About Ayn Rand

WHO WAS AYN RAND

Ayn Rand was a novelist and philosopher whose revolutionary philosophy, Objectivism, can offer you life-changing guidance in your pursuit of happiness, purpose and meaning in life.

Beginning

Ayn Rand was born in Russia in 1905. She lived through the October Revolution of 1917 and saw her life disrupted by it. She moved to the United States in 1926 where she started to work as a screenwriter in Hollywood. In 1936 she published her first novel, We The Living, followed by other major publishing successes such as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Through her work as a writer, she developed her own philosophy of Objectivism to describe the ideal man.

Writer and Thinker

Ayn Rand recognised Aristotle as an important influence in her development of Objectivism. She masterfully concretised her philosophy across several books of fiction, most notably The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, among others. She also expanded on her philosophy and its applications across several non-fiction books, such as The Virtue of Selfishness, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal and many others.

THE FOUNTAINHEAD

I wrote “The Fountainhead” to show, in human terms, just what that ideal actually means and where we must stand if we want to win.
Letters of Ayn Rand – 1943

As a writer, Ayn Rand became widely known in 1943 with the publication of the novel “The Fountainhead.” It took her seven years to write The Fountainhead. Rand finished “The Fountainhead” on December 31st 1942, and it was published in May 1943.
From conception to publication, it had taken her about nine years. By 1948, it sold roughly 400,000 copies. Then came the New American Library paperback edition, and “The Fountainhead” went on to sell over 6 million copies. The Fountainhead brought Ayn Rand fame and financial security. In 1943, she sold the rights to the movie version of the novel to “Warner Bros..”

ATLAS SHRUGGED

Ayn Rand began work on her magnum opus in 1946. The idea for the novel came to her during a telephone conversation with a friend who said that Rand was obliged to write works of art about her philosophy to her readers. To which the writer replied: “What if I went on strike? What if all the creative minds of the world went on strike?” The philosopher aimed to write a novel that will show how much the world needs creators and what will happen without them.
“Atlas Shrugged” was published in 1957 by “Random House” with a circulation of 100,000 copies. Despite the significant number of negative reviews, the book became an international bestseller.
This novel became the latest completed work of art by Ayn Rand. After its publication, she focused on philosophical works on Objectivism.