The first section of the book contains three essays by Nathaniel Branden, under the heading "An Analysis of the Novels of Ayn Rand".

The couple worked through the Nathaniel Branden Institute and The Objectivist Newsletter to spread Rand's philosophical ideas.

He suggested the idea of basing a book on the talk to Bennett Cerf, Rand's editor at Random House.

Nathaniel Branden turned this portion of the book over to his wife Barbara, who conducted a series of audiotaped private interviews with Rand to collect biographical information.

[7] In an essay accusing the Objectivist movement of being a cult, Murray N. Rothbard described the book as an "authorized exercise in uncritical adulation".