AYN RAND COMPLETE WORKS Vol. 1 (Special Nook Edition): AYN RAND'S ANTHEM Novel by Ayn Rand Worldwide Bestselling Author of THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED (Ayn Rand Objectivist Objectivism Collection) Tea Party Philosophy & Politics NOOKbook

by Ayn Rand Objectivist Objectivism Collection, Ayn Rand Complete Works for Nook, Ayn Rand

Overview

VOLUME 1 OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF AYN RAND FOR NOOK!

Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Ayn Rand, first published in 1937 in England. It takes place at some unspecified future date when mankind has entered another dark age as a result of the evils of irrationality and collectivism and the weaknesses of socialistic thinking and economics. Technological advancement is now carefully planned (when it is allowed to occur at all) and the concept of individuality has been eliminated (for example, the word "I" has disappeared from the language). As is common in her work, Rand draws a clear distinction between the "socialist/communal" values of equality and brotherhood and the "productive/capitalist" values of achievement and individuality.

Initially, Rand planned on publishing Anthem as a magazine story or serial, but her agent encouraged her to publish it as a book. She submitted it simultaneously to Macmillan Publishers in America and Cassell in England. Both had handled her previous novel, We the Living. According to Leonard Peikoff, "Cassell accepted it immediately... Macmillan turned it down; their comment was: the author does not understand socialism." Another American publisher also turned it down, and Rand's agent was unable to sell it as a magazine serial. Cassell published it in England under the title Ego.

After the success of Rand's novel The Fountainhead, a revised edition of Anthem was published in the US in 1946 by Pamphleteers, Inc., a small libertarian-oriented publishing house owned by Rand's friends Leonard Read and William C. Mullendore.

A 50th Anniversary Edition was published in 1995, including an appendix which reproduces the entire original British edition with Rand's handwritten editorial changes.

The Libertarian Futurist Society awarded Anthem the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award in 1987.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940012294616
Publisher:	PHILOSOPHY & POLITICS PRESS AYN RAND COLLECTION
Publication date:	12/11/2011
Series:	Ayn Rand Collection Nook The Complete Works of Ayn Rand Author of The Fountainhead & Atlas Shrugged AYN RAND NOOKbook
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	139 KB

About the Author

Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1905 – March 6, 1982), was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism.

Born and educated in Russia, Rand migrated to the United States in 1926. She worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood and had a play produced on Broadway in 1935–1936. She first achieved fame with her 1943 novel The Fountainhead. In 1957, she published her magnum opus, the philosophical novel Atlas Shrugged.

Rand's political views, reflected in both her fiction and nonfiction work, emphasize individual rights (including property rights) and laissez-faire capitalism, enforced by a constitutionally limited government.

She was a fierce opponent of all forms of collectivism and statism, including fascism, communism, socialism, and the welfare state, and promoted ethical egoism while rejecting the ethic of altruism. She considered reason to be the only means of acquiring knowledge and its advocacy the most important aspect of her philosophy, stating, "I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows."

Although she rejected the labels "conservative" and "libertarian," Rand is considered one of the three most important women (along with Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson) of modern American libertarianism. David Nolan, one of the founders of the Libertarian Party, stated that "without Ayn Rand, the libertarian movement would not exist." Conversations with Rand in the early 1960s, for example, moved John Hospers, the first presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party, to his libertarian views.

Rand has had continuing influence on right-wing politics and libertarianism. In his history of the libertarian movement, journalist Brian Doherty described her as "the most influential libertarian of the twentieth century to the public at large," and biographer Jennifer Burns referred to her as "the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right." Despite Rand's untraditionally Republican stance as a pro-choice atheist, the political figures who cite Rand as an influence are most often conservative.