Ayn Rand Facts:
Known for: objectivist novels, critique of collectivism
Occupation: writer
Dates: February 2, 1905 - March 6, 1982
About Ayn Rand:
Ayn Rand fans range from Hillary Clinton to Alan Greenspan -- he was part of Rand's inner circle and read Atlas Shrugged in manuscript -- to thousands of libertarians on internet news groups.
Ayn Rand Biography:
Ayn Rand, born in Russia as Alyssa Rosenbaum, left the USSR in 1926, rejecting collectivist Bolshevik Russia as the antithesis of freedom. She fled to the United States, where the individual freedom and capitalism that she found became her life's passion.
Ayn Rand found odd jobs near Hollywood, supporting herself while writing short stories and novels. Ayn Rand met her future husband, Frank O'Connor, on the set of the movie King of Kings. She found the Hollywood fondness for left-wing politics coupled with an ostentatious lifestyle particularly grating.
An atheist from her childhood, Ayn Rand coupled a critique of religious altruism with her critique of social "collectivism."
Ayn Rand wrote several plays in the 1930s. In 1936, Ayn Rand published her first novel, We, the Living, followed in 1938 by Anthem and, in 1943, The Fountainhead. The latter became a best-seller and was turned into a King Vidor film starting Gary Cooper.
Atlas Shrugged, 1957, also became a best-seller. Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead continue to inspire and motivate philosophical exploration of "objectivism" - Ayn Rand's philosophy, sometimes called egotism. "Rational self-interest" is the core of the philosophy. Ayn Rand resisted justifying self-interest as grounded in the "common good." Self-interest is, in her philosophy, rather the source of achievement. She scorned illusions of a common good or self-sacrifice as motivators.
In the 1950s, Ayn Rand began to codify and publish her philosophy. She began a long affair when she was 50 with a 25-year-old student of her ideas, Nathaniel Branden. Until he left her in 1968 for another woman, and she threw him out, Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden carried out their affair with the knowledge of both their spouses.
More About Ayn Rand:
Ayn Rand published books and articles promoting the positive value of selfishness and capitalism, and critiquing old and new left, continuing until her death in 1982. At the time of her death, Ayn Rand was adapting Atlas Shrugged for a television mini-series.
Bibliography
Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand (Re-Reading the Canon Series): Chris M. Sciabarra and Mimi R. Gladstein. Trade Paperback, 1999.
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Text copyright 1999-2012 © Jone Johnson Lewis
