Ayn Rand Letter 1971-1976

by Ayn Rand

Genres: Philosophy

408 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Polemical novels, such as The Fountainhead (1943), of primarily known Russian-American writer Ayn Rand, originally Alisa Rosenbaum, espouse the doctrines of objectivism and political libertarianism.

Fiction of this better author and philosopher developed a system that she named. Educated, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early initially duds and two Broadway plays, Rand achieved fame. In 1957, she published Atlas Shrugged , her best-selling work.

Rand advocated reason and rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism as opposed to altruism. She condemned the immoral initiation of force and supported laissez-faire capitalism, which she defined as the system, based on recognizing individual rights, including private property. Often associated with the modern movement in the United States, Rand opposed and viewed anarchism. In art, she promoted romantic realism. She sharply criticized most philosophers and their traditions with few exceptions.

Books of Rand sold more than 37 million copies. From literary critics, her fiction received mixed reviews with more negative reviews for her later work. Afterward, she turned to nonfiction to promote her philosophy, published her own periodicals, and released several collections of essays until her death in 1982.

After her death, her ideas interested academics, but philosophers generally ignored or rejected her and argued that her approach and work lack methodological rigor. She influenced some right conservatives. The movement circulates her ideas to the public and in academic settings.

Reviews

[Bailey Summers]

The novella Anthem by Ayn Rand follows a young man named Equality 7-2521 in an unknown city, an abandoned tunnel that we later find out is an old subway tunnel and an uncharted forest. The world in the novella is communist, it expands on the idea of what the world would look like if every man had to be equal. No one is allowed to think for themselves, make their own decisions, or challenge their government, these are transgressions. Equality is different because he willingly commits all of the transgressions. For as long as he can remember, he has gone against his society's standards. He wants when they should not and because of these wants he wants to be a Scholar, but is made to be a Street Sweeper by the council. While walking he finds an abandoned tunnel with many things left over from the Unmentionable times which he finds out how to use. When he was working, he saw a beautiful girl named Liberty 5-3000. He likes her which is the greatest transgression, the transgression of preference. He keeps seeing her and develops feelings, eventually giving him the nickname the Golden One because of her hair. In the tunnel he experiments with the things he found, discovering electricity. He explores this new idea and finds/creates a lightbox. He plans to show this to the World Council of Scholars, but they do not appreciate his idea. He runs away into the forest before they can send him to the prison again to be tortured. He walks for a while, enjoying his newfound freedom when he comes across the Golden One, she follows him. They walk together until they come across a house. It's another thing left over from before. It's filled with things that they have never seen before such as many colors, mirrors, books, clothing, and technology. Equality reads the books and discovers the words I and my, since he has only been thinking in the royal this is a shock to him. He relishes in his newfound autonomy and teaches it to the Golden One. They both change their names to Gaea and Prometheus to gain more significance of self. He thinks about how he will save the people in his city from their thinking, saving the world with his mind all while staying safe in his home with his family.

What I liked about the story was the intense world-building and character analysis. Rand goes into detail describing what the dystopian world would have looked at using her knowledge of the world. She also puts effort into showing equality's changing mindset as he gets used to his freedom and a new way of thinking. Something that I didn't like is how she neglected to show the other characters. Liberty has little to no personality or development throughout the book. Other characters are briefly mentioned such as Equality's "friends" and the leaders of the society. I would like to see more development and insight into their thoughts and feelings.

[Cadence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading the book Athem by Ayn Rand because it was different from most of the books I have read. This book used the pronoun "we" throughout almost the entire story up until the very end. Something I really liked about this book was how the main character, Equality, was still himself even though he lived in a society where he was being controlled by the Council. I also liked how he found love even though that was the biggest transgression within his city. Something I disliked about this book was how the House of the Scholar completely ignored Equality's discovery of a light bulb. The way they reacted to his discovery was rude and selfish because they believed they knew everything about the world they lived in, and clearly they didn't. A quote in the book that I liked is, " I wished to know the meaning of things." This world is full of the unknown and knowing that the unknown may be scary, but helpful. Overall this book was full of events and each paragraph was full of interesting information.

