The credo of Russian-born American novelist-cum-philosopher Ayn Rand, founder of Objectivism, is neatly summed up by the title of her seminal collection of essays: "The Virtue of Selfishness." Rand — whose followers vehemently deny any connection between their beloved icon and libertarianism — inspires visceral feelings of worship and disgust in her readers. One of the characters in her most famous novel, "Atlas Shrugged," summarizes Objectivism with an oath: "I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another human being, or ask another human being to live for mine."

Like libertarianism, Objectivism is represented on thousands of Web sites. The Ayn Rand Foundation is the official repository of teachings, commentaries, and documents perpetuating her philosophy.

During most of her professional career, Rand mentored Nathaniel Branden, but the two had a nasty public falling-out late in the author's life. One result was a fair amount of emnity between Rand followers and those who sympathized with Branden (and his wife Barbara, also a Rand acolyte). A good deal of this dispute leaks over to the Web, including frequent references to Barbara Branden's surprisingly saccharine Rand biography, "The Passion of Ayn Rand." In a public letter in October 1968, Rand explained at great length the reasons for the split. You can read the Brandens' answers from links provided at Russel Hanneken's informative site.

One of the most relevant sites to the discussion of Objectivism and Libertarianism is Peter Saint Andre's essay, "Why I Am A LIbertarian," which first appeared in the magazine "Full Context" and which you can read online. Here is a sampling of other Web sites put together by friends and enemies of Objectivism.

Two good Rand jumpstations (collections of links that will take you to other sites) are at http://www.mtsu.edu/~m_c_000b/objmat.html and http://www.uccs.edu/~kmfreckl/objectivism.html. James Fallows' 1975 essay in The Atlantic, "Liberals and Ayn Rand," is available online as well.

A strongly pro-Rand site is Mark J. Gardner's The Objectivism Resource Guide, which includes a host of written materials as well as numerous links to other sites.

There are also three active newsgroups:

• alt.philsoophy.objectivism
• humanities.philosophy.objectivism
• Objectivism Study Group (closed list; email owner Bob Stubblefield for a copy of the strict charter and a membership form

—Dan Shafer