“First draft of chapter plan” [Part IV]

These six pages represent Rand’s first detailed outline, with revisions, of the final part of the novel.

This outline shows that her original conception of the events surrounding the climax was substantially different from what she eventually wrote. In this version, Roark has another building project (the Cord Building), which is affected by his dynamiting of the housing project, the events surrounding his arrest and trial are more involved, and it is an “old lawyer” who defends him at his trial and makes the final speech.

Prior to this outline (in April 1938), Rand wrote an extended summary of this version of the story’s ending, which can be found here in the “Scene Planning” section of this exhibit.