The Remarkable Ayn Rand

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The Remarkable Ayn Rand

"If a life can have a 'theme song' - and I believe that every worthwhile one has - mine is [best] expressed in one word: Individualism." (qtd. in ARI) This quote from Ayn Rand can be applied to everything she did or thought during her life. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 2, 1905, Rand felt out of place in her native country. She didn't agree with the prevailing ideas of mysticism and collectivism that formed the Russian government and society. So at age 21, in 1926, she sailed to the United States. It was in the US that Ayn Rand made a name for herself, and began a new philosophy that would affect people around the world.

Rand knew at age nine that she wanted to become a fiction writer. What she didn't know was that her name would soon be known across the United States, as well as Europe, for her controversial novels. Her first novel, We the Living, was published in 1936. But it wasn't until 1945, with the arrival of The Fountainhead, that she won international fame. Rand had established a reputation as a talented novelist and philosopher by the time Atlas Shrugged was first printed in 1957. This work is considered by some to be her greatest achievement: an intellectual mystery story integrating ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, politics, economics, and sex. It also formulated "a philosophy for living on earth" (qtd. in ARI), sometimes referred to as objectivism. When she died on March 6, 1982 in her New York City apartment, she had sold over 20 million books.

Although Ayn Rand is known mostly for her writing, her career in the United States began in the film industry. She left her relatives' home in Chicago to pursue a career as a screenwriter in Hollywood. On her second day in the city, she was standing on a corner and was offered a ride by Cecil B. DeMille, a director. He brought her to the set of his current film, The King of Kings, and gave her a job as an extra. It was here, a week later, that she met actor Frank O'Connor, whom she married in 1929. And although they were married for 50 years, Rand also had an 18 year relationship with Nathaniel Branden.

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