Ayn Rand: And the World She Made
by Anne C. Heller.  New York:  Doubleday/Nan Talese, 2009.  Pp.567

Reviewed by Dr. Susan K. Hedahl

The author of this well-organized, highly readable and brilliant work states in the preface that “Because I am not an advocate for Rand’s ideas, I was denied access to the Ayn Rand Papers….” (xiv)    After reading her well-researched work, one can understand why.  The author provides the rationale for her book by concluding the Preface with these comments about Rand:  “Gallant, driven, brilliant, brash, cruel, as accomplished as her heroes, and ultimately self-destructive, she has to be understood be believed.” (xiv).  Heller’s work, through her close attention to history, literary critique, archive pictures,  provides understanding for the reader – if not agreement with Rand – in a remarkable fashion.

Rand was born as a Rosenbaum is Czarist Russia.  She eventually made her way to America, never looking back.  Family records are almost uniform in depicting a person who made every effort to cut herself off from all familial and relational ties.  With relatives in both America and Russia, her relationships with them were mostly non-existent.  She changed her name and Heller’s list of possible origins for the name Ayn Rand make for interesting, even humorous, reading.

Against the backdrop of a life-long marriage to a gentle-hearted and retiring man named Frank O’Connor, Rand engaged fiercely in political, philosophical and economic debates and activities.  She and her husband lived on both coasts finally living the last several decades of their lives in New York.  Rand’s fierce personality attracted young followers to her views and produced what many outsiders understood as a cult.  Among these followers she established a relationship (a choke- hold perhaps?) with Nathaniel Brandon and his wife which resulted in a long, intimate relationship between Rand and Nathaniel.  As one reads this account, it is easy to understand why charges of a cult were leveled at the group around Rand.

 The two best-known works of Rand are The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.  Heller describes them this way:  “If The Fountainhead introduced a new and radical brand of American individualism, Atlas Shrugged resurrected interest in American capitalism, at a time when it was under pressure by both the liberal Left and the Christian Right.” ( 270).  Heller also takes needed time to look at some of other Rand’s important works as well, which determined the evolution of Rand’s views.

I found this one of the most engaging biographies I have read in a long while.  Heller does not embellish historical detail but employs it in such a way that one is drawn into this work immediately.

My memories of the library book bag that accompanied us for weeks at our Minnesota lakeside cabin, include a recall of my mother sitting on the beach and reading Atlas Shrugged.   Decades later I now plan to read that book myself.   Many have been influenced by Rand’s writings, including one of her disciples Allan Greenspan.  It would seem given cultural and global realities around money these days – including the Supreme Court’s latest decision to allow corporate funding of political campaigns – the works are worth a re-visit.

But first – read Heller’s book as a truly insightful and useful guide to a figure who wrote about money and US culture in a way no one else ever has.