Ayn Rand’s classic tale of a dystopian future of the great “We”-a world that deprives individuals of a name or independence-that anticipates her later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. They existed only to serve the state. They were conceived in controlled Palaces of Mating. They died in the Home of the Useless. From cradle to grave, the crowd was one-the great WE. In all that was left of humanity there was only one man who dared to think, seek, and love. He lived in the dark ages of the future. In a loveless world, he dared to love the woman of his choice. In an age that had lost all trace of science and civilization, he had the courage to seek and find knowledge. But these were not the crimes for which he would be hunted. He was marked for death because he had committed the unpardonable sin: He had stood forth from the mindless human herd. He was a man alone. He had rediscovered the lost and holy word-I. “I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities.”-Ayn Rand

Equality 7-2521 is a young man who yearns to understand “the Science of Things,” but he lives in a bleak, dystopian future where independent thought is a crime and where science and technology have regressed to primitive levels. All expressions of individualism have been suppressed in his world: personal possessions are nonexistent, individual preferences are condemned as sinful, and romantic love is forbidden. Obedience to the collective is so deeply ingrained that the very word “I” has been erased. In pursuit of his quest for knowledge, Equality 7-2521 struggles to answer the questions that burn within him.

He lived in the dark ages of the future. In a loveless world he dared to love the woman of his choice. In an age that had lost all trace of science and civilization he had the courage to seek and find knowledge. But these were not the crimes for which he would be hunted. He was marked for death because he had committed the unpardonable sin: he had stood forth from the mindless human herd. He was a man alone.

Ayn Rand’s classic tale of a future dark age of the great “We,” in which individuals have no name, no independence, and no values, anticipates her later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged

Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller–nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Atlas Shrugged is the “second most influential book for Americans today” after the Bible, according to a joint survey of five thousand people conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club in 1991.

In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts?

This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world–and did. In defense of those greatest of human qualities that have made civilization possible, he sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike. Is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battle not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? The answers will be revealed once you discover the reason behind the baffling events that wreak havoc on the lives of the amazing men and women in this remarkable book.

Tremendous in scope and breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus, which launched an ideology and a movement. With the publication of this work in 1957, Rand gained an instant following and became a phenomenon. Atlas Shrugged emerged as a premier moral apologia for capitalism, a defense that had an electrifying effect on millions of readers (and now listeners) who had never heard capitalism defended in other than technical terms.

Atlas Shrugged is the “second most influential book for Americans today” after the Bible, according to a joint survey of five thousand people conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club in 1991.

In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts?

This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world–and did. In defense of those greatest of human qualities that have made civilization possible, he sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike. Is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battle not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? The answers will be revealed once you discover the reason behind the baffling events that wreak havoc on the lives of the amazing men and women in this remarkable book.

Tremendous in scope and breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus, which launched an ideology and a movement. With the publication of this work in 1957, Rand gained an instant following and became a phenomenon. Atlas Shrugged emerged as a premier moral apologia for Capitalism, a defense that had an electrifying effect on millions of readers (and now listeners).

After the publication of Atlas Shrugged in 1957, Ayn Rand turned to nonfiction writing and occasional lecturing. Her aim was to bring her philosophy to a wider audience and to apply it to current cultural and political issues. The taped lectures and the question-and-answer sessions that followed added not only an eloquent new dimension to Ayn Rand’s ideas and beliefs but also a fresh and spontaneous insight into Ayn Rand herself. Ayn Rand Answers is a collection of those enlightening Q&As.

Topics covered include ethics, Ernest Hemingway, modern art, Vietnam, Libertarians, Jane Fonda, religious conservatives, Hollywood communists, atheism, Don Quixote, abortion, gun control, love and marriage, Ronald Reagan, pollution, the Middle East, racism and feminism, crime and punishment, capitalism, prostitution, homosexuality, reason and rationality, literature, drug use, freedom of the press, Richard Nixon, New Left militants, HUAC, chess, comedy, suicide, masculinity, Mark Twain, improper questions, and more.

