Ayn Rand, one of the few systematic philosophers who have used imaginative literature to develop their ideas, was a novelist and the founder of the Objectivist school of philosophy. She was an advocate of realism in epistemology, rational self-interest in ethics, limited government in politics, and laissez-faire capitalism in economics. Although Rand rejected ordinary political labels, preferring to call herself a "radical for capitalism," her work strongly influenced the conservative, classical-liberal, and libertarian movements in the United States.

Rand was born Alissa (Russian for Alice) Zinovievna Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 2 February 1905 to Zinovy "Fronz" Zakharovich Rosenbaum and Anna Borisovna Rosenbaum. Her parents were Jewish but were little concerned with religion. Fronz Rosenbaum, a self-made businessman, owned a pharmacy. Alissa was raised in a comfortable middle-class environment in which her intelligence was recognized and encouraged. She learned French and German, and she discovered an early interest in...