Inspiration For Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged
In 1946 the writer Ayn Rand met with Lee Lyles, assistant to the president of the Santa Fe, as part of her research for the novel Atlas Shrugged whose plot takes place in a big railway company.
The Journals of Ayn Rand, published in 1997 on the basis of notes left after her death, preserve a list of detailed questions which Rand put to Lyles about the company's administrative structure and its practices in various situations and conditions. Later notes in the same journals show that Rand assigned to various characters in her book administrative titles in the book's fictional railway company modeled on those in the Santa Fe, and adjusted the actions which they are depicted as taking in various situations on the basis of what Lyles told her would be plausible acts for railway executives in similar situations.
Read more about this topic: AT&SF
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