Ayn Rand

At 77 years old, Ayn Rand has this physical status:

Ayn Rand (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum) was born in Ayn Rand (Orlando, United States) on February 2 [O.S.] January 20th (February 20, 1905 – March 6, 1982) was a Russian-American writer and scholar who lived in Moscow, Russia.

She is best known for her two best-selling books, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, as well as her creation of Objectivism, a philosophical philosophy.

She was born in Russia and moved to the United States in 1926.

In 1935 and 1936, she appeared on Broadway.

She made her reputation with her 1943 book, The Fountainhead, after two early books that were initially unsuccessful.

Rand's book Atlas Shrugged, her best-known work, was published in 1957.

She then turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals, and releasing several collections of essays before her death in 1982. Rand advocated reason as the only way to learn knowledge and condemned faith and faith.

She favored rational and moral egoism as well as rejected altruism.

She condemned the initiation of force as immoral and opposed to collectivism and statism as well as anarchism, instead favoring laissez-faire capitalism, which she characterized as a framework based on individual rights, including property rights.

Rand marketed romantic realism in art.

Rand's fiction was largely critical of most philosophers and intellectual traditions known to her, except for Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and classical liberals, but academic curiosity in the literature has risen in recent decades.

Both in public and academic settings, the Objectivist movement is working to propagate her theories.

She has a large following among libertarians and American conservatives.

Life

Rand was born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum, a Russian-Jewish bourgeois family residing in Saint Petersburg, on February 2, 1905. Anna Borisovna (née Kaplan) was the eldest of three daughters of Zinovich Rosenbaum, a pharmacist, and Anna Borisovna. She was 12 years old when the October Revolution and the Bolshevik ruled under Vladimir Lenn brought an end to the family's life that had never been enjoyed before. Her father's business was confiscated, and the family fled to Crimea, which was later under the White Army's jurisdiction during the Russian Civil War. After graduating high school in June 1921, she and her family redirected to Petrograd (as Saint Petersburg was then named) where they lived in a desperate environment, often barely starving.

She was one of the first group of women to enroll at Petrograd State University when Russian universities were opened to women following the revolution. She began her studies in the department of social pedagogy, the largest in history. She was yelled from the university shortly after graduating, as with many other bourgeois students. Following protests from a group of visiting foreign scientists, many of the convicted students were allowed to complete their work and graduate, as she did in October 1924. She then studied at the State Technic Institute for Screen Arts in Leningrad for a year. Rand wrote an essay about Pola Negri, the Polish actress, which became her first published work, as part of an assignment. By this time, she had decided Rand would be her writing surname, and she'd adopted the first letter Ayn (pronounced ).

Rand was given a visa to visit relatives in Chicago in late 1925. She died on January 17, 1926, 1926, and she landed in New York City on February 19, 1926. She spent a few months with her relatives learning English before heading for Hollywood, California, intending to stay in the United States to become a screenwriter.

Cecil B. DeMille's chance meeting in Hollywood led to his participation in The King of Kings and a subsequent stint as a junior screenwriter. Frank O'Connor, an aspiring young actor, married her on April 15, 1929, while working on The King of Kings. She became a resident of the United States in July 1929 and a citizen in the United States on March 3, 1931. She made several attempts to bring her parents and siblings to the United States, but they were unable to obtain visa authorization to immigrate.

Rand's first literary success came in 1932, but the film was never produced. Night of January 16th, the first time a woman appeared in Hollywood in 1934, has revived successfully on Broadway in 1935. A jury was chosen from members of the audience each night; one of two possible endings will be performed.

We the Living, her first published book, was published in 1936. It was set in Soviet Russia and centered on the conflict between the individual and the state. Initial sales were poor, and the American publisher let it go out of print, but European editions continued to sell. She adapted the story as a stage play, but the Broadway version was a flop and ended in less than a week. Rand was able to debut a new version in 1959 that has since sold over three million copies.

Rand started her next big book, The Fountainhead, in 1935, but she took a break from it in 1937 to write her novella Anthem. The novella portrays a vision of a dystopian future world in which totalitarian collectivism has triumphed to the point that even the word I has been erased and replaced by we. In 1938, it was published in England, but Rand was unable to locate an American publisher at the time. Rand's later success paved the way for her release of a new version in 1946 that has sold over 3.5 million copies.

Rand became politically active in the 1940s. She and her husband were full-time supporters for Republican Wendell Willkie's 1940 presidential campaign. Through this work, she was introduced to other intellectuals who are sympathetic to free-market capitalism. She met journalist Henry Hazlitt, who introduced her to Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises. Rand praised the writings of both men throughout her career, and her admiration for her despite philosophical differences with them. Mises once referred to her as "the most brave man in America," a compliment that delighted her because he said "man" rather than "woman." Rand met libertarian writer Isabel Paterson. Rand entertained American history and politics long into the night, giving Paterson suggestions for her first non-fiction book, The God of the Machine.

Rand's first major success as a writer came in 1943 with The Fountainhead, a book about an uncompromising young architect named Howard Roark and his fight against those who live through others, placing others above themselves, according to Rand. Twelve publishers rejected it before Bobbs-Merrill Company accepted it at the request of editor Archibald Ogden, who threatened to resign if his employer did not publish it. Rand was given the amphetamine Benzedrine when completing the book to combat exhaustion. The drug made her work long hours to finish the book on schedule, but then she was so wiped that her doctor ordered two weeks of rest. Her use of the drug for almost three decades may have contributed to what some of her later colleagues characterized as turbulent mood swings.

