Since the economic collapse of 2008, the controversial novelist and philosopher has emerged as a leading intellectual on the right - and she's been dead for nearly 30 years.

Rush Limbaugh touts Rand as a prophet of sorts. "Ayn Rand, she wrote `Atlas Shrugged,' " he told his listeners. "The sequel, `Atlas Puked,' we're in the middle of it." At the tea parties that swept the nation last spring, protesters waved signs claiming "Ayn Rand was right" and warning "Read `Atlas Shrugged' before it happens."

The fresh appeal of 'Atlas Shrugged'

Consider this: "Atlas Shrugged," Rand's most famous novel, is set in a dystopian future America, where a socialist government has brought the country to the brink of ruin. Fleeing punitive regulations and crushing taxation, the country's top industrialists and executives have gone on strike, virtually shutting down the economy.