Ayn Rand, a Biography

By Jeff Britting

This latest volume of the acclaimed Overlook Illustrated Lives series gives Ayn Rand's legions of fans an unprecedented chance to better understand the author they admire.

Ayn Rand made a profound impact both as a philosopher who defined a new philosophic system, Objectivism, and as a novelist of penetrating insight and vision. Her novels are based on heroic ideals, demonstrating her famous maxim (from which she drew the title of her first best-seller) that "man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress."

The photos and illustrations in this volume have been hand-selected from the Ayn Rand Archives, and most have never been published. They include personal mementos of a St. Petersburg childhood, photos of the schools Rand attended, her family and their home on Nevsky Prospect, from where she witnessed the first shots of the revolution in 1917; Rand's Soviet passport, photos from her early years in America as a screenwriter in Hollywood; personal papers, including Rand's list of the twelve publishers who passed on The Fountainhead; original newspaper articles, first-edition book jackets, film posters, notes, drawings, and many others.

Jeff Britting was associate producer of the documentary film Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, which was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary. Since 1997, he has been archivist at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, California. This is his first book.

Ayn Rand is available now from the Ayn Rand Bookstore.

Ayn Rand's Life and Works  |  Centenary Activities  |  Online Exhibit  |  The Ayn Rand® Archives  |  Ayn Rand, a Biography  |  Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, the Film

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