SUMMARY: Ayn Rand (2/2/1905 – March 6, 1982) Russian novelist, philosopher, playwright, screenwriter
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Ayn Rand was born on February 2, 1905 in Russia. Ayn Rand died on March 6, 1982. She was only 77 years old when she died. She was a novelist and a great philosopher.

At age six. Ayn Rand taught herself to read and two years later discovered her first fictional hero. This heroic vision sustained her throughout her life. Whens he turned nine she decided to make a career of fiction writing. She was determined from a young age.

Ayn witnessed the Kerensky Revolution, which she supported, and—in 1917—the Bolshevik Revolution, which she denounced from the outset. These two revolutions helped her form her opinions that are seen throughout her novels. The reason is that, in order to escape the fighting, her family went to the Crimea. The final Communist victory brought the confiscation of her father’s pharmacy and periods of near-starvation that made her doubt the government and look for something better. When introduced to American history in her last year of high school, she immediately took America as her model of what a nation of free men could be.

Although she had many talents, however, Ayn Rand was best known for her top selling novels: The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

Ayn Rand’s writing was both fiction and nonfiction. She was a defender of capitalism and of individual rights. She believed that to have a good and proper government, people need to have individual rights.

She though that people should have their own opinion. She also thought that people should be able to own land and have property rights. She was the type of person that would fight for something she believed in.

She believed that people should base their actions and choices only because of their own personal reason or opinion. She also hade a theory of life and it was that any person should live for their own rational self interests and for their own happiness.

She also believed that the government should protect people from criminal activity. The fact that people could be forced to do things was incorrect in her mind. She had a lot of great opinions and thoughts on how to make the world a better place.

She attended the University of Petrograd to study philosophy and history. She graduated in 1924. She entered the State Institute for Cinema Arts in 1924 to study screenwriting.

In February 1926, Ayn arrived in the United States. She came in by ship, and she first settled in New York City. The thing she loved about New York was the City’s Skyline. She later described the skyline in her novel the Fountainhead. Although she told the Russians she only intended a short visit to the US, her intention was to never return to Russia.

After a brief stay with her relatives in Chicago she extended her visa and moved to Hollywood. She set out for Hollywood to become a screenwriter. Ayn Rand viewed herself as a philosopher and a novelist. She had stated, “I am both of them and for the same reason.”

Ayn Rand’s novels sell about three thousand copies a year. She encourages readers to think big about themselves. She said, “Build big and you will earn big.”

Ayn Rand’s first literary success the Red Pawn came to screen play for the first time in 1932. Ayn Rand also wrote the play The Night Of January 16 and it first came out in 1934. This particular play was played on Broadway.

She began writing The Fountainhead in 1935. The Fountainhead was rejected by twelve publishers but finally accepted by the Bobbs-Merrill Company. When published in 1943, it made history by becoming a best seller through word-of-mouth two years later. Through this book Ayn Rand gained lasting recognition as a champion of individualism.

Ayn began her major novel, Atlas Shrugged, in 1946, but was splitting her time between that and screen play writing. In 1951 she moved back to New York City and devoted herself full time to the completion of Atlas Shrugged. It was published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged was her greatest achievement and last work of fiction.

She published and edited her own periodicals from 1962 to 1976, and spent her time writing and lecturing on philosophy.

Ayn died on March 6, 1982, in her New York City apartment.

Overall Ayn Rand was a fantastic writer. She had many ways of looking at the different views of the world. Ayn Rand lived a long and successful life. She had fun writing her books and she never stopped because she wanted people to see what she saw in her novels.