Started work on her magnum opus, initially titled 'The Strike,' which would take over a decade to complete.
On September 2, 1946, Ayn Rand began writing what would become her most famous and ambitious novel, initially conceived under the working title The Strike. The book would eventually be published in 1957 as Atlas Shrugged, a sprawling philosophical novel depicting a dystopian America in which the most productive members of society — inventors, industrialists, and artists — go on strike against a collectivist government that punishes achievement and rewards mediocrity.
The eleven years Rand spent writing the novel were marked by extraordinarily meticulous plotting and philosophical development, as she used the narrative to fully articulate her philosophy of Objectivism — including her theories of reason, individualism, capitalism, and rational self-interest — most famously through the character John Galt's lengthy radio speech near the novel's climax.
The genesis of the novel in 1946 reflects Rand's post-Fountainhead ambition to move beyond individual artistic integrity as a theme and construct a comprehensive fictional and philosophical system addressing the nature of human achievement, the morality of capitalism, and the dangers of state control over production and thought.
By the time of its publication, the novel represented the culmination of Rand's entire intellectual project and remains her most influential and widely debated work, cited by business leaders, economists, and politicians across the ideological spectrum.