The biography of Ayn Rand is well known to all fans of American literature. She is a writer and philosopher, known for her two best-selling books, Atlas Shrugged and Source. She also wrote scripts for films, was a playwright, her works were repeatedly filmed.
early years
Ayn Rand's biography begins in 1905 when she was born. The girl was born in St. Petersburg, on the territory of the Russian Empire. Her father was a Jewish pharmacist, his name was Zalman-Wolf (Zinovy Zakharovich) Rosenbaum. Mother, Hana Berkovna Kaplan, worked as a dental technician. Both parents of Ain died in the besieged Leningrad.
At birth, the heroine of our article was given the name Alisa Zinovievna Rosenbaum. She was the youngest among three daughters.
In 1910, her father began managing a large pharmacy on Nevsky Prospekt, after which the family moved to a large apartment located directly above his workplace. After a couple of years, Zinovy Zakharovich became the owner of this pharmacy.
Alice learned reading and writing skills by the age of four. As a child, she began to write short stories. She received her primary education at the Stoyunina female gymnasium, where she studied with Olga Nabokov’s sister.
After the revolution
The biography of Ayn Rand after the October Revolution was not the best. All the property of her family was confiscated by the Bolsheviks, Alice with her parents and sisters left for the Crimea. She finished school in Yevpatoriya.
In 1921 she returned to Petrograd to enter the university at the faculty of social pedagogy. The course included philology, history and law. During her studies, she was inspired by the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche, who had a significant impact on her worldview. She became a graduate of the university in 1924. At the same time, according to some sources, she failed to finish her studies, since she was expelled because of her bourgeois origin.
Emigration
However, Alice did not leave literary work. In 1925, her work entitled "Paula Negri" was released as a separate publication, which was dedicated to the work of the then-popular American actress of Polish descent.
In 1925, the heroine of our article received a visa, thanks to which she managed to go to study in America. In Chicago, she stayed with her mother's cousins. She never returned from the United States, although her parents and sisters remained living in the Soviet Union. Her sister Natalia was a graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory, and Eleanor emigrated after Alice by invitation in 1973, but soon returned to the USSR. Until her death she remained in Leningrad. The fate of her first love, Leo Beckerman, which was deduced in Ayn Rand's book “We Are Alive” under the name of Leo Kovalensky, was also sad. He was shot in 1937.
Hollywood Career
In America, Alice began with the profession of statistics in Hollywood. She brought four scripts from Russia, but not one of the stories interested local producers.
In 1929, she married the American actor Frank O'Connor, thanks to whom she acquired American citizenship. Ain Rand's husband was eight years older than her. He died in 1979.
At first, the fate of the emigrant was not easy. The studio in which she got a job, went bankrupt in 1927. For the next five years she was interrupted by the temporary earnings of a saleswoman of newspaper subscriptions, a waitress, and a dresser.
First success
An important event in Ain Rand’s biography happened in 1932 when she managed to sell the script of her painting “The Red Pawn” to Universal Studios. She received $ 1,500 for him, which was a lot of money for her at that time. This allowed for a while to forget about the need to earn for survival, to focus solely on literature.
In 1936, her first novel, We Are Alive, was released. This book by Ayn Rand was dedicated to the fate of the deprived in the USSR. So unofficially called all those who were deprived of suffrage after the October Revolution. These included merchants, bankers, private traders and shopkeepers, clergy, former police officers and other law enforcement officials of Tsarist Russia.
Rand worked for six years, the book took her a lot of energy. At the same time, the novel was received extremely critically by critics; American readers showed almost no interest in it.
At the center of the story is the daily struggle of the individual against tyranny in a totalitarian state. The work describes the relationship between three young people, each of whom is trying to achieve his own in post-revolutionary Russia. The main characters are Kira and her two friends: the ideological communist and GPU employee Andrei and the son of aristocrats Leo. Kira herself wants to become independent in spite of poverty and constant hunger. Leo finds himself under the millstones of repression, Andrei uses his official position to help the girl.
In 1942, Mussolini, who considered criticism of the USSR in this novel, unbeknownst to the author ordered him to film. The leading Italian actors of that time were involved in the picture.
Second novel
The first failure did not stop the heroine of our article. In 1937, she wrote the novel "Anthem." Ain Rand in this work paints a picture of a totalitarian society, which by all means suppresses human feelings and creativity in the citizens of his country. This is a classic socio-political dystopia.
Her second novel is called The Source. Ayn Rand releases it at the height of World War II - in 1943. At first, critics took him poorly, but after two years he became a real bestseller, winning readership.
The work begins with the expulsion of student architect Howard Roark from the Institute of Technology for refusing to adhere to generally accepted methods and traditions in the design of buildings. He goes to New York, where he goes to work with a famous architect in the past, who refused a successful career, not wanting to follow the public’s lead.
According to critics, the main idea of the work is that the engines of progress are talented people with a pronounced ego. Roark is a convinced individualist who dreams of transforming the world around him and creating. He defends the freedom of the creative person by all means available to him, refusing to back down from his own professional and life principles, to make any concessions and compromises.
Dystopia
The third novel, Ayn Rand, written in 1957, became one of the most famous works in her creative career. It was called Atlas Shrugged. This is a dystopian novel, which she considered the main work in her literary career.
