Ayn Rand

Ayn (rhymes with "mine") Rand (February 2, 1905 - March 6, 1982) She was born Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum, to a Jewish family in Saint Petersburg, Russia. While she grew up in Russia, she watched the Bolshevik revolution bring poverty to her middle-class family. Deciding that Communism would lead to the destruction of not only Russia, but the world, she acquired a visa to visit some relatives in Chicago. Once there she vowed never to return to Russia. She then moved to Los Angeles and changed her name to Ayn Rand to protect her family back in Russia.

Her theory of Objectivism has much in common with Libertarian philosophy, though she wanted nothing to do with the Libertarian Party.

Writings

Her first published novel was We The Living, set in Russia after the Russian Revolution, a harsh portrayal of life under the new totalitarian regime of Leninism.

Her novel Anthem was written as the account of a person living within a future totalitarian society in which singular first-person pronouns such as "I" had been banned. The society had attempted to stamp out individualism in this way. The novel is the story of his escape from this society and his rediscovery of the concept of the individual.

The Fountainhead, published in 1943, was her first major commercial success. Atlas Shrugged was published in 1957 was also a major success, and was Rand's last major work of fiction. Atlas Shrugged is considered by many to be her magnum opus.

She subsequently concentrated on non-fiction writings on philosophical and economic subjects and on the Objectivist movement. Her non-fiction writings include Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, The Virtue of Selfishness, The Romantic Manifesto, and For the New Intellectual.