Ayn Rand is a Russian-born American writer, whose unusal philosophy, Objectivism, has won world-wide adherents. Miss Rand worked as a script writer for RKO Pictures in the thirties, before going on to write several fiction and non-fiction works outlining her philosophy. Her best known work is Atlas Shrugged.

Miss Rand was born on February 2, 1905, in St. Petersburg, Russia. She witnessed first hand, at the age of thirteen, the Worker's Revolution by the Bolsheviks, which brought communism to Russia. She decided at that age, that she would devote her life to the freeing of men under all forms of statism. At the age of 21, in 1926, she came to New York to visit relatives, and stayed there, escaping from her homeland. She got her first job at RKO Pictures, under Cecil B. DeMille. She worked as a movie extra and as a script reader. Her first novel, We the Living was published in 1936. She had spent her weekends off ploting and writing it. She then went on to write several screenplays for RKO, including Red Pawn, which was never produced. During the Sixties and Seventies, Miss Rand lectured at several Colleges and lecture halls, which was the basis for the Objectivist Newsletter.¹ Miss Rand died March 6, 1982, at the age of 77.

What is Objectivism?

Objectivism is the name that Miss Rand gave to her philosophy. It derives it's name from the root of the philosophy which is: all life must be studied objectively. The study of ethics, morals, values, and politics must be seen by the observer objectively. This is the back bone of her philosophy. She says that every man is an individual, no one should live for the sake of another, and that reason and your thinking mind is your highest virtue. What is stated expressly is that no man could or should live for another man, and that a sense of joy is vitally crucial to live life to its fullest. In other words, man's capacity for joy is the greatest emotion in the world, and that your joy, be it the builder's engineering feat, or a mother's love for her child, or someone who is an artist, creating a work of tension and beauty. Joy and productive capacity are the purpose of life, according to Miss Rand's philosophy.

A brief bibliography

Miss Rand's works spread from the brilliant prose of Atlas Shrugged, to the scathing rhetoric of The Virtue of Selfishness. The list of her books is relatively short, but powerful. They are in order of publishing dates.

We the Living 1936

The Fountainhead 1943

Anthem 1945

Atlas Shrugged 1957

For the New Intelectual 1961

The Virtue of Selfishness 1964

Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal 1966

The Romantic Manifesto 1970

The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution 1971

Introduction to the Objectivist Epistemology 1979.

She also wrote a play entitled, "The Night of January 16th."² It opened in 1935 for a six month run, and is revived occasionally.

The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead is described by Miss Rand as an, "Overture to Atlas Shrugged." It focuses on the story of an intransigent young man who struggles to succeed against near insuperable odds. It is the story of those who are creators, why they are so desparately needed, and why the people of this world treat them so brutally. He fights his hardest battle againt the woman who loves him.

Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged is the story of the world in a time where the people who move the world go on strike. The best remembered line from the book is, "Who is John Galt?" It is a heafty read, at approximately 1100 pages. The story revolves around Dagny Taggert, the railroad heiress who fights a losing battle to keep her work and world from crumbling. It is a brilliant fictional account of a philosophy that is extremely demanding.

A site for unanswered questions

You can visit The Ayn Rand Institute, to see a fuller version of the bibliography. There are also several informative articles and links at that site.

This is a caveat empetor.

A few years back, the movie channel Showtime released a movie entitled, "The Passion of Ayn Rand." It is very slanted, and does not tell an entirely true story. Watch it at your own risk.