The American novelist Ayn Rand wrote the most intellectually challenging fiction of her generation. She also defined a comprehensive philosophy, including a theory of esthetics in which she explained her literary values, techniques and objectives. In a 1963 speech she is explicit: “The motive and purpose of my writing is the projection of an ideal man. The portrayal of a moral ideal, as my ultimate literary goal, as an end in itself – to which any didactic, intellectual or philosophical values contained in a novel are only the means.” Her vision of the ideal man was a theme uniting her early life, her literary career and her later philosophical work.

Ayn Rand was born Alissa Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg,

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First published 20 October 2001

Citation: Lewis, John David. "Ayn Rand". The Literary Encyclopedia. 20 October 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3705, accessed 9 February 2010.]