Narrative outline of Part I, Chapter I

In these pages, Rand developed the novel’s opening scenes, first in a narrative, almost draft-like form, and then also a dialogue-only outline covering Roark’s conversation with the Dean. The date on these notes places her writing them the day before she began writing the first draft of the novel, and it is clear that Rand wanted to make sure that she got this important opening imagery and dialogue right.

In the later pages, she makes notes of a more philosophical nature about architecture and the different aesthetic approaches to it (Roark vs. the “eclectics” who just borrowed and mixed from the past).

This item also contains an example of Rand using the backs of pages to make other kinds of notes, sometimes unrelated to the story. This may represent Rand getting other thoughts out of the way so that she could focus on the novel.