Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand was born in Russia February 2, 1905 and died March 6, 1982 in America. She was a Russian-American writer and philosopher best known for her two novels, The Fountainhead and  Atlas Shrugged. She developed a philosophical system she called Objectivism.

Ayn was educated in Russia and emigrated to the United States in 1926. She had a play produced on Broadway in 1935-1936. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful, she achieved fame with her 1943 "The Fountainhead." novel. In 1957, Rand published her best-known work, the novel "Atlas Shrugged" 

She turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals, then released several collections of essays until her death in 1982.

Ann advocated reason as the only way of acquiring knowledge rejecting faith and religion.  In politics, she condemned force as immoral while opposing collectivism and statism as well as anarchism while rejecting, but did not support laissez-faire capitalism.  In art, Rand preferred romantic realism. She was critical of most philosophers and philosophical traditions except Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas and classical liberals!

Literary critics received Rand's fiction with mixed reviews and academia generally ignored or rejected her philosophy as it was clear and understandable. She has been a significant influence with American Conservatives and we are ever in her debt for the clarity of her thinking and writing.  May she now awaken America, a country she knew well and loved like so many who have come here not "for a better life of free stuff," but to make a contribution.

Adrian Vance

Adrian Vance