Rand's work and influence are more visible than ever. In 2009, in the depths of the Great Recession, book sales for her 1957 novel “Atlas Shrugged” soared to more than 500,000 copies, a record, then fell back to nearly 350,000 copies in 2010. In September 2011, Penguin released a new “Atlas Shrugged” book app on iTunes, which includes the full text of Rand’s novel along with interactive features such as videos, audio interviews and essays.
Rand fans can even find a likeminded romantic partner on the social networking and dating site “The Atlasphere.” The online community, which “connects admirers of the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged,” was founded in 2003 and lists over 26,000 profiles of members around the world. “Tolstoy and Dickens might move you,” says Joshua Zader, founder of The Atlasphere, in a telephone interview. “But people really identify with Ayn Rand’s ideas and with the characters of her novels. So we get hungry to connect with people who identify in the same way we did.”
Actress Eva Mendes can relate. In 2007 she told Askmen.com that any potential boyfriend “has to be an Ayn Rand fan.”
