Throughout the later half of the 20th century, Ayn Rand’s idealistic novels have influenced literary, philosophical, and political realms. Although she is internationally recognized by the name Ayn Rand, she was born as Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (Алиса Зиновьевна Розенбаум). She was born on Febuary 2, 1905 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Her parents, Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum, a pharmacist, and Anna Borisovna Rosenbaum, had two other daughters after Rand and raised all of their children to be Jewish.
The Russian Revolution played a significant part in Rand’s childhood, as she was at the age of twelve when it began. At this age she was able to process what was happening, and was anti-Bolshevik along with the rest of her family. After communist radical Vladimir Lenin, and his Bolshevik Party overthrew Alexander Kerensky, Rand’s father’s pharmaceutical business was seized thus leading to her family’s decision to flee Saint Petersburg to live in Crimea. They were safe there because the anti-Bolshevik White Army then controlled Crimea. Here, Rand was protected from the forefront of the war, however, she was still watching her country disintegrate under the control of a radically communist leader. Later, this experience would greatly affect her writing.
One positive outcome of the Russian Revolution proved to be the fact that Univerisities began to open their doors to women around 1917. Thus, Ayn Rand was able to enroll at the Petrograd State University where she majored in history. She was one of the first women in Russia to gain a professional education. During her career as a student she adopted the pen name, Ayn Rand. While it is disputed that the name, Rand, is a contraction of her birth name, Rosenbaum, it is widely accepted that she chose the name, Ayn, because of its Hebrew origin meaning, “eye.”
With this education she was granted a Visa in the Fall of 1925 to visit American relatives in Chicago, Illinois. She instantly fell in love with the urban life of America, even describing the beauty of the New York skyline in a monologue in her novel The Fountainhead:
¡ “I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York's skyline. Particularly when one can't see the details. Just the shapes. The shapes and the thought that made them. The sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need?” (143)
Soon Rand decided to ultimately stay in the United States and pursue a career in screenwriting. She moved to Hollywood California where began to she pick up odd jobs as a writer and actress. While working as an extra in the film, The King of Kings in the late 1920s, she met her soon-to-be husband, Frank O’Connor. After they were married Rand officially attained her citizenship in 1931, and became more serious in her career ventures. Her most acclaimed early work as a screenwriter and playwright is mostly demonstrated with her work with this screenplay of the 1932 film, Red Pawn, and her 1935 Broadway success, Night of January 16th. It was not until the later 1930s that Rand began her career as a literary author.
An American publishing company, Macmillan Publishing, published her first novel, We the Living, in 1936. The premise of the book was set in soviet Russia and focused on themes such as the struggle between the individual and the state. It was an obvious commentary on communist Russia. After it was initially was released, sales were slow and the reception was not so good. It was not until it was reprinted in 1959, that it sold over 3 million copies. A couple years later, Ayn Rand’s novella “The Anthem” was published in 1938, but published in England because American publishing companies were afraid to throw money at it due to the poor reception of Rand’s previous novel. The novella was also a commentary on collectivism and communism in Russia as it was set in a dystopian future where people were no longer individuals, and the pronoun “I” was not even part of their vocabulary.
Ayn Rand continued her theme of collectivism as a dystopian vision when she wrote her next two novels, which are undoubtedly her most well known, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Her anti-communist and anti-collectivist ideals soon evolved into her philosophy on objectivism, which highlights the importance of individual independence within a society. In 1945, After seven years of writing, editing, and perfecting, The Fountainhead was published by the American publishing company, the Bobbs-Merrill Company. It was her first commercially successful novel and focused on her objectivist philosophy as well as the importance of a capitalist society.
Soon, Rand and her husband became nationally recognized for their political involvement within the Republican Party and famous for their activism against communism. Years later, Rand wrote her second large novel, Atlas Shrugged. It was published in 1957 and is known as Rand’s most accomplished piece of work. The themes of this novel are much like that of The Fountainhead with a central theme of Objectivism, but she also incorporates the importance of capitalism within society (in particular American Society). After the success of her later novels, she focused mostly on spreading her philosophy across the nation by speaking at renowned universities and publishing philosophical essays in magazines. She also founded The Objectivist Newsletter and endorsed several Republican Candidates in their campaigns during her later life. David Nolan, one of the founders of the Libertarian Party of the United States in 1971, even said, “…without Ayn Rand, the libertarian movement would not exist.” In the 1970s, Ayn Rand developed lung cancer, however recovered after surgery. She died on March 6, 1982 from heart failure.
