial, an u ...
'' and had two previously published novels, ''The Fountainhead'' was a major breakthrough in her career. It brought her lasting fame and financial success. She sold the movie rights to ''The Fountainhead'' and returned to Hollywood to write the screenplay for the adaptation. In April 1944, she signed a multiyear contract with movie producer
Hal Wallis
Harold Brent Wallis (born Aaron Blum Wolowicz; October 19, 1898 – October 5, 1986) was an American film producer. He is best known for producing '' Casablanca'' (1942), ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938), and ''True Grit'' (1969), along w ...
to write original screenplays and adaptations of other writers' works.
The success of the novel brought Rand new publishing opportunities. Bobbs-Merrill offered to publish a nonfiction book expanding on the ethical ideas presented in ''The Fountainhead''. Though this book was never completed, a portion of the material was used for an article in the January 1944 issue of ''
Reader's Digest
''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...
''. Rand was also able to get an American publisher for ''Anthem'', which previously had been published in England, but not in the United States. When she was ready to submit ''Atlas Shrugged'' to publishers, over a dozen competed to acquire the new book.
''The Fountainhead'' also attracted a new group of fans who were attracted to its philosophical ideas. When she moved back to New York in 1951, she gathered a group of these admirers to whom she referred publicly as "the Class of '43" in reference to the year ''The Fountainhead'' was published. The group evolved into the core of the
Objectivist movement
The Objectivist movement is a movement of individuals who seek to study and advance Objectivism, the philosophy expounded by novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand. The movement began informally in the 1950s and consisted of students who were brought to ...
that promoted the philosophical ideas from Rand's writing.
Cultural influence
''The Fountainhead'' has continued to have strong sales throughout the last century into the current one. By 2008, it had sold over 6.5 million copies in English. It has also been referred to in a variety of popular entertainments, including movies, television series, and other novels.
The year 1943 also saw the publication of ''
The God of the Machine
''The God of the Machine'' is a book written by Isabel Paterson and originally published in January 1943 in the United States by G. P. Putnam's Sons. At the time of its release, it was considered a cornerstone to the philosophy of individualism ...
'' by
Isabel Paterson
Isabel Paterson (January 22, 1886 – January 10, 1961) was a Canadian-American journalist, novelist, political philosopher, and a leading literary and cultural critic of her day. Historian Jim Powell has called Paterson one of the three f ...
Rose Wilder Lane
Rose Wilder Lane (December 5, 1886 – October 30, 1968) was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, political theorist and daughter of American writer Laura Ingalls Wilder. Along with two other female writers, Ayn Rand and Isabel Pa ...
. Rand, Lane, and Paterson have been referred to as the founding mothers of the
American libertarian movement
In the United States, libertarianism is a political philosophy promoting individual liberty. According to common meanings of conservatism and liberalism in the United States, libertarianism has been described as ''conservative'' on economic iss ...
with the publication of these works. Journalist John Chamberlain, for example, credited these works with converting him from socialism to what he called "an older American philosophy" of libertarian and conservative ideas. Literature professor Philip R. Yannella said the novel is "a central text of
American conservative
Conservatism in the United States is a political and social philosophy based on a belief in limited government, individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. Conservative ...
and libertarian political culture". In the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
politician
Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid (; born 5 December 1969) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer f ...
has spoken of the novel's influence on him and how he regularly rereads the courtroom scene from Roark's criminal trial.
The book has a particular appeal to young people, an appeal that led historian James Baker to describe it as "more important than its detractors think, although not as important as Rand fans imagine". Philosopher
Allan Bloom
Allan David Bloom (September 14, 1930 – October 7, 1992) was an American philosopher, classicist, and academician. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon, and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell Universi ...
said the novel is "hardly literature", but when he asked his students which books mattered to them, someone always was influenced by ''The Fountainhead''. Journalist
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron ( ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for her romantic comedy films and was nominated three times for the Writers Guild of America Award and the Academy Award f ...
wrote that she had loved the novel when she was 18, but admitted that she "missed the point", which she suggested is largely subliminal sexual metaphor. Ephron wrote that she decided upon rereading that "it is better read when one is young enough to miss the point. Otherwise, one cannot help thinking it is a very silly book."
