Immigrant of the Day: Ayn Rand (Russia)

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) was a novelist and philosopher. She is widely known for her best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism. She was an uncompromising advocate of rational individualism and laissez-faire capitalism.  The Fountainhead was made into a mortion picture, with Gary Cooper playing the hero of individualism, the architect Howard Roark

Rand was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 1926, she arrived in the United States at the age of 21, entering by ship through New York City, which would ultimately become her home. She was profoundly moved by the city’s skyline, later describing it in one of her novels, The Fountainhead: “I would give the greatest sunset in the world for one sight of New York’s skyline, the sky over New York and the will of man made visible. What other religion do we need? I feel that if a war came to threaten this, I would throw myself into space, over the city, and protect these buildings with my body.”

In 1931, Rand became a naturalized American citizen.

Rand’s books continue to be widely sold and read, with more than 22 million copies sold (as of 2005), and 500,000 more being sold each year.

KJ