Stephen Cox

December 2004 -- A few years ago, a colleague whose intelligence I respect invited me to attend a lecture he was going to give. "This will not be one of those careful academic talks," he warned me. "This will cause some controversy. I'm going to tell the would-be authorities exactly where they went wrong. They won't like it, either!"

Equality 7-2521, the hero of Anthem, is twenty-one years old when he escapes to freedom from a totalitarian state. The author of Anthem made the same escape, at the same age. Then, like her hero, she proceeded to rename herself.

Six decades after its publication, The Fountainhead is still very much alive. New readers by the hundreds find it every day, and as many old acquaintances return to it with revived curiosity. Every new reading is an occasion to reflect on the qualities that have made this novel an enduring achievement.

Stephen Cox is professor of literature and director of the humanities program at the University of California, San Diego