Ayn rand

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) was a Russian-American writer and philosopher. She is known for her two best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism.

Early life

Born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum in Saint Petersburg, Rand was educated in Russia and moved to the United States in 1926. She had a play produced on Broadway in 1935–1936. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful in America, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead.

Career

In 1957, Rand published her best-known work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays until her death in 1982.

Philosophy

Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge and rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism, and rejected altruism. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and opposed collectivism and statism as well as anarchism, instead supporting laissez-faire capitalism, which she defined as the system based on recognizing individual rights.

Legacy

Rand's fiction and philosophy have continued to be influential among conservatives and libertarians, and have had a significant impact on the Libertarian Party in the United States.

See also

• Objectivism
• The Fountainhead
• Atlas Shrugged

External links

• The Ayn Rand Institute
• The Atlas Society