LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Ayn Rand
built 641 days ago
Ayn Rand was born Alice Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, Russia on February 2, 1905 to Fronz and Anna Rosenbaum, the first of three daughters. Fronz Rosenbaum was a moderately successful chemist who was able to provide a good living for his family. As the years of Czarist Russia came to a close, violence surged throughout the country. Rand's parents believed that their children should be spared news of the revolution, and kept them mostly ignorant of political events. As the revolution moved closer and encroached on the family, Rand saw her father's chemistry shop confiscated by Soviet authorities in their attempt to nationalize the economy. It was her first introduction to collectivism, and was one of the early events that led to her philosophy of self-importance.
Source:
The eldest of three sisters, Ayn Rand was born Alissa Rosenbaum on February 2, 1905, in St. Petersburg, Russia, to Fronz and Anna Rosenbaum. Her father, a pharmacist, had his own shop, a rare position for Jews in Russia. A precocious child, Alyssa declared herself an atheist in her early teens, and while she never denied her Jewish heritage, she ... never softened her opposition to religion or any other form of "mysticism." The privations she and her family endured as a result of the Russian Revolution, Including the Bolsheviks taking possession of her father's business, affected her deeply. Somehow she managed to survive the purges of bourgeois students long enough to obtain a degree in history from the University of Leningrad in 1924. At the university, she took a few classes in American political history and found the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence fascinating.
Source:
Ayn Rand currently, though posthumously, has a large impact on presidential politics. After a night of rough sex with Bob Dole, Rand gave birth to Mitt Romney's Hair, which he currently uses to great advantage on the campaign trail.
Source:
Ayn Rand and her philosophical school, Objectivism, have had a considerable influence upon American popular culture, yet the true story of her life and work has yet to be told. In this book, Jeff Walker debunks the cult-like following that developed around the author of the classics Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead--a cult that persists even today.
Source:
As a self-titled "Objectivist," Ayn Rand wrote several famous novels -- two of which were eventually converted into film versions -- to exemplify her ethical and intellectual arguments. In 1949, The Fountainhead was produced from a screenplay Rand adapted from her novel of the same name. Starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal, the individualistic drama unfolds through the story of an architect who refuses to compromise his integrity at any cost -- including the potential loss of romantic love. The Fountainhead, directed by King Vidor in 1949, has been acclaimed both for screen direction and dramatic values. Rand began crafting a script version of Atlas Shrugged -- her highly controversial 1957 novel of biblical proportions -- in the years preceding her death, but did not complete it herself. Produced by Albert Ruddy, the TNT miniseries Atlas Shrugged was delayed for some time, partially due to the knowledge of Rand's desire for ultimate control over the project.
Source:
Director Michael Paxton's comprehensive look at novelist Ayn Rand, the controversial author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, makes no secret of its admiration for the architect of the self-affirming philosophy of "Objectivism." In fact, his suppression of the less attractive aspects of Rand's personality and beliefs, and his unwillingness to include dissenting voices, moves his film closer to hagiography than simple biography, and makes for some mighty dull viewing. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1905, Rand witnessed firsthand the rise of Soviet state at the expense of the individual. The experience fueled both her lifelong crusade against the tyranny of collectivism and her relentless glorification of a masculine ideal inspired largely by the heroes of pulp novels, whom she felt embodied the "manly" values of strength, individualism and unbridled ego. In the mid-'20s, Rand escaped the country she loathed, arriving in the U.S. with a head full of myths about America. An aspiring screenwriter, the future philosopher made her way to Hollywood, where she learned all about the ways of the world through movies.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Ayn Rand