Reviewing 2005: a Year of Progress These Highlights Indicate Not Only ARI’S Accomplishments, but Also the Range of Our Projects
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Volume 11, Number 12, December 2005 2005 at a Glance Reviewing 2005: A Year of Progress These highlights indicate not only ARI’s accomplishments, but also the range of our projects. and Celebration High Schools and Colleges • 100,955 copies of Ayn Rand’s novels were sent to n 2005—the centenary year of Ayn Rand’s All of these books were aided in some way high schools during the 2004–05 school year, as birth—ARI made significant advances in by ARI. Some used material on deposit in the I part of our Free Books Project. disseminating Miss Rand’s intellectual legacy, the Ayn Rand Archives, a special collection of the • A record number of students entered ARI’s annual philosophy of Objectivism, throughout the culture. Institute; several were aided by book or article essay contest on Anthem. The total was 9,545—an As the year draws to a close, Impact looks back at grants. A few of the authors have taught at ARI 11 percent increase over the previous year. some of what the Institute, with the support of its conferences and/or participated in courses offered • ARI supported 125 campus Objectivist clubs donors, was able to accomplish. by the Institute. and sponsored 19 campus speaking events. The One of our most striking successes in 2005 To encourage more people to read Ayn Rand’s Institute worked with New York University was the Free Books to Teachers project. During the writings, ARI continued to spearhead efforts to Objectivist Club to create an eight-part lecture 2004–05 school year, we sent 100,955 free copies promote her books to the public. series, which will extend throughout the 2005–06 of Ayn Rand’s novels to high school English teach- The Institute worked with the publisher academic year. ers across North America Penguin to increase the who had requested the visibility of Ayn Rand’s Public and Professional Outreach books for use in their books in stores. As part • Six lectures were presented as part of the 2005 classrooms. Since the start of this effort, Penguin ARI lecture series in Orange County, California; of the current school year issued centennial editions two of the lectures were broadcast on C-SPAN’s in September, we have of her works with new BookTV. already received requests covers bearing a consis- • ARI concluded a cycle of its executive- for more than a quarter tent graphic motif: Atlas training program, Leadership Development, million copies of Anthem Shrugged, The Fountain- at Hutchinson Technology, Inc. A new two- and The Fountainhead (see head and Anthem were and-a-half-day course was designed for the story on page 2). reissued in both softcover company’s supervisors. In August the Institute and paperback. Three Media received a massive finan- Plays (a new collection) • ARI speakers were interviewed 13 times on cial boost to help finance and The Early Ayn Rand national television, including appearances on Fox this burgeoning project: (expanded to include a News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC and C-SPAN. a $1 million donation, previously unpublished • ARI op-eds were published 750 times in print and the largest single finan- story), as well as all of Web media; the total print circulation was 24.3 cial contribution in the Miss Rand’s nonfiction million. Institute’s history and the titles, were also brought • ARI letters to the editor were published 75 times, most that a single donor out with new centennial some of them in the nation’s largest newspapers, has contributed in one fis- covers. Reissuing books in including: USA Today, The Wall Street Journal cal year. The donation is being used as a matching new covers often leads to a boost in sales. and U.S. News and World Report. [All media data fund, enabling donors to sponsor books for a given To advertise the new centennial editions, in pertain to ARI’s fiscal year, October 2004 through region at half the normal cost. the first half of 2005 Penguin secured more special September 2005.] ARI’s Objectivist Academic Center (OAC) display space in bookstores than ever before. continued to grow. The mission of the OAC is to Major floor displays of the paperback editions Scholarship and Academia find and train a new generation of intellectuals appeared in 670 Barnes & Noble stores. Borders • The Objectivist Academic Center launched a new to disseminate Ayn Rand’s ideas throughout the and Barnes & Noble featured tabletop displays of graduate program encompassing approximately culture. In May six students graduated from the the softcover editions; dozens of major indepen- 13 semesters of coursework, with writing and OAC’s four-year undergraduate program; these are dent bookstores also had floor