Half-length monochrome portrait photo of Ayn Rand, seated, holding a cigarette

Ayn Rand (/ˈaɪn ˈrænd/; born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum; February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1905 – March 6, 1982) was a Russian-born American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, who later in her career^[2] became an essayist and self-styled^[3] philosopher.^[4][5] She is known for her two best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, Rand moved to the United States in 1926. She had a play produced on Broadway in 1935–1936. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel The Fountainhead, which was made into a film of the same title by King Vidor.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn Rand