Miss Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, was born February 2, 1905 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. She was born and educated in Russia. The eldest of three daughters. Growing up she was often praised by adults for her intellect. Though she rarely had friends her own age because she was socially awkward and slightly intense making her a tad offputting to her own aged ladies.
Rand was 12 during the Russian Revolution of 1917, and her sympathies were with Alexander Kerensky. However, their family life was disrupted by the rise of the Bolshevik party under Vladimir Lenin, as her family was rather wealthy. Her father studied chemistry and did well as pharmicist having the ability to employ a cook, maid, nurse, and governess. Though the Bolshevik party confiscated her father's Pharmacy. She later decided during high school that she was an atheist, as she valued reason and intellect.
Following the Revolution she was able to be in the first group of women admitted to University and majored in history. She was introduced to the writings of Artistotle and Plato, which formed the greatest influences on her own works. The other major influence was Nietzsche. However, along with other non-commie students she was booted from the University shortly before graduating (Communists were rude to non-Commies). Though enough complaints from foreign students made them cave and she graduated in 1924. Her first published work was an essay she wrote about the actress Pola Negri. In 1926 she was granted a visa to visit her relatives that lived in Chicago for a time, and upon hitting Manhattan she decided she wanted to live in the US and become a screenwriter.
Rand migrated to the US in 1926. She worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood and had a play produced on Broadway between '35 and '36. She was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. All pretty awesome accomplishments for a woman during her lifetime. She's best known for The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, and developing a philosophical system called Objectivism.
It's pretty easy to see her political views in her works, fiction or theoretical. They all emphasize individual rights and laizzez-faire capitalism enforced by a constitutionally limited government. She was a pretty fierce opposing force for all kinds of collectivism, statism, fascism, communism, socialism, and the welfare state.
She considered reason to be the only means of acquiring knowledge and the most important part of her philosophy stating, "I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows". See? Her writing is pure art. It's no wonder she won my heart over so easily.
In the late '20s she worked on a lot of projects including movie scenarios, short stories, and a novel called The Little Street. The hero was described as having the true and innate psychology of a superman and was based on an idealized portrait of a child killer William Edward Hickman. However, the novel was never completed.
Her first literary success came with the sale of her screenplay Red Pawn to Universal Studios in 1932. However, anti-soviet themes were unpopular at the time and it ended up coming to nothing (drats!). Night of January 16th was first produced in 1934 on broadway. Each night the jury would be selected from the audience and depending on their verdict one of two endings would be played out. (Okay, that seriously sounds super fun to me. I'm jealous, I want to see that play!)
Her first novel We the Living was published in 1936, which was semi-autobiographical. In 1945 Anthem was published in America, interestingly in England is was published seven years earlier. It's a perfect example of a dystopia, and continues to be an inspiration to myself and my own writings. In the sense I adore dystopias and I agree in part with a lot of what she says, if that makes sense.
Rand became involved in poltical activism in the 1940s. She volunteered for the presidential campaign of Republican Wendell Wilkie, along with her husband. Which led to her first speaking experiences. She made many friends during this time because of her activity in politics including, journalist Henry Hazlitt and Mrs. Hazlitt, Ludwig von Mises, and Isabel Paterson.
Her first major success as a writer came with The Fountainhead in 1943. She wrote it over a period of seven years. It brought Rand fame and financial security. She also wrote an essay, her first nonfiction work, "The Only Path to Tomorrow" in January 1944. Atlas Shrugged was published in 1957.
Ayn Rand died on March 6th 1982 in New York City of heart failure. She now rests in the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.
Credit: Wikipedia.
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