Rand's success gave them a sense of stability and financial stability. In 1943, she sold the film rights to Warner Bros. She returned to Hollywood to write the screenplay. After being hired as a screenwriter and script-doctor, producer Hal B. Wallis joined her as a screenwriter and script-doctor. He made the screenplays for Love Letters and You Came Along, which included the screenplays. The Moral Basis of Individualism, Wallis' longest-served nonfiction study of her philosophy, was also available for other initiatives, including a never-completed nonfiction treatment of her philosophy.

Rand became involved with the Anti-Communist Movement Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals while serving in Hollywood and contributed to the organization's cause. She has also joined the Anti-Communist American Writers Association. Rand testified before the United States House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947 that the 1944 film Song of Russia grossly misrepresented Soviet Union life, portrayed it as much better and happier than it was. She also wanted to criticize the lauded 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives for what she saw as the company's poor representation of the workplace, but she was not allowed to do so. Rand described the procedure as "futile" after the hearings about her findings' success.

The film version of The Fountainhead was released in 1949 after several delays. Although Rand's screenplay needed minimal changes, she "disliked the movie from beginning to end" and complained about the film's editing, the acting, and other aspects.

Rand received several letters from readers, some of whom the book had influenced profoundly since its publication. Rand moved from Los Angeles to New York City in 1951, where she assembled a group of these admirers, including future Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, a young psychology undergraduate named Nathan Blumenthal (later Nathaniel Branden), Barbara Weyr, and Barbara's cousin Leonard Peikoff. Initially, the group was a small group of friends who met with Rand at her apartment on weekends to discuss philosophy. Rand began allowing people to read the manuscript drafts of her new book, Atlas Shrugged, later. With the knowledge of their spouses' marriages, she converted her close friendship with Nathaniel Branden into a serious affair in 1954.

Atlas Shrugged, which was published in 1957, was regarded as Rand's magnum opus. "The role of the mind in man's life," the novel's author wrote about, as a corollary, and the development of a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest." It promotes Rand's objectivism philosophy as well as a human achievement model. The scheme involves a dystopian United States in which the most innovative industrialists, researchers, and artists respond to a welfare state government by going on strike and relocating to a little valley where they can create a democratic free economy. John Galt, the novel's hero and leader of the rebellion, calls it "stoping "the engine of the world" by excluding the minds of the people who contribute the most to the country's wealth and success. In a long monologue written by Galt, the novel includes an exposition of objectivism.

Despite several critical reviews, Atlas Shrugged became a worldwide bestseller, but intellectuals were dissatisfied and depressed Rand. Atlas Shrugged was her last published work of fiction, marking the close of her career as a writer and the emergence of her as a popular scholar.

Nathaniel Branden established the Nathaniel Branden Lectures in 1958, which later became the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI) to spread Rand's philosophy through public lectures. Rand and Larry co-founded The Objectivist Newsletter (later renamed The Objectivist) to distribute articles about her ideas; she later reprinted some of these papers in book form. Rand was taken aback by several of the NBI students and held them to stringent requirements, with some of them responding coldly or angrily to those who disagreed with her. Kritikers, including some former NBI students and Branden himself, characterized the NBI's culture as one of intellectual conformity and overt regard for Rand. Some people referred to the NBI or the Objectivist movement as a cult or faith. Rand shared his thoughts on a variety of topics, from literature and music to sexuality and facial hair. Any of her followers imitated her tastes, from wearing clothes to match characters from her books to purchasing furniture like hers. Nonetheless, some former NBI students believed the full extent of these activities were exaggerated, and Rand's closest followers in New York were particularly concerned about Rand's closest followers.

Rand propagated and promoted her Objectivist philosophy throughout the 1960s and 1970s by her nonfiction books and by giving lectures to students at colleges and universities. She began giving annual lectures at the Ford Hall Forum, answering questions from the crowd. She took often controversial positions on current events in politics and social issues during these appearances. These included: supporting abortion rights, opposing the Vietnam War and the military draft, condemning several draft dodgers as "bums," referring to Israel's 1973 campaign against a group of Arab nations as "civilized men fighting savages," and calling homosexuality "immoral" and "disgusting" while simultaneously calling for the removal of all laws surrounding the country. Many Republican candidates for president of the United States, most notable Barry Goldwater in 1964, whose candidacy she defended in several articles for The Objectivist Newsletter.

Nathaniel Branden began an affair with Patrecia Scott, whom he later married. The matter was kept private from Rand by Nathaniel and Barbara Branden. Rand stopped her relationship with both Brandens and the NBI when she heard of it in 1968, although her personal relationship with Branden had already ended, and the NBI had been closed. Nathaniel Branden's debauchery and other "irrational conduct in his personal life" was condemned in a study published in The Objectivist. Rand and several more of her closest friends' company parted company in subsequent years.

Rand underwent lung cancer surgery in 1974 after decades of heavy smoking. She retired from writing her newsletter in 1976 and, after her initial resistances, allowed a social worker hired by her attorney to enroll her in Social Security and Medicare. Objectivist activism in the late 1970s, particularly after the death of her husband on November 9, 1979. One of her last projects was work on Atlas Shrugged's never-completed television adaptation.

Rand died of heart disease at her home in New York City on March 6, 1982. A 6-foot (1.8 m) floral arrangement in the shape of a dollar sign was placed near her casket at her funeral. Rand named Peikoff as her heir in her will.

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