The Fountainhead
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The Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Ayn Rand. It was Rand's first major literary success and its royalties and movie rights brought her fame and financial security. The book's title is a reference to Rand's statement that "man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress".
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[edit] Specifications
- Author = Ayn Rand
- Illustrator/Cover Artist =
- Series =
- Genre = Philosophical novel
- Publisher = Bobbs Merrill
- Publication Date = December 1943
- Nature of Rarity =
- Number in Existence =
- Estimated Value =
[edit] Background
The Fountainhead is set in the world of Architecture and examines Howard Roark, a young architect who chooses to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision. He refuses to pander to the prevailing 'architect by committee' taste in building design. Roark is a singular force that takes a stand against the establishment, and in his own unique way, prevails. The manuscript was rejected by twelve publishers before a young editor, Archibald Ogden, at the Bobbs-Merrill Company publishing house wired to the head office, "If this is not the book for you, then I am not the editor for you." Despite generally negative early reviews from the contemporary media, the book gained a following by word of mouth and sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The Fountainhead was made into a Hollywood film in 1949, with Gary Cooper in the lead role of Howard Roark, and with a screenplay by Ayn Rand herself.
[edit] Plot
Howard Roark, a brilliant young architect, is expelled from the Stanton Institute of Technology [1]for refusing to abide by its outdated traditions. He goes to New York City to work for Henry Cameron, a disgraced architect whom Roark admires. Roark’s highly successful but vacuous schoolmate, Peter Keating, moves to New York and goes to work for the prestigious architectural firm Francon & Heyer, run by the famous Guy Francon. Roark and Cameron create beautiful work, but their projects rarely receive recognition, whereas Keating’s ability to flatter and please brings him almost instant success despite his mediocrity.
Roark's unwillingness to compromise his designs in order to satisfy the ignorant whims of his clients eventually forces him to close down his small office. He takes a job at a Connecticut granite quarry owned by Guy Francon, whose beautiful, temperamental, and idealistic daughter Dominique entrances Keating.
While Roark is working in the quarry, he encounters Dominique, who has taken an extended holiday in the same town as the quarry. There is an immediate physical attraction between the two of them. Dominique visits the quarry frequently to tempt Roark and eventually, Roark and Dominique have aggressive and passionate sex.
Ellsworth Toohey, a columnist for The New York Banner and author of the popular column One Small Voice, sees Roark as a threat. He is an undercover socialist and is covertly rising to power by shaping public opinion through his column and circle of influential associates. Toohey sets out to destroy Roark by planning to incite the public against Roark through a smear campaign he spearheads at "The Banner."
Toohey convinces a weak-minded businessman named Hopton Stoddard to hire Roark as the designer for a temple dedicated to the human spirit. Roark designs the temple, with a naked statue of Dominique, which creates the first public outcry towards Howard. Toohey further manipulates Stoddard into suing Roark for general incompetence and fraud. At Roark’s trial, every prominent architect in New York (including Keating) testifies that Roark’s style is unorthodox and illegitimate. Dominique defends Roark, but Stoddard wins the case and Roark loses his business again.
That evening, Dominique pays Keating a visit, and makes him a one-time offer of her hand in marriage. Keating accepts, and they are married that evening. Dominique turns her entire spirit over to Peter, hosting the dinners he wants, agreeing with him, and saying whatever he wants her to say. She fights Roark, and herds all of his potential clients over to the slowly weakening Keating.
Gail Wynand, owner of the Banner, believes he is in firm control of public opinion. Born in Hell's Kitchen and a member of a gang while growing up, he had forced himself into the Gazette, eventually taking over and building up his empire. Wynand decides to build an ambitious real estate project, and because of the Depression, every architect of fame wants it. In order to sell the job to Keating, Toohey sends Wynand the Stoddard statue of Dominique as a gift. This prompts Wynand to meet with Peter and Dominique, and promises to give the project to Keating in exchange for letting Dominique take a yacht tour with him. On the tour, Wynand asks Dominique to marry him, and she agrees to leave Peter.
Wynand finds that every building he likes is done by Roark, so he enlists Howard to build him a home. The home is built, and Howard and Gail become great friends, though Wynand does not know about his past relationship with Dominique.
Now washed up and out of the public eye, Keating realizes he is a failure, and rather than accept retirement, he pleads with Ellsworth for commission to build the much sought after Cortlandt housing project. Keating knows that his most successful projects were aided by Roark, and he knows Roark is the only person who can design Cortlandt. Roark agrees to design it in exchange for complete anonymity and the agreement that it would be built exactly as he designed.
When Roark returns from a spring-long yacht trip with Wynand, he finds that, despite the agreement, the Cortlandt Homes project has been changed. Roark asks Dominique to distract the night watchman and dynamites the building. The entire country condemns Roark, but Wynand finally finds the courage to follow his convictions and orders his newspapers to defend him. The Banner’s circulation drops and the workers go on strike (spurred on by Toohey), but Wynand keeps printing with Dominique’s help. Eventually after the whole public opinion is against Wynand and all of his staff has left him, he denounces Roark on the suggestion of his board members. At the trial, Roark seems doomed, but he rouses the courtroom with a statement about the value of selfishness and the need to remain true to oneself. The jury finds him not guilty. Roark marries Dominique. Wynand asks Roark to design one last building, a skyscraper that will testify to the supremacy of man and states, "Build it as a monument to that spirit which is yours...and could have been mine."
The book ends quickly after that with time moved up eighteen months with the Wynand Building well on its way to completion. The last scene follows Dominique (now Mrs. Roark), entering the site and rushing to meet the now vindicated and strong Howard Roark, Architect.
[edit] References
- ^ The Stanton Institute of Technology is described as being "on the seashore of Massachusetts", with students going to parties in Boston, which evidently suggests that it is loosely based on the actual Massachusetts Institute of Technology and specifically the MIT School of Architecture and Planning - though the architecture of the fictional Institute's campus buildings, described in detail in the book's first chapter, is very different from that of the actual MIT.
[edit] Further reading
- Mayhew, Robert (2006). Essays on Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7391-1578-2.
