Biography
Ain Rand - American writer from Russia. Her real name Alice Zinovievna Rosenbaum. The reader is known for the novels "Atlant straightened the shoulders", "Source", "We are living". Woman is the creator of the philosophical teaching of objectivism. Once she came to America with fifty dollars in his pocket and a printed machine in a suitcase, and today more than 500 thousand copies of its books are published annually in the world, and their total circulation has long exceeded 30 million.Childhood and youth
Alice was born in a Jewish family in St. Petersburg. Her father Zalman-Wolf (Zinoviy Zakharovich) Rosenbaum worked as a pharmacist. Mother Khan Berkovna (Anna Borisovna) Kaplan was a dental technician. Alice had two native sisters - Natalia and Nora. Grandma and grandfather on the motherboard were extremely wealthy people in the city. Berka Izkovich Kaplan owned a large company to sewing clothes for the military, and Rosalia Pavlovna worked in the field of pharmaceuticals.
At first, the father of the girl was the administrator of the pharmacy, but in 1914 he became its co-owner. The family lived in a spacious apartment right above this pharmacy.
Alice was brought up in prosperity, studied in the prestigious female gymnasium named Stulanina. At 4, she learned to read, in school years a girl began writing their first stories. At 9 years old, she realized that in the future she dreams of becoming a writer. The girl saw the inspiration of her family in the period of the February Revolution and felt the scale of the problem during the October.
In 1917, her father had selected a pharmacy, and the family had no exit, except to move at this time in Crimea. Alice graduated from high school in Evpatoria. But soon the Bolsheviks got there.
When the girl was 16, the family returned to St. Petersburg. Alice entered the University of Petrograd at the Faculty of Social Pedagogy. Training was designed for 3 years, the faculty united three sciences at once - history, right and philology. It was then that she became acquainted with the works of Nietzsche, who had a great influence on the young individual. In 1924, she graduated from the university. Although there is a version that the girl was expensive due to its bourgeois origin.
It is not surprising that in the works of Ain Rand, the topic of politics passes in red thread. Many of her heroes fought against the despoty of the king or against the communist power.
Literature
In 1925, the first work of Alice Rosenbaum was printed - "Paul Negri", the history of the creative path of film actresses. In the same year, the girl received an educational American visa and left in the United States. At first, I lived with relatives in Chicago. But after half a year he moved to Los Angeles.
The girl almost did not speak English, from her property she had a small suitcase with personal belongings and a printed machine. As soon as she joined American land, decided to take a pseudonym. The name she chose a simple - Ain, and did not think over the surname for a long time, borrowing the name of the brand of his printed machine "Remington Rand".
Her parents remained in Russia, in Leningrad. They died during the blockade of the city during World War II. Her sister Natalia died in 1945, but Nora at the invitation was immigrated to the United States. True, soon the woman returned to the Soviet Union and lived in Leningrad to the very death - until 1999.
In the US, Alice arrived not with empty hands, in Russia she wrote four full-fledged filmcension. Therefore, her goal was to get to Hollywood. However, she soon began to work in Hollywood by a statist. But her scenarios were rejected. In 1927, Film Studio, in which Ain Rand worked, closed. Woman worked as a waitress, seller, costume.
In 1932, she managed to sell the Scenario of the Universal Studios film company. Her work entitled "Red Pawn" was purchased for $ 1500. And at that time it was a good amount. The money received allowed Ayn Rand to concentrate on writing books.
In 1933, she finished her first play "Ceft Legends." She was even put on Broadway, but the viewer did not use success, so it was soon removed from the repertoire.
In 1934, Ain completed the work on the novel "We - Living", which told about Soviet Russia. It was nothing but a public speech of the writer against communism. Missed the book in 1936, Rand paid $ 100 for it. In the year of release, the novel did not have commercial success. In 1937, the book was published in the UK.
Then Rand plunged into writing the novel "Source". She created this product of as much as 4 years. Sometimes the writer was so given to the process that was sitting behind a printed machine for 30 hours, without interrupting any sleep or a snack.
But the result was worth it, critics highly appreciated the "source", the book 26 times went to the list of national bestsellers. Although initially everyone refused to print a manuscript. Some said that the plot is too controversial, too intellectual and is not designed for the general public. And only the only publisher "Bobbs Meryl Company" agreed to publish the book Rand.
In 1949, a film was removed in Hollywood in Hollywood, the main character - the perfect man Howard Rork - played Gary Cooper. Of course, the success of this work spurned Ain Rand to work more diligently. And in 1957, she published his main novel - "Atlant straightened his shoulders." She worked on the work for 12 years.
In the book, she narrates about freedom, egoism and hypocrisy of modern society, about moral values. According to the surveys of Atlant, the shoulders dealt is in second place after the Bible in the list of books that have the greatest impact on the Americans.
When the book became a bestseller, the early works of the writer were reprinted. For example, the novel "We are alive." True, the writer made some adjustments to the text. According to her, minimal. Today, the first edition of the book is a big rarity and value.
After entering the light of Atlanta, Ayn Rand wrote only the books of journalistic content. She devoted the rest of his life to her philosophical teaching.
Personal life
For the first time Alice Rosenbaum fell in love with St. Petersburg. The object of its attention was Lev Borisovich Beckerman - a graduate of the Leningrad Institute of Technology. It was he who became the prototype of Leo Kovalensky in her work "We are alive." Beckerman was shot on May 6, 1937.
Once on the set, the woman saw the actor Frank O'Connor. After she said that it was her ideal. In 1929, they got married. And in 1931, Ayn Rand received American citizenship. With her husband, they lived in marriage until his death. The man died in 1979.
According to her, the spouse has become her faithful friend, editor and companion in life. True, she did not interfere with the young lover of Nathaniel Brandon, he shared her philosophy and was a follower of the writer. The young man was younger Rand for 24 years. It is noteworthy that Frank knew about this connection, because she lasted for 13 years.
Death
Ain Rand died on March 6, 1982 in his own home in New York. The reason for her death was heart failure. Buried a woman in Kenesico cemetery.
Since she did not have children, she taught Leonard Paikoff. 3 years after the death of the writer, the man founded the "Institute Ain Rand: Center for the Development of Objectivism".
Bibliography
- 1934 - "Ideal"
- 1936 - "We are alive"
- 1938 - "Hymn"
- 1943 - "Source"
- 1957 - "Atlant straightened his shoulders"
- 1958 - "The art of fiction. Guide for writers and readers "
- 1964 - "Virtue of Egoism"
- 1969 - "Romantic Manifesto"
- 1979 - "Introduction to objectivist epistemology"