Ayn Rand (; born
Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, ; – March 6, 1982) was a Russian-born American
novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels,
The Fountainhead (1943) and
Atlas Shrugged (1957), and for developing a philosophical system she called
Objectivism. Born and educated in
Russia, Rand moved to the United States in 1926. She had a play produced on Broadway in 1935–1936. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful in America, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel,
The Fountainhead.