Born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum in Russia, Ayn Rand immigrated to the United States in 1926. After adopting her pen name, she initially struggled to find success with her early novels and Broadway plays. She achieved a major breakthrough and widespread fame with the publication of her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead.
In 1957, Rand published her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, which became a major bestseller. Following this, she shifted her focus from fiction to non-fiction, writing essays and publishing periodicals to promote Objectivism, her philosophical system. Objectivism advocates for reason, rational and ethical egoism, and laissez-faire capitalism, while rejecting altruism, religion, and the initiation of force. In art, she championed a style she termed romantic realism.
Rand's literary and philosophical legacy remains highly influential yet controversial. While her books have sold tens of millions of copies, her fiction received mixed to negative reviews from contemporary critics. Academic philosophers have largely dismissed or ignored her work, citing a lack of methodological rigor, but her ideas continue to exert a strong political influence on right-libertarians and conservatives, and are actively promoted by the Objectivist movement.
