Ayn Rand was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 2, 1905. At age
six she taught herself to read and two years later discovered her first
fictional hero in a French magazine for children, thus capturing the heroic
vision which sustained her throughout her life. At the age of nine she decided
to make fiction writing her career. Thoroughly opposed to the mysticism and
collectivism of Russian culture, she thought of herself as a European writer,
especially after encountering Victor Hugo, the writer she most admired.
During her high school years, she was eyewitness to both the Kerensky Revolution, which she supported, and—in 1917—the Bolshevik Revolution, which she denounced from the outset. In order to escape the fighting, her family went to the Crimea, where she finished high school. The final communist victory brought the confiscation of her father’s pharmacy and periods of near-starvation. When introduced to American history in her last year of high school, she immediately took America as her model of what a nation of free men could be.
When her family returned from the Crimea, she entered the University of Petrograd to study philosophy and history. Graduating in 1924, she experienced the disintegration of free inquiry and the takeover of the university by communist thugs. Amidst the increasingly gray life, her one great pleasure was Western films and plays. Long an admirer of cinema, she entered the State Institute for Cinema Arts in 1924 to study screenwriting.
In late 1925 she obtained permission to leave Soviet Russia for a visit to relatives in the United States. Although she told Soviet authorities that her visit would be short, she was determined never to return to Russia. She arrived in New York City in February 1926. She spent the next six months with her relatives in Chicago, obtained an extension to her visa, and then left for Hollywood to pursue a career as a screenwriter.
On Ayn Rand’s second day in Hollywood, Cecil B. DeMille saw her standing at the gate of his studio, offered her a ride to the set of his movie The King of Kings, and gave her a job, first as an extra, then as a script reader. During the next week at the studio, she met an actor, Frank O’Connor, whom she married in 1929; they were married until his death fifty years later.
After struggling for several years at various nonwriting jobs, including one in the wardrobe department at the RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., she sold her first screenplay, “Red Pawn,” to Universal Pictures in 1932 and saw her play, Night of January 16th, produced on Broadway in 1935. Her first novel, We the Living, was completed in 1934 but was rejected by numerous publishers, until The Macmillan Company in the United States and Cassell Company in England published the book in 1936 and 1937, respectively. The most autobiographical of her novels, it was based on her years under Soviet tyranny.
She began writing The Fountainhead in 1935. In the character of the architect Howard Roark, she presented for the first time the kind of hero whose depiction was the chief goal of her writing: the ideal man, man as “he could be and ought to be.” The Fountainhead was rejected by twelve publishers but finally accepted by the Bobbs-Merrill Company. When published in 1943, it made history by becoming a best seller through word of mouth two years later, and gained for its author lasting recognition as a champion of individualism.
Ayn Rand returned to Hollywood in late 1943 to write the screenplay for The Fountainhead, but wartime restrictions delayed production until 1948. Working part time as a screenwriter for Hal Wallis Productions, she began her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, in 1946. In 1951 she moved back to New York City and devoted herself full time to the completion of Atlas Shrugged.
Published in 1957, Atlas Shrugged was her greatest achievement and last work of fiction. In this novel she dramatized her unique philosophy in an intellectual mystery story that integrated ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, politics, economics and sex. Although she considered herself primarily a fiction writer, she realized that in order to create heroic fictional characters, she had to identify the philosophic principles which make such individuals possible.
Thereafter, Ayn Rand wrote and lectured on her philosophy—Objectivism, which she characterized as “a philosophy for living on earth.” She published and edited her own periodicals from 1962 to 1976, her essays providing much of the material for six books on Objectivism and its application to the culture. Ayn Rand died on March 6, 1982, in her New York City apartment.
Every book by Ayn Rand published in her lifetime is still in print, and hundreds of thousands of copies are sold each year, so far totalling more than twenty-seven million. Several new collections of her work have been published posthumously. Her vision of man and her philosophy for living on earth have changed the lives of thousands of readers and launched a philosophic movement with a growing impact on American culture.
