Even if you disagree with the philosophy the books present, Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are well-crafted, entertaining books.

Ditko gets royalty checks and comp copies when his stuff is reprinted, but the dollars inolved are pretty small.  It wouldn't surprise me to learn he doesn't cash the checks.  These days, he seems to focus far more on credit than on money -- and he's always concerned himself with the work even more.

JC:  "Whatever motivates Mr. Ditko, it clearly is not money.  According to this he has piles of pages of his original art laying around his home that he uses for cutting boards."

A friend of mine confirms this.  Also, Ditko has two (or three) complete Dr. Strange stories (pencils and plots) that he took with him when he left.  Marvel has approached him more than once about publishing them, but he's not interested.

None of this troubles or frustrates me much.  Sure, I'd like to see good reprints or have a chance to (try to) buy the old stuff, and I'd sure like to see a "new" Siver Age Dr. Strange story, but I figure it's Ditko's life and he's free to do with it what he will.

When I was writing for the licensed Marvel short story prose anthologies, Ditko was approached twice to illustrate stores.  One, a super-villain piece, he rejected on moral grounds.  The other, a Hulk story, he declined, saying that he had no interest in one-off illustrations.  (Neither story was one of mine.)  My take on it was, if Steve Ditko was a place in his life when he could afford to turn down work, more power to him.

I have it on very good authority that the oft-repeated stories of Ditko using his originals as cutting boards are entirely false.

I would be betraying a confidence to say more, but there are many, many classic pages of Ditko kept in sakekeeping. And a lot of unpublished work from his prime period as well. The man understands the value of his own work and wouldn't destroy it.

Now, there's that OTHER iconoclastic artist who routinely destroys his own originals...

I feel the need to mention that DC has a Ditko New Gods backup, originally intended for Walt Simonson's Orion that has yet to see the light of day. From what Walt Simonson has said elsewhere, the story is done and just waiting to be published. Mark Millar was the writer if I remember correctly.

Unpublished Ditko art makes small kittens cry.

Now, there's that OTHER iconoclastic artist who routinely destroys his own originals...

???

I'm familiar with the Dr. Graves story mentioned.  It's not the only one in which the good doctor takes part in the action or acts so flamboyantly, but it's easily the longest.  It was written by Steve Skeates, who also dialoged at least one Dr. Strange story.  Plus, there's a Mr. L. Dedd (Ghostly Tales) story -- also drawn by Ditko -- in which the narrator is a protagonist.

As for the cutting-board anecdote -- well, I don't claim to speak from personal experience, Chuck, but I got it from a well-regarded comics historian (and sometimes Marvel comics writer) who has visited Ditko in his studio.