Sightings, December 2003

Stephen Cox, a professor of literature at the University of California, San Diego, and director of the school's humanities program, has published a seventeen-page entry on Ayn Rand in volume 279 of the Dictionary of Literary Biography: American Philosophers, 1950-2000. The article opens with an extensive bibliography of Rand's works, offers a brief statement of her philosophy, and then presents a biography that includes lengthy analyses of Rand's writings and intellectual development. At the end of his piece, Cox offers information about the continuing interest in Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and about the difficulties that its advocates have faced. He concludes with a short bibliography of secondary sources.

Admirers of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are joining a new Web site designed to foster networking among fans of Ayn Rand's novels. The site, known as "The Atlasphere" (www.TheAtlasphere.com), contains a networking directory, an online dating service, and columns on a range of topics.

The heart of the Atlasphere is its member directory, which contains detailed profiles with members' professional activities, educational backgrounds, and personal interests. Many of the profiles also contain members' photos, together with their Web sites, Web logs, and contact information.

The Atlasphere was launched in September 2003 and attracted more than 700 members in its first nine weeks online. Lately the site draws an average of eighteen new members daily. "My motivation in creating the Atlasphere," said owner Joshua Zader, "was to bring Rand fans together. There are so many people who've read the novels, and loved them, but never connected with others who had the same reaction. I wanted to help those people get in touch and stay in touch."

For single members, the site's full-feature dating service is a major attraction. Like Match.com, it provides dating profiles with all the standard information, plus a series of narrative questions to help members see more deeply into one another's personality and character. "The Atlasphere offers admirers of Ayn Rand's novels a wonderfully simple way to discover each other," wrote psychologist-author Nathaniel Branden after joining the site. "It addresses a real and important need."

The Atlasphere also publishes columns twice weekly, including articles, reviews, and interviews. The interviews have included conversations with artist Michael Newberry, CapitalistChicks.com owner Debbie Brannigan, California gubernatorial candidate Logan Darrow Clements, and political blogger Stephen Green. The Atlasphere most recently interviewed producer and director Duncan Scott about the (soon to be re-released) screen adaptation of Rand's We the Living. Forthcoming is an interview with world-famous chef Charlie Trotter.

Visitors can join the Atlasphere for free and may then view the name and city of other members — and, if they create a dating profile, they can view full profiles in the dating service. With payment of a $25 annual fee, they can view full profiles in the directory and contact other members of the directory or dating service. Said Zader: "We call it 'value-based networking' — which is an important concept if you want to make new friends with similar values, and work together toward common goals."

Another Web-based effort to bring Objectivists together is the Objectivist YellowPages, an undertaking of Craig Milem: www.objectivistyellowpages.com.

The official description reads: "[The Objectivist YellowPages] is a free online database designed for the purpose of identifying like-minded people who could mutually benefit from each other's existence -- particularly by means of professional interests and individual specializations. Each entry consists of a name and preferred method of contact, plus any other information you would like to include specific to your productive field. Web site links and personal asides are also welcomed."