Other sources of Biographical Information on Ayn Rand
- Letters of Ayn Rand; edited by Michael Berliner
- Journals of Ayn Rand; edited by David Harriman
- Ayn Rand (2004); A biography by Jeff Britting
- “My Thirty Years with Ayn Rand”; By Leonard Peikoff in The Voice of Reason
- “Ayn Rand’s Life: Highlights and Sidelights“; by Harry Binswanger
- “Ayn Rand and the Atlas Shrugged Years: Reminiscences and Recollections“; by Mary Ann Sures with Harry Binswanger
- Facets of Ayn Rand; Memoirs by Mary Ann Sures and Charles Sures. The book is available at The Ayn Rand Bookstore)
- Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (A documentary on DVD by Michael Paxton)
Timeline
| 1869 | Father, Zinovy Zacharovich Rosenbaum, born in Breslitovsk, Russia (November 18) |
| 1880 | Mother, Anna Borisovna Kaplan, born in St. Petersburg (October 15) |
1900 |
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|---|---|
| 1904 | Parents married (May 3) |
| 1905 | Born in St. Petersburg (February 2; i.e., January 20 on the Julian calendar) |
1910 |
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| 1911 | Teaches self to read |
| 1912 | Family moves to an apartment on Nevsky Prospekt at Znamenskaya Square |
| 1913 | Attends first motion picture exhibition in St. Petersburg |
| 1914 | Reads first romantic fiction, The Mysterious Valley; decides to become a writer |
| 1917 | Witnesses first shots of February revolution |
| 1918 | Discovers writings of Victor Hugo To escape civil war, family moves to Ukraine (fall) and then Yevpatoria, Crimea (spring) |
1920 |
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| 1920 | Discovers Aristotle’s works in high school |
| 1921 | Graduates from Yevpatoria High School #4 (June 30) Family returns to Petrograd Enrolls in Petrograd State University (circa August 24) Discovers the works of Nietzsche (1921–22) |
| 1924 | Discovers Viennese operettas Graduates from Leningrad State University (October 13) Enrolls in State Technicum for Screen Arts (October 15) |
| 1925 | “Pola Negri” pamphlet published in Moscow and Leningrad Receives permission to leave USSR (October 29) |
| 1926 | “Hollywood: American Movie City” pamphlet published in Moscow and Leningrad Departs Leningrad (January 17) Sails from Le Havre, France, for America on the De Grasse (February 10) Arrives in Manhattan (February 19) Resides in Chicago with relatives (February–August) Arrives in Hollywood (September 3) Hired as movie extra by Cecil B. DeMille (September) Meets Frank O’Connor on set of The King of Kings (September) |
| 1927 | Hired by DeMille as junior screen writer (circa June 11) |
| 1929 | Marries Frank O’Connor (April 15) Hired by RKO wardrobe department |
1930 |
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| 1931 | Becomes U.S. citizen (March 13) |
| 1932 | Sells “Red Pawn” to Universal Pictures (September 2) |
| 1934 | Makes first entry in philosophic journal (April 9) Writes Ideal. First play, Woman on Trial, opens in Hollywood (October 2) Moves to New York City (November) |
| 1935 | Night of January 16th (formerly, Woman on Trial) opens on Broadway. (September 16) Makes first notes for The Fountainhead (December 4) |
| 1936 | We the Living published by Macmillan(April 18) |
| 1938 | Anthem published in Britain by Cassell (circa May 7) |
| 1939 | Receives last communication from parents in USSR (circa January) |
1940 |
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| 1940 | Works for the Wendell Willkie presidential campaign. The Unconquered (We the Living adaptation) opens on Broadway (February 13) |
| 1942 | Delivers The Fountainhead manuscript to Bobbs-Merrill (December 31) |
| 1943 | The Fountainhead published by Bobb-Merrill(May 8) Begins writing “The Moral Basis of Individualism” (August 18) Moves to California to write The Fountainhead screenplay for Warner Bros.(November 25) |
| 1944 | Buys Von Sternberg house designed by Richard Neutra. (July) Writes screenplay for Love Letters (September) |
| 1945 | Makes first notes for Atlas Shrugged (January 1) Guest of Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin East (February 3–4) The Fountainhead reaches #6 on New York Times best-seller list (August 26) First installment of “illustrated” Fountainhead begins in Hearst newspapers nationwide (December 24) |
| 1946 | First U.S. edition of Anthem published (circa July) |
| 1949 | The Fountainhead film opens (June 23) |
1950 |
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| 1951 | Returns permanently to New York City (October 23) |
| 1955 | Finishes writing “Galt’s Speech” (October 13) |
| 1957 | Finishes writing Atlas Shrugged (March 20) Atlas Shrugged published by Random House. (October 10) |
| 1958 | Begins teaching fiction writing class (January 18) Presents first campus talk, at Queens College (March 6) |
1960 |
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| 1960 | Delivers first major campus talk, “Faith and Force: Destroyers of the Modern World,” at Yale University (February 17) |
| 1961 | First nonfiction For the New Intellectual published (March 24) Presents first Ford Hall Forum talk, “The Intellectual Bankruptcy of Our Age” (March 26) |
| 1962 | First issue of The Objectivist Newsletter published (January) Nathaniel Branden Institute opens (January) Weekly column begins in the Los Angeles Times (June 17) |
| 1963 | Receives honorary doctorate from Lewis and Clark University (October 2) |
| 1964 | The Virtue of Selfishness published (December) |
| 1966 | First installment of “Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology” published in The Objectivist (July) |
| 1967 | Makes first appearance on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (August 16) |
| 1968 | Nathaniel Branden Institute closes (May) |
| 1969 | Begins teaching nonfiction writing course (March 8) Witnesses launch of Apollo 11 (July 16) Presents first epistemology workshop (October 11) |
1970 |
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| 1974 | Presents “Philosophy: Who Needs It” talk at West Point (March 6) Nora Drobysheva (Ayn Rand’s sister) arrives for visit from USSR (April 14) Attends White House dinner for Alan Greenspan swearing-in (September 4) |
| 1976 | Publishes last article in The Ayn Rand Letter (January—February) Attends White House dinner honoring Malcolm Fraser (July 27) |
| 1977 | Ford Hall Forum holds luncheon in her honor (April 10) Outlines screenplay for Atlas Shrugged television miniseries (September) |
| 1979 | Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology published by New American Library (April) Frank O’Connor dies (November 9) |
1980 |
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| 1981 | Delivers last Ford Hall Forum lecture, “The Age of Mediocrity” (April 26) Delivers last public lecture, “The Sanction of the Victims,” in New Orleans (November 21) |
| 1982 | Writes her last page of “Atlas Shrugged” teleplay (January 1) Dies in New York City (March 6) |
