RAND, Ayn

(1905-1982)

   Russian-born US writer whose Objectivist philosophy, as expounded in most of her work, was influential during the 1950s among college students, who were perhaps attracted by her instructions to heed one's self-interest, to abjure altruism, and to maximize the SUPERMAN potential within each of us. Her first and better sf novel, Anthem (1938 UK; cut 1946 US), is a DYSTOPIA set after a devastating war. Individualismhas been eliminated, along with the concept of the person, but the protagonist discovers his identity while escaping with a beautiful woman to the forest, where he christens himself Prometheus. The Fountainhead (1943) is a MAINSTREAM novel advancing AR's vision of things. In AtlasShrugged (1957), which is sf, John Galt (AR's mouthpiece) and his Objectivist colleagues abandon an increasingly socialistic USA and retreat to the mountains as civilization crumbles, prepared to return only when they will be able to rebuild along the lines of Objectivist philosophy. AR's influence lessened over the years. Two Girls, Fat and Thin (1991) byMary Gaitskell systematically caricatures AR and her work.

   JC

   See also: ECONOMICS; LIBERTARIAN SF; POLITICS; SOCIAL DARWINISM; SOCIOLOGY; WOMEN SF WRITERS.