Ayn Rand / The Romantic Manifesto (Vintage Paperback)

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Ayn Rand, born in St. Petersburg in 1905, recalls growing up in “the last afterglow of the most radiant cultural atmosphere in human history (achieved not by Russian, but by Western culture).” It was an era of literary giants such as Victor Hugo, Friedrich Schiller and Edmond Rostand, when “art projected an overwhelming sense of intellectual freedom, of depth, i.e., concern with fundamental problems, of demanding standards, of inexhaustible originality, of unlimited possibilities, and, above all, of profound respect for man.”

That atmosphere’s evaporation in the twentieth century — not only from neglect but through nihilistic movements in all of art’s branches — helped inspire Rand to elucidate her own esthetic theory and campaign for an esthetic renaissance. In these essays, she argues that art is not a luxury but a critical need — not a material need, but a need of man’s rational mind, on which his material survival depends.

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