The key idea of this work is that the whole world really rests on talented creative people who remain single throughout their lives. The writer compares them with the mythical titans that hold the vault of heaven. She believes that if at some point they stop creating, then everything will collapse. This is exactly what happens in the book, when the creators yield to the socialist government.
According to the plot of the novel, American politicians are beginning to support demands aimed at monopolizing markets. At the same time, their demands begin to resemble in a surprising way the demands of the socialists. This begins not only in the United States, but throughout the world. The oppression of big business is gradually spreading, the planned economy is replacing the free market, the country is plunging into darkness and chaos.
At the center of the story is the owner of the mines and a steel king named Hank Rearden. In addition, he is known as the inventor and owner of metallurgical plants, which suffered greatly due to the economic changes that took place in the world. He is assisted by the vice president of the railway company, Dagny Taggert. Together they try to resist what is happening. Soon the whole world is in a deep economic crisis, economic ties are collapsing at a catastrophic rate.
Politicians and businessmen from Washington, in whose hands the real power is concentrated, are trying to regulate the situation by planned methods, but the situation only worsens. Oil production ceases, massive disruptions in coal supplies occur, after some time its production is completely curtailed.
At this moment, Taggert draws attention to the fact that a number of creative people and well-known entrepreneurs have turned off their business, ceasing to do it. He is trying to figure out where they went. It was then that he met his inventor and philosopher John Gault.
The novel is divided into three parts, which are called "Consistency", "Eli-or", "A is A". Their names are fully consistent with the laws of formal logic. In reviews of Ayn Rand books, many noted that this work radically changed their life, made them take a fresh look at the world around them.
Adaptations
This Rand novel became so popular also because it was repeatedly filmed. In 2011, Paul Johansson's American drama Atlas Shrugged appeared on the screens. The film was practically a literal film adaptation of the novel of the heroine of our article. The creators decided to break the work into three parts: the second was released in 2012, and the third in 2014.
In the first part, the focus of the story is Dagny Taggert, who seeks to show her best business qualities, resourcefulness and courage to cope with the management of a large railway corporation. At the same time, the most competent and talented employees of her company begin to disappear one after another. Trying to solve this problem, Dagny meets a large industrialist who manufactures in his factories the riharden metal he invented. Together, they decide to rebuild an important railway line that leads to a large oil field in Colorado.
In the movie Atlas Shrugged, the role of Dagny Taggert is played by Taylor Schilling. Also in the lead roles are Grant Bowler, Matthew Mersden, Graham Beckel, Edie Gategi.
The director of the second part of the film was director John Putsch. This time the role of Dagny Taggert was played by Samantha Matis. The third part was shot by James Maner, and the image of the main character on the screen was embodied by Laura Regan.
It is worth noting that films based on the novels of Ayn Rand were shot more than once. In addition to this trilogy and the story of Mussolini, in 1949 her work “The Source” was screened with two Academy Award winners Gary Cooper in the title role.
Philosophical Works
After the success of Atlas Shrugged, Rand focused on philosophical works. From 1961 to 1982, she wrote works:
- "For a new intellectual";
- "Capitalism: the unknown ideal";
- "The virtue of egoism";
- "Introduction to the philosophy of cognition of objectivism";
- "The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution";
- "Philosophy: who needs it."
The heroine of our article lectures at universities across the country.
One of the notable works is the collection of essays entitled "The Virtue of Egoism". It is based on the report of the writer, made at the symposium "Ethics of Our Time" at the University of Wisconsin. In the book, Rand through the prism of objectivism examines the concept of ethics, defends the concept of the so-called "rational egoism", which he considers the ethical basis of a capitalist free society.
In the book Capitalism: An Unknown Ideal, Ayn Rand amazes readers with the sharpness, topicality, and persuasiveness of his observations. Using examples from political, social and economic life, she proves that only a system that puts a personality, a free exchange of goods and ideas at the forefront can make a person free.
Last years
In the 60s and 70s, Rand promoted objectivist philosophy and received his doctorate. Often takes conflicting positions in acute and topical issues.
For example, it opposes the war in Vietnam, but condemns people who shy away from military service. In 1973, she surprised many when she spoke out in support of Israel in the Doomsday War, which unfolded in 1973. Further, she considered homosexuality immoral and disgusting, while at the same time calling for the repeal of all laws relating to the oppression of supporters of same-sex love. The story of Ayn Rand was of interest to many, her fate was closely watched by creative people of that time.
In 1964, it became known that her close associate Nathaniel Branden, with whom she had a romantic relationship, had an affair with a young actress Patricia Scott. They later married, but initially hid their relationship from Rand. The heroine of our article found out about this novel only four years later. By that time, their love relationship had long ended, but she was still furious. Rand completely stopped any communication with Branden, which led to the elimination of their joint project.
In the press, she accused her former ally of lying. In 1974, the writer underwent surgery due to lung cancer. At the end of the 70s, she began to work significantly less; her activities in the framework of the objectivist movement declined after her husband died in 1979. One of her latest projects was the teleadaptation of Atlas Shrugged, which was never completed.
In March 1982, Rand died of heart failure at her own home in New York. She was 77 years old.
The heroine of our article was buried in the Kensiko cemetery. At a farewell to her, several of her followers were present, who sought to further advance her ideas in life. As she bequeathed, Leonard Paykoff became the heir to her entire estate.