''The Fountainhead'' has been cited by numerous architects as an inspiration for their work. Architect Fred Stitt, founder of the San Francisco Institute of Architecture, dedicated a book to his "first architectural mentor, Howard Roark". According to architectural photographer
Julius Shulman
Julius Shulman (October 10, 1910 – July 15, 2009) was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph " Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as the Stahl House. Shulman ...
, Rand's work "brought architecture into the public's focus for the first time". He said ''The Fountainhead'' was not only influential among 20th century architects, but also it "was one, first, front and center in the life of every architect who was a modern architect". The novel also had a significant impact on the public perception of architecture. During his
2016 presidential campaign
This national electoral calendar for 2016 lists the national/federal elections held in 2016 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*7 January: Kir ...
, real estate developer
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
praised the novel, saying he identified with Roark.
Roark Capital Group
Roark Capital Group is an American private equity firm with over $33 billion in assets under management. The firm is focused on leveraged buyout investments in middle-market companies, primarily in the franchise/multi-location, restaurant and fo ...
, a private equity firm, is named for the character Howard Roark.
Adaptations
Film
In 1949, Warner Bros. released a film based on the book, starring
Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, a ...
as Howard Roark,
Patricia Neal
Patricia Neal (born Patsy Louise Neal, January 20, 1926 – August 8, 2010) was an American actress of stage and screen. A major star of the 1950s and 1960s, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and two ...
as Dominique Francon,
Raymond Massey
Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983) was a Canadian actor, known for his commanding, stage-trained voice. For his lead role in '' Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' (1940), Massey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Amo ...
as Gail Wynand, and
Kent Smith
Frank Kent Smith (March 19, 1907 – April 23, 1985) was an American actor who had a lengthy career in film, theatre and television.
Early years
Smith was the son of Mr. and Mrs. James E. Smith. He was born in New York City and was educated ...
as Peter Keating. Rand, who had previous experience as a screenwriter, was hired to adapt her own novel. The film was directed by
King Vidor
King Wallis Vidor (; February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, ...
. It grossed $2.1 million, $400,000 less than its production budget. Critics panned the movie. Negative reviews appeared in publications ranging from newspapers such as ''The New York Times'' and the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', to movie industry outlets such as ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' and ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'', to magazines such as ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'' and ''
Good Housekeeping
''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good House ...
''.
In letters written at the time, Rand's reaction to the film was positive. She said it was the most faithful adaptation of a novel ever made in Hollywood and a "real triumph". Sales of the novel increased as a result of interest spurred by the film. She displayed a more negative attitude later, saying she disliked the entire movie and complaining about its editing, acting, and other elements. Rand said she would never sell rights to another novel to a film company that did not allow her to pick the director and screenwriter, as well as edit the film.
Various filmmakers have expressed interest in doing new adaptations of ''The Fountainhead'', although none of these potential films has begun production. In the 1970s, writer-director
Michael Cimino
Michael Antonio Cimino ( ; February 3, 1939 – July 2, 2016) was an American filmmaker. One of the "New Hollywood" directors, Cimino achieved fame with ''The Deer Hunter'' (1978), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best D ...
entered a deal to film his own script for
United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the studi ...
starring
Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...
as Roark, but postponed the project in favor of abortive
biographical film
A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a non-fictional or historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. They differ from docudra ...
s on
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known Rock music, rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage ...
and
Frank Costello
Frank Costello (; born Francesco Castiglia; ; January 26, 1891 – February 18, 1973) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Luciano crime family. In 1957, Costello survived an assassination attempt ordered by Vito Genovese and carried out by ...
. The deal collapsed after the failure of Cimino's 1980 film '' Heaven's Gate'', which caused United Artists to refuse to finance any more of his films. Cimino continued to hope to film the script until his death in 2016.
