The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand was born Alissa Rosenbaum on February 2, 1905 in St. Petersburg, Russia. She left Russia and her family in January 1926, never to return. Her novel The Fountainhead was published in 1943 and eventually became a bestseller. Still occasionally working as a screenwriter, Rand moved to New York City in 1951 and published Atlas Shrugged in 1957. Her novels espoused what came to be called Objectivism, a philosophy that champions capitalism and the preeminence of the individual.