Ayn Rand novel 'Ideal,' written 70 years ago, to be published in July

An Ayn Rand novel written, temporary shelved and later published as a play is finally being released in its original form.

The New American Library, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced Thursday that Rand's "Ideal" would be published July 7. Rand had worked on the novel, about a Garbo-like actress and the fans she confronts, in the mid-1930s. Unhappy with the result, she turned it into a play, which came out in 2005. Next summer's publication will include both the novel and the play.

Rand, who died in 1982, is still widely read by conservatives and libertarians and is known for the million-selling novels "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead."