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Gail Wynand is a major character in Ayn Rand's novel The Fountainhead. He is a newspaper and real estate mogul who worked his way up from extreme poverty in Hell's Kitchen. The crown-jewel of his empire is The Banner, based in New York City. The Banner is tremendously popular, and is of sleazy, tabloid quality.

In The Fountainhead, Wynand is described as a man who wants nothing but power. As a child his sole ambition in adulthood was to hold sway over other's lives--to rule the world, so to speak. According to Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, this marks Wynand as a "second-hander", a parasite who lives off and for others. Yet Wynand is unique as he was not born into this role, but took it up misguidedly thinking he could use it to his advantage.

His folly in this aspect is demonstrated at the end of the novel when he struggles to use The Banner for good in defense of the hero, Howard Roark who is undergoing trial for demolishing Cordlandt homes--a government housing project that he designed but whose construction went against his specifications, thus marring its dignity.

Upon initially meeting Roark, Wynand recognizes his sizeable ambition and talent and thus seeks to break him. This is treated as a kind of test which no one up to this point has passed--a test of integrity. Wynand seeks to break men who seemingly hold integrity as a way of proving that this trait is impossible (and thus that he himself has no way of living up to it). Wynand tries to bribe Roark into giving up architecture, threaten him into it, yet Roark stalwartly resists. In this act, Roark and Wynand become good friends. Yet Wynand also refers to Roark as a "hair-shirt", a wool shirt worn as penitence.

Roark is Wynand's one chance to redeem himself and change his life of a "second hander". Wynand struggles to turn his seedy tabloid into a righteous avenger. He fails in this act as the public rebels against him, throwing the Banner into near bancruptcy as nearly the entire staff quits, readership plummets, and protests continue through Roark's trial. In this way Wynand learns that he was not the leader of the public, was not the ruler of the world, but rather was ruled by the base masses which he despises. Rather than fighting through to martyrdom, Wynand gives in to public demand, thus condemning himself for life into the mold of the enemy-- a "second hander".

Roark is later acquitted of his crime, despite having no public backing, showing that public thought is capable of being defeated by the individual will. Wynand commissions Roark to design the Wynand Building, an ambition from his youth to hold the title as the tallest building in New York City. Disgusted with himself, Wynand closes the Banner, having control over enough other businesses to remain wealthy.

It should be noted that, in the novel, Gail Wynand is never heard from again after commissioning Roark to do the Wynand Building. In the movie version of the book (with the screenplay by Rand herself) Gail Wynand shoots himself after signing Roark to the commission.