Ayn Rand and the World She Made
Anne Conover Heller, . . Doubleday/ Talese, $35 (567pp) ISBN 978-0-385-51399-9
Two books examine the life and thought of Ayn Rand.
Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum was born to Jewish parents in 1905 Russia. Ayn Rand left Russia in 1926 for America and founded her anticollectivist philosophy, Objectivism, a philosophy of free market capitalism and the pursuit of self-interest as a moral good. Depressive, pill-taking, chain-smoking and manipulative, Rand's life was defined by a longtime Sunset Boulevard–like affair with Nathaniel Branden, who went on to start the self-esteem movement. At the same time, the combustible Rand was married to a passive man with matinee-idol looks. Magazine editor and journalist Heller competently describes Rand's feuds with William F. Buckley and with her sister, who had remained in the U.S.S.R., and the more courtly relationship Rand had with publisher Bennett Cerf. This objective account of the Objectivist Rand will interest her still large and devoted readership. Photos.
Reviewed on: 09/07/2009
Genre: Nonfiction
Analog Audio Cassette - 978-1-4332-7133-5
Analog Audio Cassette - 978-1-4417-0325-5
Paperback - 608 pages - 978-1-4000-7893-6
