
Polemical novels, such as The Fountainhead (1943), of primarily known Russian-born American writer Ayn Rand, originally Alisa Rosenbaum, espouse the doctrines of objectivism and political libertarianism. Alisa Rosenbaum entered into a prosperous Jewish family before Russian revolution. When the Bolsheviks requisitioned the pharmacy that Fronz Rosenbaum, her father, owned, the family fled to the Crimea. Alisa returned to the city, renamed Leningrad, to attend the university, but relatives already settled in America and in 1926 offered her the chance of joining them. With money from the sale of jewelry of her mother, Alisa bought a ticket to New York. On arrival at Ellis Island, she changed into Ayn (after a name of some Finnish author, probably "Aino") Rand (a supposed abbreviation of her Russian surname). She moved swiftly to Hollywood, where she learned English, worked in the RKO wardrobe department and as an extra, and wrote through the night on screenplays and novels. Because her original visa as a visitor expired, she also married a "beautiful" bit-part actor, called Frank O'Connor. Rand sold her first screenplay in 1932, but nobody bought We the Living (1936), her first novel and a melodrama, set in Russia. Her first real success was The Fountainhead (rejected by more than ten publishers before publication in 1943). She started a new philosophy, known as objectivism, opposed to state interference of all kinds, and her follow-up novel Atlas Shrugged (1957) describes a group who attempt to escape conspiracy of mediocrity of America. Objectivism has been an influence on various other movements such as Libertarianism, and Rand's vocal support for Laissez-faire Capitalism and the free market has earned her a distinct spot among American philosophers, and philosophers in general.

2012

1957

The Graphic Novel
2020

A Collector's Edition - Original Illustrations and Ayn Rand's Bibliography
2025

1938

2022

1957

2024

The Playboy Interview
1964

The Best of Her Q & A
2009

ATLAS SHRUGGED and THE FOUNTAINHEAD
1995

1990

The Graphic Novel
2011

Her Critical Comments on the Writings of over 20 Authors
1997

1800

The Unknown Ideal
1946

The Destroyers of the Modern World
1993

1961

1934

1979

1995

1936

Who Needs It
1982

The Anti-Industrial Revolution
1971

A Guide for Writers and Readers
2000

A Guide for Writers and Readers
2001

2015

Objectivism from A to Z
1986

1999

A Selection from Her Unpublished Fiction
1984

2009

1943

2017

1997

1970

1990

1990

1969

1961

Essays in Objectivist Thought
1989

2005

1936

1999

2023

Або - або
1957

А є А.
1957

1943

1943