A comprehensive and eye-opening portrait of one of the most significant and improbable figures of the twentieth century--from her childhood in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution to her years as a screenwriter in Hollywood, the publication of her blockbuster novels, and the rise and fall of the cult that formed around her in the 1950s and 1960s.

Before the Revolution : 1905-1917 -- Looters : 1917-1925 -- Freedom to think : 1926-1934 -- We are not like our brothers : 1934-1938 -- The Fountainhead : 1936-1941 -- The soul of an individualist : 1939-1942 -- Money : 1943 -- Fame : 1943-1946 -- The top and the bottom : 1946-1949 -- The means and the end : 1950-1953 -- The immovable mover : 1953-1957 -- Atlas shrugged : 1957 -- The public philosopher : 1958-1963 -- Account overdrawn : 1962-1967 -- Either/or (the break) : 1967-1968 -- In the name of the best within us : 1969-1982.