The foundations of capitalism are being battered by a flood of altruism, which is the cause of the modern world’s collapse. This is the view of Ayn Rand, a view so radically opposed to prevailing attitudes that it constitutes a major philosophic revolution. In her series of essays, she presents her stand on the persecution of big business, the causes of war, the default of conservatism, and the evils of altruism.

This collection of twenty-six essays includes twenty by Ayn Rand as well as three essays by Alan Greenspan, two by Nathaniel Branden, and one by Robert Hessen. These essays are a challenging look at modern society by some of America’s most provocative intellectuals.

Von der Autorin des Romans „Atlas wirft die Welt ab“.
Weltweiter Bestseller! Mehr als 6,5 Millionen verkaufte Exemplare!
Der Ursprung, Ayn Rands zeitloser Klassiker von 1943, beschreibt seinen Helden Howard Roark als einen Menschen, der die Motivation für seine Arbeit aus sich selbst schöpft und nicht um den Applaus anderer bemüht ist. Dieser junge Architekt kämpft nicht nur für die künstlerische Vision seiner Bauten, sondern gegen die Maßstäbe der „Autoritäten“ und gegen die Herrschaft der Mittelmäßigkeit, der Gleichmacherei und der Beliebigkeit – und gegen eine atemberaubend schöne Frau, die ihn leidenschaftlich liebt, aber seinen schlimmsten Feind heiratet.
Roark geht seinen Weg ohne überbordende Emotionen oder Verwunderung. Er geht ihn einfach, weil es für ihn so sein muss.
Roarks Gegner besitzen kein Selbst, sie leben in einer anderen Welt, eben aus zweiter Hand. Sie fühlen sich angesichts der Naturgewalten klein und hilflos, während schöpfende Menschen wie Roark von den Naturgewalten an die Größe des menschlichen Gestaltungswillens erinnert werden.
Ayn Rand schrieb: „Bestimmte Schriftsteller, von denen ich einer bin, leben, denken oder schreiben nicht für die Spanne des Augenblicks. Romane, im korrekten Wortsinn, werden nicht geschrieben, um nach einem Monat oder einem Jahr zu verschwinden“. Und sie hatte Recht. Nach mehr als 70 Jahren ist Der Ursprung immer noch eines der beliebtesten Bücher der Weltliteratur.

“Ideas are the greatest and most crucially practical power on earth.”—Ayn Rand

One of the most controversial figures on the intellectual scene, Ayn Rand was the proponent of a moral philosophy of rational self-interest that stands in sharp opposition to the ethics of altruism and self-sacrifice. Her unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide following. The fundamentals of this morality are vibrantly set forth here by this spokesman for a new class of intellectual. For the New Intellectual is Ayn Rand’s challenge to the prevalent philosophical doctrines of our time and the “atmosphere of guilt, of panic, of despair, of boredom, and of all-pervasive evasion” that they create.

Von der Autorin der weltweitbekannten Romane Atlas wirft die Welt ab und Der Ursprung.
Gleichheit 7-2521 lebt in den dunklen Zeiten der Zukunft, in denen alle Entscheidungen von Ausschüssen getroffen werden, alle Menschen in Kollektiven leben und alle Spuren des Individualismus ausgelöscht wurden. Trotz eines solch restriktiven Umfelds brennt in ihm immer noch der Funke des individuellen Denkens und der Freiheit.
Er, Gleichheit, 7-2521, verlor fast sein Leben, weil sein Wissen als verräterische Blasphemie angesehen wurde. In einer Welt des großen “Wir” hat er das verlorene und heilige Wort – “Ich” – wiederentdeckt.
Ayn Rands Klassiker über die finstere Zukunft des großen „Wir“, wo Individuen keine Namen, keine Unabhängigkeit und keinen Wert haben, ist der Vorlauf zu ihren späteren Meisterwerken Der Ursprung und Atlas wirft die Welt ab.
Die Originalausgabe erschien unter dem Titel “Anthem”.
Copyright © 1938 Ayn Rand. Introduction copyright © 1995 the Estate of Ayn Rand. © 2016 Aus dem Amerikanischen übersetzt von Philipp Dammer (P)2020 ABP Verlag

Author Ayn Rand’s novel Ideal, in print for the first time ever–a landmark event for fans of the groundbreaking philosopher

Originally conceived as a novel but then transformed into a play by Ayn Rand, Ideal is the story of beautiful but tormented actress Kay Gonda. Accused of murder, she is on the run and turns for help to six fans who have written letters to her, each telling her that she represents their ideal–a respectable family man, a far-left activist, a cynical artist, an evangelist, a playboy, and a lost soul. Each reacts to her plight in his own way, providing a glimpse into their secret selves and their true values. In the end their responses to her pleas give Kay the answers she has been seeking.

