The Fountainhead | Afterword

The afterword to the 50th-anniversary edition of The Fountainhead provides a detailed look at entries of Rand's journals. It shows how she worked to detail specifics of characters. She tracked the progression of how the journal's philosophical underpinnings supported the actions in the story. In these entries, the process by which Rand meticulously and methodically developed her characters is revealed. The result is the unique balance Rand achieves between characters who think and act through events and each other. It demonstrates the philosophical/ethical motivations guiding them. Rand also spent a good deal of time and effort developing her own ideas about architecture. For example, Keating submits to the collective, "assembly line" approach to architecture. However, Roark emphatically does not. Rand comments on this in her journal entry dated June 4, 1937. She says, "This type of architect works 'by conference.' All parties concerned take part, discuss his drawings, make suggestions, etc. (A Hollywood story conference). The result is what the result of collective creation always is—'an average of an average.'"