Ayn Rand Timeline

In 1932, Rand's first literary success was the sale of her screenplay Red Pawn to Universal Studios, although it was never produced.

Image source: Red Pawn

Rand's courtroom drama Night of January 16th was first staged in Hollywood in 1934, and it reopened successfully on Broadway in 1935.

Image source: Night of January 16th

In December 1934, Rand and O'Connor moved to New York City so she could handle revisions for the successful Broadway production of Night of January 16th.

In December 1935, Rand started her next major novel, The Fountainhead, but took a break from it in 1937 to write her novella Anthem, which depicts protagonists Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 escaping a collectivistic society and rediscovering the word I. Anthem was published in England in 1938, but Rand could not find an American publisher at that time; a revised edition published in 1946 later sold over 3.5 million copies.

Image source: The Fountainhead

In 1936, Rand's first novel was published, the semi-autobiographical We the Living. After the success of her later novels, she released a revised version in 1959 that has sold over three million copies.

Image source: We the Living

In 1943, Rand achieved fame with The Fountainhead, a novel about an uncompromising architect named Howard Roark and his struggle against what Rand described as "second-handers" who attempt to live through others. It was her first major success as a writer.

In 1943, Rand sold the film rights to The Fountainhead to Warner Bros., leading eventually to a Hollywood adaptation of her famous novel.

Image source: The Fountainhead (film)

In 1949, after several delays, the film version of The Fountainhead was released by Warner Bros., bringing Rand's story of architect Howard Roark to movie audiences.

In 1957, Rand published her best-selling work, the novel Atlas Shrugged, which is considered her magnum opus. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays.

Image source: Atlas Shrugged

Rand and her husband were full-time volunteers for Republican Wendell Willkie's 1940 presidential campaign, an early sign of her political engagement in America.

During the Second Red Scare, Rand testified as a "friendly witness" before the United States House Committee on Un-American Activities that the 1944 film Song of Russia grossly misrepresented conditions in the Soviet Union. She also wanted to criticize the 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives for its negative presentation of the business world but was not allowed to do so.

Image source: House Un-American Activities Committee

In 1951, Rand moved from Los Angeles to New York City, where she gathered a group of admirers who met at her apartment on weekends to discuss philosophy, forming the core of what would become the Objectivist movement.

In 1958, Nathaniel Branden established the Nathaniel Branden Lectures, later incorporated as the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI), to promote Rand's philosophy through public lectures.

Image source: Nathaniel Branden

In 1962, Nathaniel Branden and Rand co-founded The Objectivist Newsletter, later renamed The Objectivist, to circulate articles about her ideas.

Rand endorsed several Republican candidates for president of the United States over the years, most strongly Barry Goldwater in 1964. Her political views included supporting abortion rights, opposing the Vietnam War and the military draft, supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, claiming European colonists had the right to invade and take land inhabited by American Indians, and calling homosexuality "immoral" and "disgusting" despite advocating the repeal of all laws concerning it.

Image source: Barry Goldwater

After her close relationship with Nathaniel Branden turned into a romantic affair in 1954, Branden began an affair with the young actress Patrecia Scott in 1964, whom he later married.

In 1968, Rand learned about Branden's relationship with Patrecia Scott, an event that ruptured her personal and professional partnership with Branden and shook the Objectivist movement.

In 1976, Rand retired from her newsletter and, despite her objections to government-run social programs, claimed Social Security and Medicare with the aid of a representative from her lawyers.

In 1979, Peter Schwartz started a newsletter called The Intellectual Activist, which Rand endorsed. She also endorsed The Objectivist Forum, a bimonthly magazine founded by Objectivist philosopher Harry Binswanger, which ran from 1980 to 1987.

Image source: Objectivist periodicals

The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand, a 1984 collection of essays about Objectivism edited by Douglas Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen, was the first academic book about Rand's ideas published after her death. A few articles about her ideas had appeared in academic journals before her death, many in The Personalist.

Image source: The Philosophic Thought of Ayn Rand

In 1985, Leonard Peikoff worked with businessman Ed Snider to establish the Ayn Rand Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Rand's ideas and works.

Image source: Ayn Rand Institute

In 1987, the Ayn Rand Society was founded as an affiliate of the American Philosophical Association. That same year, a New York Times article called Rand the Reagan administration's "novelist laureate".

Image source: Ayn Rand

In 1990, after an ideological disagreement with Peikoff, David Kelley founded the Institute for Objectivist Studies, now known as The Atlas Society.

In 1991, a survey conducted for the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club asked club members to name the most influential book in their lives, reflecting Rand's enduring popular influence.

The 1997 documentary film Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, recognizing her lasting cultural impact.

Image source: Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life

In 1999, The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary academic journal devoted to the study of Rand and her ideas, was established. That same year, The Passion of Ayn Rand, a television adaptation of the book of the same name, won several awards, and Rand's image appeared on a U.S. postage stamp.

Since 2002, the Ayn Rand Institute has provided free copies of Rand's novels to teachers who promise to include the books in their curriculum. From 2002 to 2012, over 60 colleges and universities also accepted grants from BB&T's charitable foundation that required teaching Rand's ideas or works.

The 2008 financial crisis renewed interest in Rand's works, especially Atlas Shrugged, which some saw as foreshadowing the crisis.

In 2012, the Pennsylvania State University Press agreed to take over publication of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, and the University of Pittsburgh Press launched an "Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies" series. That year, political scientist Alan Wolfe dismissed Rand as a "nonperson" among academics, an attitude described as "the traditional academic view."

In 2017, Rand was added to the required reading list for the A Level Politics exam in the United Kingdom, extending her influence into British education.

In 2021, Cass Sunstein said Rand's ideas could be seen in the tax and regulatory policies of the Trump administration, attributing this to the "enduring influence" of Rand's fiction. With over 37 million copies sold as of 2020, her books continue to be read widely.

In 2023, The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies ceased publication, closing a chapter in academic study devoted to Rand's life and philosophy.