Ayn Rand (February 2, 1905 – March 6, 1982) was an American writer and philosopher best known for her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing Objectivism, a philosophical system based on reason. She was born in Russia and immigrated to the United States in 1926, and the themes of her books and her philosophy reflect her deep aversion to the collectivism and statism of the Soviet Russia she fled. She wrote plays, screenplays, and novels with some success in the 1920’s and 1930’s. In the 1940’s she became involved in politics and published The Fountainhead in 1943, which became an international bestseller. Her last novel, Atlas Shrugged, was published in 1957, after which she dedicated her affairs to Objectivism and non-fiction writing. Her characters and her philosophy display a belief in ethical egoism, the primacy of individual rights, and the virtue of laissez-faire capitalism as the system best suited to manage human affairs.  Her literary endeavors met with mixed critical reviews and her philosophy, which was highly critical of the entire discipline apart from Aristotle, was largely ignored and rejected by the intelligentsia. Nonetheless, she became popular among right-wing conservatives and a figurehead for libertarians, even though she opposed the libertarian label and Objectivism flatly rejected faith and religion. She gave numerous talks and speeches and often took controversial positions on issues of the day, including support for abortion, opposition to the Vietnam War and the draft, and advocating repeal of laws criminalizing homosexuality. She died in New York of heart failure in 1982.