Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum) was a Russian-American writer and philosopher best known for her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, as well as for developing the philosophy of Objectivism. She advocated reason, individualism, and laissez-faire capitalism while rejecting religion, altruism, and collectivism. Though her fiction achieved commercial success, it received mixed critical reception, and her philosophical work has been largely dismissed by academic philosophers. Her ideas have influenced some libertarian and conservative thinkers.