[Lena Otey]

I really enjoyed reading Anthem. I really liked how much detail was put into describing each and every character and place. This really made the book come to life in mind. One thing that I didn't enjoy while reading this book was how Liberty lost all of her passion and her rebellious side at the end of the story. She had been this woman who didn't care about the rules and did her own thing. But at the end of the story she lost all of that and more or less let equality have power over her in the same way that the society once did. Something else from the book that really stood out to me was a quote from page one "And we know well that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone.". I though that this quote was important because it really set the tone of the story. It showed you how strange the society was and how codependent everyone was. It also in a way told the readers just how defiant he was when making his discovery and adventuring off alone.

[Cathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This mindset is blasphemous and damning. It makes man god, mankind gods. Not a plan worth the consequences that will follow one straight to hell. Ego=self absorption=self righteousness=working out your life without God=bad decisions and wrong choices for the most part. Nothing good comes from one’s ego. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life are the avenues through which the devil tempts us all. The first sin was committed by the devil, and the first lie was told by him, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Satan is also the father of the ego. Satan hates God and he hates us. If God is not our father, then the devil is, whether you know it or not. Where we spend eternity depends on who our father is. Only two choices, Satan or The Heavenly Father. CathyR

[Aubrey Hinshaw]

Anthem by “Ayn Rand” is a wonderful and thrillful book, perfect for early highschool students. It teaches them different ways to interpret books. Ayn Rand is a talented author by writing the book in such a unique way. The main character Equality, doesn’t know what ego, personality, or what the word “I” is, he refers to himself as “we.” I liked a lot about the book, I liked how the timeline laid out and how Equality would get flashbacks midway through a scene. Overall the book was interesting and quick but there were some things I didn’t enjoy so much. I disliked that Equality had a love interest, yes, it gave some confusion and thrill to the story but it was very cheesy at times. Overall, I would rate this book a ⅘ since there were some negatives for me personally.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had this hardback in the basement since 1983. Various letters from '71 to '75 by Ayn and Leonard in a weekly newsletter like media. I thought I might find interesting positions on Watergate, but she kind of skimmed over it. Skimming, trying to get something to grab hold of, it did little for me. If you were writing a paper about a specific event, maybe it would be more fun to read. But it was moldy and to time to let.it.go. :)

[lyla ★ mcdermott · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring.

[Celena Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was interesting but kinda boring

[Ramon · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a short and yet exciting novel about man living in a collectivist future and discovers his individuality.

[ponkúbol · Rating 1 out of 5]

fuck ayn rand

[Richard Zierer · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's great seeing the chronological development of Rand's commentary on personal events. Some of the pieces were published as part of her non-fiction works, which are generally collections of essays. Highly recommended supplement to the other Objectivist literature.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Ayn Rand Letter" was a publication discussing the philosophy of Objectivism, written by the novelist and creator of the philosophy, Ayn Rand (author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead").

For those unacquainted with Objectivism, Rand described it as follows: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

Some of Rand's essays in this volume are reprinted elsewhere, but many are not. Whereas Rand’s essays from “The Objectivist” and “The Objectivist Newsletter”, there is a significant number of essays by Rand only available in this volume

I recommend this volume for, in particular, Rand’s extensive analysis of the Watergate scandal, Barry Goldwater’s promising but unprincipled bid for the presidency, and the cause of America’s “oil crisis”—though there are many other good articles in this collection, including Rand’s farewell to her readers when her health caused her to cease publication.

If, you enjoy Rand's non-fiction, or are a collector of her work, then I highly recommend this and the two companions, "The Objectivist Newsletter" and "The Ayn Rand Letter".

[Michael Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

After laying out the groundwork of her philosophical system and approach to current events, Ayn Rand ventures into the realm of political interpretation and observation. Highly current at the time, yet with intriguing nuggets throughout suggestive of generalizable major premises to her though. Ever-interesting, if highly focused on the major news media reports of the day.