[tps_title]25. Ayn Rand[/tps_title]
Ayn Rand may have the most humble origins of anyone so far mentioned. She grew up in tzarist Russia, just in time to see her father’s successful pharmacy confiscated by the invading Bolsheviks and her family made to flee the country. She began to despise the totalitarian environment she had always known, and boldly left for the United States at age 21, on a student visa. Her goal upon arrival was to make a name for herself as a Hollywood writer. After writing several plays, however, she realized that her true talents were found in fiction writing. Having penned such enduring best-sellers as “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged”, as well as becoming a trusted friend and advisor to former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, Rand is now recognized as one of the most influential fiction writers of all time.
One survey, by the Library of Congress, found that book readers ranked “Atlas Shrugged” as the second most influential book in their lives after the Bible.
