Ayn Rand
born Feb. 2, 1905, St. Petersburg, Russia
died March 6, 1982, New York, N.Y., U.S.
Russian-born American writer who, in commercially successful
novels, presented her philosophy of objectivism, essentially
reversing the traditional Judeo-Christian ethic.
Rand graduated from the University of Petrograd in 1924 and
two years later immigrated to the United States. She initially
worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood and in 1931 became a
naturalized U.S. citizen. Her first novel, We, the Living, was
published in 1936. The Fountainhead (1943), her first
best-selling novel, depicts a highly romanticized
architect-hero, a superior individual whose egoism and genius
prevail over timid traditionalism and social conformism. The
allegorical Atlas Shrugged (1957), another best-seller, combines
science fiction and political message in telling of an
anticollectivist strike called by the management of U.S. big
industry, a company of attractive, self-made men.
The political philosophy of objectivism shaped Rand’s work. A
deeply conservative doctrine, it posited individual effort and
ability as the sole source of all genuine achievement, thereby
elevating the pursuit of self-interest to the role of first
principle and scorning such notions as altruism and sacrifice
for the common good as liberal delusions and even vices. It
further held laissez-faire capitalism to be most congenial to
the exercise of talent. Rand’s philosophy underlay her fiction
but found more direct expression in her nonfiction, including
such works as For the New Intellectual (1961), The Virtue of
Selfishness (1965), Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966),
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology (1967), and Philosophy:
Who Needs It? (1982). She also promoted her objectivist
philosophy in the journals The Objectivist (1962–71) and The Ayn
Rand Letter (1971–76).
Rand’s controversial views attracted a faithful audience of
admirers and followers, many of whom first encountered her
novels as teenagers. Although her work influenced generations of
conservative politicians and government officials in the United
States, it was not well regarded among academic philosophers,
most of whom dismissed it as shallow. She was working on an
adaptation of Atlas Shrugged for a television miniseries when
she died.
