'Ayn Rand and the World She Made' (1999) by Anne C Heller

Anne C Heller’s, 'Ayn Rand and the World She Made', is a comprehensive, deeply researched biography that traces the life of Ayn Rand from her privileged childhood in pre-revolutionary Russia through her immigration to America and rise as one of the most controversial thinkers of the 20th century. The book is notable for its even-handed tone — neither hagiography nor hatchet job — and for its focus on how Rand's personal experiences shaped her literary and philosophical work.

Heller begins with Rand’s early life as Alisa Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, growing up in a Jewish bourgeois family disrupted by the Bolshevik Revolution. These formative years — especially the trauma of watching the state expropriate her father’s business — left Rand with a permanent hostility toward collectivism, which would become the foundation of her worldview.

After emigrating to the U.S. in 1926, Rand reinvented herself in Hollywood, where she worked as a script reader and screenwriter before publishing her first major novel, The Fountainhead (1943). Heller traces the development of Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, highlighting how it evolved in tandem with her literary career. The biography covers the immense success of Atlas Shrugged (1957), Rand’s creation of a philosophical movement around her ideas, and the cult-like atmosphere that developed among her followers.

One of the most striking sections of the book details Rand's personal relationships, especially the emotionally charged and ultimately destructive affair with her young protégé, Nathaniel Branden, and its fallout in the Objectivist community. Heller presents this period with psychological insight and draws attention to the often rigid moral expectations Rand imposed on others — and perhaps herself.

Throughout, Heller illustrates the contradictions in Rand’s life: a champion of rationality who could be emotionally impulsive, a fierce individualist who demanded ideological conformity, and a critic of altruism who craved personal loyalty. While sympathetic to Rand’s intelligence and determination, Heller doesn’t shy away from the cultic tendencies of her inner circle or her alienation from the intellectual mainstream.

Ultimately, the book portrays Ayn Rand as a woman of extraordinary conviction and complexity — driven, brilliant, imperious, and wounded. 'Ayn Rand and the World She Made' offers both admirers and critics a richly detailed account of how Rand’s inner life and the 20th-century world around her gave rise to her unique and polarizing legacy.