The Objectivist movement is a movement to study and advance the philosophy of Objectivism. It was founded by novelist and screenwriter Ayn Rand. The movement began informally in the 1950s and consisted of students who were brought together by their mutual interest in Rand’s novel, The Fountainhead. The group, ironically named the Collective (due to their actual advocacy of individualism) consisted, in part, of Nathaniel Branden and Barbara Branden, Alan Greenspan, and Leonard Peikoff. Nathaniel Branden, a young Canadian student who had been greatly inspired by Rand's work, became a close confidant and encouraged Rand to expand her philosophy into a formal movement. From this informal beginning in Rand's living room, the movement expanded into a collection of think tanks, academic organizations, magazines, and journals.