Ideal was written in 1934 as a novel, but Ayn Rand thought the theme of the piece would be better realized as a play and put the novel aside. Now both versions of Ideal are available for the first time ever to the millions of Ayn Rand fans around the world, giving them a unique opportunity to explore the creative process of Rand as she wrote first a book, then a play, and the differences between the two.

In the 1960s and early ’70s, the most prominent, vocal cultural movement was the New Left: a movement that condemned America and everything it stood for: individualism, material wealth, science, technology, capitalism.

While the New Left achieved limited political success, it brought about vast cultural changes that remain with us to this day. The reason is that while its representatives faced some political opposition, they faced little-to-no fundamental intellectual opposition. Ayn Rand was the exception. In her essays from this period, anthologized in The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution, she opposed the New Left as no one else did. The audience of the book, she wrote, is “all those who are concerned about college students and about the state of modern education” and who are seeking “a voice of reason to turn to.”

In her essays, Ayn Rand identified the essential evils of the New Left and their cause. Where most viewed the New Left and its violent college protests, its worship of untouched nature, and its orgiastic mob celebrations as some sort of inexplicable, youthful rebellion against the “establishment,” Ayn Rand identified that these “rebels” were in fact dutiful, consistent practitioners of the ideas taught to them by their teachers.

Return of the Primitive is an expanded edition of The New Left. It features the entire contents of the original edition authorized by Ayn Rand, plus two of her other essays, “Racism” and “Global Balkanization,” which are highly relevant to today’s campuses and world. Additionally, it features three essays written by Peter Schwartz after her death, analyzing some of the ideologies that the New Left helped spawn, such as multiculturalism and environmentalism.

For those who seek to understand the state of American culture today, Return of the Primitive is required reading.

In 1969, the world-renowned author Ayn Rand gave a series of informal lectures on the art of nonfiction to a select group of friends and associates. These edited transcripts take the listener step by step through the writing process, providing insightful observations and invaluable techniques along the way.

Rand discusses the psychological aspects of writing and the different roles played by the conscious and subconscious mind. She explains how to select a subject and theme, how to identify your audience, and how to write the first draft. From preparing an outline to mastering an individual writing style, this crucial resource introduces the ideas of one of our most enduring authors to a new generation.

Aspiring–and established–writers of nonfiction will find this guide to creating effective nonfiction invaluable.

This remarkable, newly revised collection of Ayn Rand’s early fiction, now including the previously unpublished short story, “The Night King,” ranges from beginner’s exercises to excerpts from early versions of We the Living and The Fountainhead. Arranged chronologically, from 1926 through 1940, these works allow readers to follow the extraordinary trajectory of Rand’s literary and intellectual growth during a critical decade: from a twenty-one-year-old Russian immigrant struggling to master English to the brilliant prose stylist she was to become in her mature work. Chosen and introduced by Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand’s longtime associate and literary executor, each piece represents a significant advance in Rand’s evolution as artist and philosopher.

One of the century’s most challenging novels of ideas, The Fountainhead champions the cause of individualism through the story of a gifted young architect who defies the tyranny of conventional public opinion.

The struggle for personal integrity in a world that values conformity above creativity is powerfully illustrated through three characters: Howard Roarke, the genius who is resented because he creates purely for the delight of his own work and on no other terms; Gail Wynand, the newspaper mogul and self-made millionaire whose power was bought by sacrificing his ideals to the lowest common denominator of public taste; and Dominique Francon, the devastating beauty whose desperate search for meaning has been twisted, through despair, into a quest to destroy the single object of her desire: Howard Roarke.

Dramatic, poetic, and demanding, The Fountainhead remains one of the towering books on the contemporary intellectual scene.

