Second-Hand Lives notebook

Ayn Rand made her earliest notes for The Fountainhead, beginning in December 1935, on lined, loose-leaf paper that she kept in a two-ring binder (see previous item). She continued to add pages over the next several years; the final notes from this binder are dated October 1938.

These early thoughts about the book are philosophical in nature, identifying abstract ideas and key characters for the story, including her hero, Howard Roark.

In addition to conveying a certain theme, Rand felt that with this story, she was ready to try and portray her ideal man. This was the main goal of her writing and required sufficient writing experience to accomplish, which she had achieved by the time she began the novel. Characterizing Roark properly was thus vital, and it is interesting to note that of all the characters described here, it is Roark’s character that changes the most between these early notes and the published novel, a process covered by Shoshana Milgram in her essay “The Fountainhead from Notebook to Novel.”