displays. teaching requirements. Thirteen students were the first students to complete the program, which The 100th anniversary of Ayn Rand’s birth accepted into the graduate program. was launched in 2001. And in September the OAC on February 2 prompted lengthy feature articles • The Objectivist Academic Center graduated launched a new, formal graduate program offering in major newspapers including: the New York its first group of students from the four-year advanced courses on Objectivism. Such training is Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San undergraduate program. More than 75 students vital for those who intend careers as professional Francisco Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitu- are currently enrolled as undergraduates. teachers and writers. tion, Philadelphia Inquirer and Orange County • The Ayn Rand Archives secured funding for While in previous years Impact had occasion Register. (ARI issued press releases in advance of the first stage of the preservation of Miss to report on one or two newly published books by the centenary.) Rand’s papers; preparatory work on the project Objectivists, consider some of the titles that came In February and in April, the Institute hosted has begun. out in 2005: Ayn Rand, Ayn Rand and “Song of weekend-long series of events, in California and Centenary and Publishing Russia,” The Passion of Ayn Rand’s Critics, Essays later in New York, to celebrate the centenary. • New centennial editions of Ayn Rand’s novels on Ayn Rand’s “Anthem,” Ayn Rand Answers: The Many from around the country traveled to join in and nonfiction were published in tandem with Best of Her Q & A, The Abolition of Antitrust, The the celebration. One of the California events, a major displays at Barnes & Noble bookstores. Capitalist Manifesto, Markets Don’t Fail! We also lecture by Peter Schwartz on the virtue of selfish- • Jeff Britting’s illustrated biography, Ayn Rand, noted that next year Cambridge University Press, ness, was taped by C-SPAN and broadcast three was published and reviewed by several major one of the most prestigious academic publishers, is times; one of the New York events was instru- publications. expected to publish a new book by Dr. Tara Smith, mental in generating financial support for the • ARI hosted centenary celebration events in Irvine, Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist. continued on page 4 California, and New York City. Teachers Request a Quarter Million Ayn Rand Novels his school year began with a flood of requests How You Can Help existing donors who wish to sponsor a new Tfrom high school English teachers who wish For a limited time, new donors to the Free area, can now do so at half the normal cost. If, to teach Ayn Rand’s novels in their classrooms. Books Project who wish to sponsor an area for example, it would normally cost $10,000 As we go to press, ARI has received requests for of the United States (city, county or state), or to sponsor books for a given region, an ARI approximately 257,000 donor can contribute $5,000 and the copies of Anthem or The Fountainhead. fund will match that amount dollar This figure far exceeds the com- for dollar. This opportunity will be bined total number of requests received available until the $1 million gift has since the program began three years ago. been fully allocated. In 2002–03 ARI mailed out 9,000 Free Books to Teachers We invite you to take advantage books; 54,000 the following year; and of the limited opportunity to sponsor 100,955 last year. Including this year’s a region with the aid of the matching (still growing) total, ARI will have 300,000 fund. Please contact us to find out fulfilled requests for more than 420,000 250,000 the cost of sponsoring a given city, copies of Ayn Rand’s novels. If each of county or state. For sponsorships of these books is used for five years, ARI’s 200,000 $3,000 or more, ARI will (at your program will have reached more than 150,000 option) affix bookplates to the inside two million students. 100,000 covers of the books you sponsor; the The project’s phenomenal growth bookplates state: “This book was pro- has been made possible in part by a 50,000 vided by the generosity of [your name specially earmarked million-dollar gift 0 or company name].” to the Institute. The donation was both 3 4 5 6 The Free Books to Teachers 0 0 0 0 – – – – the largest single contribution in the 2 3 4 5 project provides copies of Ayn Rand’s 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Institute’s history and the most the Insti- 2 2 2 2 novels to teachers who are interested tute has so far received from a single in teaching them but cannot do so donor during one fiscal year. The donor, School Year because they lack funding from their who wishes to remain anonymous, schools to purchase the books.