In this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned collection of essays, Ayn Rand throws new light on the nature of art and its purpose in human life. Once again, Rand demonstrates her bold originality and her refusal to let popular catchphrases and conventional ideas define her sense of the truth.

In her ethics AynRand extolled the virtue of selfishness–and in her theory of art she was no less radical. Piercing the fog of mysticism and sentimentality that engulfs art, the essays in The Romantic Manifesto explain why, since time immemorial, man has created and consumed works of art.Rand eloquently asserts that one cannot create art without infusing it with one’s own value judgments and personal philosophy–even an attempt to withhold moral overtones only results in a deterministic or naturalistic message. Because the moral influence of art is inescapable, she argues, art should always strive to elevate the human spirit.

The Romantic Manifestotakes its place besideThe FountainheadandAtlas Shruggedas one of the most important achievements of our time.

The provocative title of Ayn Rand’s The Virtue of Selfishness introduces an equally provocative thesis about ethics. Traditional ethics has always been suspicious of self-interest, praising acts that are selfless in intent and calling acts that are motivated by self-interest amoral or immoral. Ayn Rand’s view is exactly the opposite.

This collection of nineteen essays is an effective summary of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, which holds the value of the individual over and above that of the state or any other collective. The thread running through all of the essays is Rand’s definition of selfishness as “rational self-interest,” with the idea that one has the right to assure one’s own survival, to pursue happiness, and to own the fruits of one’s labor without having to sacrifice any of these to others against one’s will.

In the years between her first public lecture in 1961 and her last in 1981, Ayn Rand spoke and wrote about topics as different as education, medicine, Vietnam, and the death of Marilyn Monroe. In The Voice of Reason, these pieces are gathered together in book form for the first time. Written in the last decades of Rand’s life, they reflect a life lived on principle, a probing mind, and a passionate intensity. With them are five essays by Leonard Peikoff, Rand’s longtime associate and literary executor. The work concludes with Peikoff’s epilogue, “My Thirty Years with Ayn Rand: An Intellectual Memoir”, which answers the question “What was Ayn Rand really like?” Important reading for all thinking individuals, this collection communicates not only Rand’s singular worldview, but also the penetrating cultural and political analysis to which it gives rise.

Published together for the first time are three of Ayn Rand’s compelling stage plays. The courtroom drama Night of January 16th, a 1935 Broadway success famous for leaving the verdict to the audience, is presented here in its definitive, final revised text—a superb dramatization of Rand’s vision of human strengths and weaknesses. Also included are two of Rand’s unproduced plays: Think Twice, a clever philosophical murder mystery, and Ideal, a bitter indictment of people’s willingness to betray their highest values, as symbolized by a Hollywood goddess suspected of a crime and fleeing the authorities.

We the Living portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three people who demand the right to live their own lives. At its center is a girl whose passionate love is her fortress against the cruelty and oppression of a totalitarian state.

Of this book, Ayn Rand said, “it is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write. The plot is invented, the background is not. I was born in Russia, I was educated under the Soviets; I have seen the conditions of existence that I describe. The specific events of Kira’s life were not mine; her ideas, her convictions, her values were and are.”

We the Living is not a story of politics, but of the men and women who have to struggle for existence behind the Red banners and slogans. It is a picture of what dictatorship-of any kind-does to human beings. What happens to the defiant ones? What happens to those who succumb? Who are the winners in this conflict? For those who found Ayn Rand’s blockbuster Atlas Shrugged a powerful voice raised in defense of the individual, this book continues the theme of an individual’s right to the pursuit of his or her own happiness.

“Ideas are the greatest and most crucially practical power on earth,” wrote Ayn Rand.In the title essay of this collection, Leonard Peikoff applies this principle to the world of business. He shows that certain philosophic ideas, such as reason, egoism, and individualism, are needed to defend and protect the freedom of businessmen, while the opposite ideas, such as mysticism, altruism, and collectivism (which dominate our universities), destroy that freedom. Other essays in this volume will help businessmen understand the crucial role of philosophy in free trade, free markets, health care, and business ethics.

Why Businessmen Need Philosophy is important reading for any businessman who wants to defend his freedom–and anyone else who wants to understand and defend business.