Ayn Rand
Russian author/philosopher (1905 - 1982)
- || At The Bottom
1923 -- Alissa Rosenbaum, an 18-year old senior at the University of Petrograd, watched in horror as the world around her disintegrated. In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, Rosenbaum's country descended into a brutal civil war that would last five years. As someone who did not come from the proletariat -- her father had been a successful pharmacist and business owner -- Rosenbaum was among those groups of students whom the Bolshevik party viewed with suspicion:. Her middle class background had perhaps infected her with intolerable "bourgeois" ideas. As the Bolsheviks tightened their grip on power, academic freedom was destroyed in the name of safeguarding the revolution. Professors and students who did not fit the party's ideological criteria were purged from the universities and sent into exile, while others were shipped to the work camps in Siberia. Rather than focus on their studies, students whispered nervously about arrests and executions carried out by the Soviet secret police. Meanwhile, disease flourished throughout the land, with epidemics of typhus and cholera, influenza and pneumonia thinning the population and adding another layer of instability to an already fragile society. Rosenbaum wondered if she would make it through the year alive, much less finish her degree.
- || At The Top
1957 -- On October 13, 1957, Ayn Rand -- the former Alissa Rosenbaum -- received the news that her fourth novel, Atlas Shrugged, had reached #4 on the New York Times Bestseller List. The book had been released only three days earlier, and despite mostly negative reviews from literary critics, Atlas Shrugged proved to be enormously popular among readers who were drawn to Rand's philosophy of "Objectivism." In her novels, Rand highlighted her belief that reason, individual creativity, and rational long-term economic self-interest were the best means of achieving individual happiness and thwarting the rise of a totalitarian society. Atlas Shrugged, which offered the clearest expression of Rand's philosophy, would continue to sell well throughout the rest of the 20th century. Moreover, Rand's philosophical notions inspired the emergence of "Objectivist" societies that devoted themselves to exploring her ideas and applying them to contemporary social, economic, and moral problems. Her work has never been out of print, and by 2008, more than 25 million copies of her books had sold. One of the few fiction writers to effectively convey complex philosophical ideas, Rand remained one of the most influential and popular writers of her century. Her books had a strong influence on libertarian political and economic ideas -- among her many prominent admirers (and close friends) was Alan Greenspan, who would later serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987-2006.
- || The Comeback
Rosenbaum managed to dodge the university purges and graduated with a degree in history in 1924. After studying film for a year, she made the decision to leave the Soviet Union forever. She secured a visa to the United States, where she told authorities she would be visiting her relatives in Chicago; she had no intention, however, of returning to a society she believed could no longer support meaningful existence. In the United States, she moved to Hollywood, chose a new name -- Ayn Rand -- and struggled to make ends meet for several years before at last finding somewhat regular work as a screenwriter. Her 1929 marriage to actor Frank O'Connor allowed her to remain in the U.S. as a permanent resident, and she became a citizen two years later. Throughout the 1930's and 1940's, Rand was vocally critical of the Soviet Union at a time when such views were not especially popular among intellectuals in the United States. Knowing what life was like on the inside of a totalitarian state, however, she stuck to her point of view, producing screenplays and other works of fiction (including We the Living and Anthem)d) that railed against "collectivism" as an assault on individual freedom. Her first major novel, the Fountainhead, was rejected by 12 publishers, and might never have been published except that an editor, Archibald Ogden, threatened to quit if his company did not buy the manuscript, for which she was given $1,000 advance. The success of the Fountainhead assured her of an audience for her magnum Opus, Atlas Shrugged, as well the nonfiction work which would develop her philosophy of Objectivism.
