Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand is not a character in For the New Intellectuals. Instead, she is its author and the entire book is an illustration of her unique ideas. Rand was born February 2nd, 1905 in Russia before the rise of the Soviet Union. Eight years after the October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power, in 1926, Rand emigrated to the United States, finding work as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Rand wrote We the Living in 1936 and Anthem in 1938, excerpts from which are included the For the New Intellectuals.

The Fountainhead was written following Rand's interest and participation in political activism in the doomed 1940 presidential campaign of Republican Wendell Willkie. She wrote the book in 1943 as a romantic and philosophical drama illustrating her radically anti-statist and anti-altruist ideas. The book raised her to fame and led to a screenplay for the film.

Thirteen years later, after a variety of personal...