[Revised entry by Neera K. Badhwar and Roderick T. Long on November 4, 2026.
Changes to: Main text, Bibliography, notes.html]
Ayn Rand (1905 – 1982) was a novelist-philosopher who outlined a comprehensive philosophy, including an epistemology and a theory of art, in her novels and essays. Early in her career she also wrote short stories, plays, and screenplays. Rand’s first and most autobiographical novel, We the Living (1936), set in the Soviet Union, was published only after many rejections, owing to widespread sympathy for the Soviet “experiment” among the intellectuals of the day. We the Living was quickly followed…