If not for the open casket, Ayn Rand's funeral might have been confused for a party. On March 8, 1982, hundreds of admirers lined up outside a funeral home on Manhattan's Upper East Side to pay their respects to the author and philosopher, basking in their shared love for the queen of selfishness. Inside, a phonograph played jovial turn-of-the-century tunes'Rand called it her 'tiddlywink music''at high volume. Colorful bouquets lined the room, including a six-foot-tall floral arrangement in the shape of a dollar sign. Managing Rand's estate would entail more than handling her personal property. By the end of her life, her philosophy of objectivism'which proclaims the glory of individualism and the evils of altruism'had become a full-blown movement, and it was now Peikoff's job to guide it forward. Rand's books sold in the millions, despite their imposing heft. Her angular face and enormous eyes were all over magazines and TV sets in the '60s and '70s, and her eccentric charm won...
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