Via the good offices of Joshua Zader at The Ayn Rand Meta-Blog, I was able to read a BookMagazine.com column on the sales figures of the top 50 classic bestselling novels, which included Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead:
Ayn Rand is one of the few authors with more than one book on this list. Here are the sales figures for her two most popular novels, from January through December of 2002:Atlas Shrugged - 130,000 copies (#19 on the list)
The Fountainhead - 81,000 copies (#35 on the list)
Hemingway had three books on the list, but I was glad to see that Rand outsells both A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises. Honestly, I never understand the appeal of that last one: A group of expatriates in Paris with more money than sense. They have problems. They bitch about them, to no avail. The End. Jesus.
Posted by Craig Ceely at August 25, 2004 10:11 PM