In 1992, producer James Hill optioned the rights and selected
Phil Joanou
Phil Joanou (born November 20, 1961) is an American director of film, music videos, and television programs, known in part for his ongoing relationship to the band U2.
Biography
Joanou was born in La Cañada Flintridge, California, and began ma ...
to direct. In the 2000s,
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone (born September 15, 1946) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Stone won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of '' Midnight Express'' (1978), and wrote the gangster film remake '' Sc ...
was interested in directing a new adaptation;
Brad Pitt
William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ...
was reportedly under consideration to play Roark. In a March 2016 interview, director
Zack Snyder
Zachary Edward Snyder (born March 1, 1966) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He made his feature film debut in 2004 with '' Dawn of the Dead'', a remake of the 1978 horror film of the same name. Since t ...
also expressed interest in doing a new film adaptation of ''The Fountainhead''. On May 28, 2018, Snyder was asked on the social media site Vero what his next project was, and he responded "Fountainhead". However, in 2020, Snyder revealed he was no longer pursuing the project, as he was concerned that audiences would view it as "hardcore
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
propaganda". In a 2021 interview with ''The New York Times'', Snyder further revealed that he abandoned the project because of
political polarization in the United States
Political polarization is a prominent component of politics in the United States. Scholars distinguish between ideological polarization (differences between the policy positions) and affective polarization (a dislike and distrust of political o ...
, saying, "We need a less divided country and a little more liberal government to make that movie, so people don't react to it in a certain way."
Play
The Dutch theater company
Toneelgroep Amsterdam
Toneelgroep Amsterdam is the largest repertory company in the Netherlands. Its home base is the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg, a classical 19th century theatre building in the heart of Amsterdam.
History
The Dutch Company Toneelgroep Amsterdam sta ...
presented a Dutch-language adaptation for the stage at the
Holland Festival
The Holland Festival () is the oldest and largest performing arts festival in the Netherlands. It takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theatre, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and archite ...
in June 2014. The company's artistic director
Ivo van Hove
Ivo van Hove (born 28 October 1958) is a Belgian theatre director known as the artistic director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam in the Netherlands and for his Off-Broadway avant-garde experimental theatre productions. On Broadway, he has directed re ...
wrote and directed the adaptation.
Ramsey Nasr
Ramsey Nasr (born 28 January 1974, Rotterdam) is a Dutch author and actor of mixed descent, half Palestinian, half Dutch.
He was '' Dichter des Vaderlands'' (Poet of the Fatherland; an unofficial title for the Dutch poet laureate) between Januar ...
played Howard Roark, with
Halina Reijn
Halina Reijn (; born 10 November 1975) is a Dutch actress, writer and film director.
Early life and education
Halina Reijn was born on 10 November 1975 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Fleur ten Kate and Frank Volkert Reijn (1931-1986). Reijn's pa ...
playing Dominique Francon. The four-hour production used video projections to show close-ups of the actors and Roark's drawings, as well as backgrounds of the New York skyline. After its debut the production went on tour, appearing in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
, Spain, in early July 2014, and at the
Festival d'Avignon
The ''Festival d'Avignon'', or Avignon Festival, is an annual arts festival held in the French city of Avignon every summer in July in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes as well as in other locations of the city. Founded in 1947 by Jean Vila ...
in France later that month. The play appeared at the
LG Arts Center
GS Tower, also called GS Gangnam Tower (formerly LG Kangnam Tower), is a 38-story (173 meters) modern skyscraper located in the Gangnam-gu area of Seoul, South Korea
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capit ...
in
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
from March 31 to April 2, 2017. The play had its first American production at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music
The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, New York City, known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance. It presented its first performance in 1861 and began operations in its present location in ...
's Next Wave Festival, where it ran from November 28 to December 2, 2017.
The European productions of the play received mostly positive reviews. The Festival d'Avignon production received positive from the French newspapers ''
La Croix La Croix primarily refers to:
* ''La Croix'' (newspaper), a French Catholic newspaper
* La Croix Sparkling Water, a beverage distributed by the National Beverage Corporation
La Croix or Lacroix may also refer to:
Places
* Lacroix-Barrez, a muni ...
Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'', as well as from the English newspaper ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', whose reviewer described it as "electrifying theatre". The French magazine ''
'' gave the Avignon production a negative review, calling the source material inferior and complaining about the use of video screens on the set, while another French magazine, ''
La Terrasse
La Terrasse () is a commune in the Isère department in southeastern France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in ...
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...
'' said the adaptation was unwatchable because it portrayed Rand's characters and views seriously without undercutting them. The reviewer for the ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' said the play was too long and that Hove had approached Rand's "noxious" book with too much reverence. In a mixed review for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', critic
Ben Brantley
Benjamin D. Brantley (born October 26, 1954) is an American theater critic, journalist, editor, publisher and writer. He served as the chief theater critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1996 to 2017, and as co-chief theater critic from 2017 to ...
complimented Hove for capturing Rand's "sheer pulp appeal", but described the material as "hokum with a whole lot of ponderous speeches". A review for ''
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' complimented van Hove's ability to portray Rand's message, but said the play was an hour too long.
Pakistan Television Network
Pakistan Television Corporation ( ur, ; reporting name: PTV) is the Pakistani state-owned broadcaster. Pakistan entered the television broadcasting age in 1964, with a pilot television station established at Lahore.
Background
Historical co ...
in the 1970s, under the title ''Teesra Kinara''. The serial starred
Rahat Kazmi
Rahat Kazmi ( ur, ) is a Pakistani actor, screenwriter, TV news presenter anchorman, and an academician. He has worked in several TV serials for PTV such as 1967's ''Mayaar'', 1974's ''Qurbatain aur Faaslay'' and 1976's Pakistan's first coloure ...
animated sitcom
An animated sitcom is a subgenre of the sitcom that is animation, animated instead of live action and is generally made or created for adult animation, adult audiences in most cases. ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''The Simpsons'', ''South Park'', and ...
''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'', in the last part of the episode "
Four Great Women and a Manicure
"Four Great Women and a Manicure" is the twentieth and penultimate episode of the The Simpsons (season 20), twentieth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. First broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network ...
".
Other adaptations
In 1944, ''
Omnibook Magazine
''Omnibook'' was a magazine published from 1938 until 1957 by Omnibook Inc. in New York. It was edited by Maxwell M. Geffen and Victor W. Knauth and featured "authorized abridgements of current best-selling books."âOmnibook (Overseas Edition)†...
'' produced an
abridged
An abridgement (or abridgment) is a condensing or reduction of a book or other creative work into a shorter form while maintaining the unity of the source. The abridgement can be true to the original work in terms of mood and tone, capturing the ...
edition of the novel that was sold to members of the
United States Armed Forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
. Rand was annoyed that Bobbs-Merrill allowed the edited version to be published without her approval of the text.
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...
approached Rand the following year about creating a condensed, illustrated version of the novel for
syndication
Syndication may refer to:
* Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system
* Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips
* Web syndication, ...
in newspapers. Rand agreed, provided that she could oversee the editing and approve the proposed illustrations of her characters, which were provided by
Frank Godwin
Francis Godwin (October 20, 1889 – August 5, 1959) was an American illustrator and comic strip artist, notable for his strip ''Connie'' and his book illustrations for ''Treasure Island'', ''Kidnapped'', ''Robinson Crusoe'', ''Robin Hood'' ...
. The 30-part series began on December 24, 1945, and ran in over 35 newspapers. Rand biographer Anne Heller complimented the adaptation, calling it "handsomely illustrated".
See also
*
Architecture of the United States
The architecture of the United States demonstrates a broad variety of architectural styles and built forms over the country's history of over two centuries of independence and former Spanish and British rule.
Architecture in the United States h ...
*
Romantic realism Romantic realism is art that combines elements of both romanticism and realism. The terms "romanticism" and "realism" have been used in varied ways, and are sometimes seen as opposed to one another.
In literature and art
The term has long standing ...
C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...