America's Persecuted Minority: Big Business

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) was a Russian-American writer and philosopher. She is known for her two best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism. Born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum on February 2, 1905 in St. Petersburg, Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. Her 1935 Broadway play Night of January 16th was both a critical and popular success. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead. In 1957, Rand published her best-known work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays. She died in Manhattan, New York on March 6, 1982, at the age of 77.