Author assessment: Ayn Rand
AYN SHRUGGED BEFORE HER TIME
Celebrated 20th Century novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand was born February 2, 1905, in St. Petersburg, Russia, as Alissa Rosenbaum. Her father owned a pharmacy. As a child, she taught herself to read and write. She became passionate about literature, and she loved to pass the hours poring over periodicals from all over the world. She decided early to pursue writing as a lifelong dream.
Ayn Rand was greatly influenced by the writings of Victor Hugo (who wrote THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME). She believed firmly in the power of the individual and the unlimited potential of the human soul to define and create success.
As a teen, she lived through the Russian Revolution. She enrolled in the University of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) to study history and philosophy. During these years, she developed an interest in filmmaking and screenwriting as well.
Shortly afterwards, she emigrated to the United States. She arrived, nearly penniless, in New York City in 1926. Eventually, she made her way to the West Coast, where she met movie mogul Cecil B. DeMille. Working as an extra for KING KONG, she met her husband, Frank O’Connor. They were married for fifty years, until he died in 1979. They had no children.
Over the next few years, as she polished her fluency in English, Ayn Rand wrote Broadway plays and her first novel, WE THE LIVING. Several publishers rejected this work before it was published in 1936. This semi-autobiographical book outlined the terrors of living under the Soviet regime.
By 1943, she published her most famous work, THE FOUNTAINHEAD. This bestseller trumpeted the American dream and the power of the individual. The protagonist, Howard Roark, struggles to overcome practical and metaphysical odds. The novel became a major movie in 19___, starring Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper. The once-controversial book has become standard fare for university students.
Rand’s next book, ATLAS SHRUGGED, arrived in 1957. It was a Romantic novel of epic proportions. The work showcased Rand’s Objectivistic philosophy, which lauded individualism, rationality, self interest, personal integrity, and capitalistic endeavors.
Rand’s Objectivism urged readers to cast off restraint and seek their own happiness, rather than conforming to societal expectations or looking out for the interests of others. “Civilization is the process of setting men free from men,” she wrote.
In Rand’s thinking, the individual was all that matters. She stated it this way: “Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice.”
Ayn Rand died of heart failure on March 6, 1982, in her New York City apartment. She was 77 years old.
After her death, her work and ideologies seemed to gain momentum. Perhaps, as American civilization grew in the 20th Century, and individuals pursued their own dreams and interest, the science of self seemed somehow fitting.
Rand epitomized this geocentricism: “I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine,” she penned.
Her crusading commitment to individuals’ rights (including her pro-choice views, her feminist ideals, and her contention that homosexuality ought to be legalized) might have made her a likelier candidate for 21st Century debates than in her own era.
SOURCES:
http://www.ayn-rand.com
http://www.aynrand.org
http://www.objectivistcenter.o rg
Related Articles
- Day Care Room 4: Questions
- THE THREE BOOKS: GIANT'S PANTS 2
- 100 Greatest Books – Censored by Coos County Schools! | The Coos …
- isparisexpensive.com » Blog Archive » Notre Dame De Paris Song 20 …
- The Real World BookCase: Deja Lu Deja Vu
Leave a Comment