RAND, AYN

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) used her novels as a vehicle for her objectivist philosophy, which endorsed individualism by stressing "rational self-interest" over charity and the welfare state. Her best-known novels include The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957).

Ayn Rand was born Allisa Rosenbaum on February 2, 1905 in St. Petersburg, Russia, the first of Fronz and Anna Rosenbaum's three daughters. Her father was a self-made Jewish merchant. Rand taught herself to read and write by age four and had decided to become a writer by age nine. Her greatest hero was author Victor Hugo (1802–1885). Rand's family barely survived the siege of St. Petersburg during World War I (1914–1918), and they later lost their possessions in the Russian Revolution. As a teenager, Rand learned to hate her country's new communist doctrine and vowed to make it her life's work to use the written word to prove that doctrine wrong.

After graduating with a degree in history from the University of Leningrad in 1926, Rand immigrated to the United States. In her new country, she changed her name to Ayn Rand. She lived with relatives in Chicago, Illinois, for a few months before moving to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter and movie extra. There, she met actor Frank O'Connor, and the two were married in 1929. Rand became a U.S. citizen in 1931.

Penthouse Legend, Rand's first play, was produced on Broadway in 1934. Two years later she published her first novel, We the Living (1936). It was set during the Russian Revolution and condemned communism and those who would follow its principle of sacrificing self for the state. Her next novel, Anthem was published in 1938. The Fountainhead (1943), Rand's most famous work, was initially turned down by several publishers for being considered too intellectual for a mass market. The novel took four years to complete, but became the medium through which Rand defended her philosophical beliefs. Her hero, brilliant architect Howard Roark, blows up his own building when the architectural establishment alters its design. Using a classic metaphor, Roark symbolizes "good" while the establishment is "evil." The book was highly praised by critics and hit the national bestseller list several times during 1945. Hollywood even hired her to write the screenplay.

Rand's later works include Atlas Shrugged (1957), For the New Intellectual (1961), The Virtue of Selfishness (1965), The Romantic Manifesto (1969), and Philosophy—Who Needs It? (1982). Atlas Shrugged, concerned with the philosophical faults of collective societies, became her second most popular novel.

Rand spent a large part of her career defending her philosophy of objectivism. During the 1960s and 1970s, she was a visiting lecturer at the Nathaniel Branden Institute and other American university campuses, including Harvard and Yale. The Ayn Rand Letter and Objectivist Bulletin were circulated to promote her philosophy. Rand's pro-capitalist views are considered by some to have helped influence the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Ayn Rand died on March 6, 1982 in New York City.

RAND, AYN

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