Few philosophers or philosophies can claim the public recognition and "fan" following of Ayn Rand (1905-1982) and her philosophy, Objectivism. Espoused in several novels and in countless essays and speeches, Rand's Objectivism glorifies the heroic individual pursuing his/her goals utterly free of the fetters that society, especially government, would place upon him/her. Though Rand's written works have always been extremely popular, it was the movie of her novel The Fountainhead, starring Gary Cooper, that made her a kind of intellectual celebrity. Rand and her philosophy have attained a kind of cult stature among college students, not least because her works narrate the process by which a person can articulate a principled rejection of the social mores in which they were raised.

Ayn Rand was born Alisa Rosenbaum in 1905 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her father's pharmacy was confiscated by Bolshevik authorities after the...