Atlas Shrugged is the “second most influential book for Americans today” after the Bible, according to a joint survey of five thousand people conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club in 1991.In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts?This is the s...

One of the century’s most challenging novels of ideas, The Fountainhead champions the cause of individualism through the story of a gifted young architect who defies the tyranny of conventional public opinion.The struggle for personal integrity in a world that values conformity above creativity is powerfully illustrated through three characters: Howard Roarke, the genius who is resented because he creates purely for the delight of his own work and on no other terms; Gail W...

For years, they were the best of friends: Humboldt, a grand, erratic figure, and Charlie, a young man of frenzied and noble longings. But by the 1970s, Humboldt has died a failure, and Charlie's success-ridden life has taken various turns for the worse. Then Humboldt acts from the grave to change Charlie's life by leaving him something in his will.Now Charlie is middle-aged and his days are cluttered with comic absurdities. A thinker, he longs to come from left field and knock them...

Stranger in a Strange Land is the epic saga of an earthling, Valentine Michael Smith, born and educated on Mars, who arrives on our planet with “psi” powers—telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, telekinesis, teleportation, pyrolysis, and the ability to take control of the minds of others—and complete innocence regarding the mores of man.After his tutelage under a surrogate father figure, Valentine begins his transformation into a kind of messiah. His exceptional abilities...

In 1931, a young American named Victor Herman accompanied his parents to the Soviet Union, where his father was to set up a Ford Motor Company plant. In 1938, he was inexplicably thrown into a Soviet prison. It was forty-five years before he was able to return to America.His was a common nightmare during the Stalin years. Those who survived imprisonment and torture were either sent north to hard labor in the icy forests and mines or into exile. Victor Herman was one of the few who ...

A winner of the National Book Award, The Moviegoer established Walker Percy as an insightful and grimly humorous storyteller. It is the tale of Binx Bolling, a small-time stockbroker who lives quietly in suburban New Orleans, pursuing an interest in the movies, affairs with his secretaries, and living out his days. But soon he finds himself on a “search” for something more important, some spiritual truth to anchor him.Binx’s life floats casually along until one fateful Mar...

Robert E. Lee, a Christian and a gentleman, was the most remarkable man to emerge from the Civil War and is one of the greatest tragic figures of American history. Reserved and unflappable, savvy and fearless, shrewd and tenacious, fatherly and kind are but a few of the adjectives commonly used to describe this noble hero.By using a dramatic form of narrative and relying on numerous eyewitness accounts, Burke Davis brings Lee to life. Listening to this powerful work gives you the f...

Howard Hughes lived one of the greatest, most heroic, misunderstood, mysterious, bizarre, and tragic lives in American history. Here at last, in a uniquely full and brilliantly documented biography by a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative team, the mythology that surrounded that life is disentangled from the truth.Hughes had always been different. Raised by overprotective parents, pathologically fearful of germs, in awe of his father, unable to make friends, he grew into a man rul...

"How did Arkman Noah / Provide for protozoa?"It's not often that an acclaimed historian takes a turn for light verse. But in these 1,707 couplets, quatrains, and other terse verse, John R. Alden takes on the tradition of Ogden Nash. His subject matter ranges from dinosaurs to computers, from Confucius to Darwin, from Jonah to George Bush. His wit, wisdom, and powers of observation are sure to amuse and delight.

Remote from the rest of war-torn Italy, the little town of Santa Vittoria has but one thing to boast of: its fabulous wine cellars. For this cause, the citizens, led by their wine-loving mayor Bombolini, scheme and plot to prevent the Germans from locating and looting the town's only treasure.A bestseller and the inspiration for the famous film starring Anthony Quinn, this warm, rich novel has already drawn thousands upon thousands into the exuberant and perilous life of Santa Vitt...

Howard Hughes lived one of the greatest, most heroic, misunderstood, mysterious, bizarre, and tragic lives in American history. Here at last, in a uniquely full and brilliantly documented biography by a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative team, the mythology that surrounded that life is disentangled from the truth.Hughes had always been different. Raised by overprotective parents, pathologically fearful of germs, in awe of his father, unable to make friends, he grew into a man rul...

When fledgling novelist Pace Burnette heads home to Smoke, a quiet hamlet in Louisiana, he finds that the mom-and-pop businesses that gave the place its character and charm have been put out of operation by an enormous Monster Mart on the outskirts of town. His best friend, Jay Carnihan, is struggling to keep his family’s general store from going under and blames Rayford Holly, the founder of Monster Mart, for his economic woes. When Jay carries out a harebrained scheme to kidnap Holly and...