Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

Writer and philosopher, founder of Objectivism, cult novel Atlas Shrugged
Date of Birth: 02.02.1905
Country: USA

Content:
  1. Biography of Ayn Rand
  2. Early Life and Education
  3. Life in the United States
  4. Writing Career and Philosophy

Biography of Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was an American writer, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter of Russian-Jewish descent. She was born as Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum on February 2, 1905 in Saint Petersburg, which was then the capital of the Russian Empire.

Ayn Rand

Early Life and Education

Ayn Rand was the eldest of three daughters of Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum, a successful pharmacist and entrepreneur, who eventually became the owner of a highly profitable pharmacy, and his wife Anna Borisovna Kaplan. Although the family was Jewish, they did not adhere to strict rules of Judaism.

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand learned to read at a very young age and began writing stories and plays in her childhood. She attended a prestigious gymnasium, where her close friend was Olga, the younger sister of Vladimir Nabokov. Both girls were deeply interested in politics, although Olga was a staunch supporter of constitutional monarchy while Ayn Rand favored republican ideas.

Ayn Rand

The October Revolution ended the comfortable existence of the Rosenbaum family. Their property was nationalized, and they fled to Crimea, which remained under the control of the White Army until the end of the Russian Civil War. It was there, in the senior classes of school, that Ayn Rand became an atheist and began to value reason above all other human qualities.

After completing school at the age of 16, she returned to Petrograd (formerly Saint Petersburg) with her family, where they faced horrifying living conditions, hunger, and poverty. In 1924, after three years of education, Ayn Rand graduated from Petrograd State University with a degree in "social pedagogy" with a focus on history. It was during her university years that she became acquainted with the works of Plato and Aristotle, which had a profound influence on her own future creations. Friedrich Nietzsche also became a crucial philosopher for her during this time.

Around the same years, she began publishing her works. Her first published work was an essay about the Polish actress Pola Negri. It was also during this time that she adopted the pseudonym Ayn Rand, under which she gained fame many years later.

Life in the United States

In the fall of 1925, Ayn Rand received an American visa and left the Soviet Union in January. She made a stop in Berlin and finally arrived in New York on February 19, 1926. She spent the first few months in Chicago, where one of her relatives owned a cinema and allowed her to watch movies for free. She then moved to Hollywood, where she took on any job she could to pay the bills.

Her chance came when she met the renowned director Cecil B. DeMille, who hired her as an extra in the film "The King of Kings" and offered her a job as a junior screenwriter. On the film set, she met the young actor Frank O'Connor, whom she married in April 1929. In 1931, Ayn Rand obtained American citizenship.

She made several attempts to bring her parents and sisters to the United States, but they were not allowed to emigrate. Her parents died of hunger during the Siege of Leningrad.

Writing Career and Philosophy

Ayn Rand's first two novels went almost unnoticed, and it was only with her third novel, "The Fountainhead," published in 1943, that she gained fame and financial independence. Her most famous work, "Atlas Shrugged," was published in 1957. Afterward, she focused mainly on philosophical works, publishing her own journals and collections of philosophical essays.

Ayn Rand rejected faith and religion, considering reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge. She advocated for rational and ethical egoism and rejected altruism. In politics, she condemned aggression as immoral, opposed collectivism and anarchism, and supported capitalism as the only system based on the recognition of individual rights. In art, Ayn Rand particularly valued romantic realism.

Critics had mixed opinions about Ayn Rand's works. Some regarded her books as excellent literature that would not achieve commercial success, while others dismissed her writings as mere pulp fiction that would sell well.

Ayn Rand passed away on March 6, 1982, due to heart disease. Despite the controversies surrounding her ideas, she left a lasting impact on literature, philosophy, and political thought.

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