Ayn Rand Signed Photograph.

RAND, Ayn.

Item Number: 12002

Large signed photograph of Ayn Rand. Inscribed, “To Carl Schaefer—Cordially— Ayn Rand 8/18/48.” The photograph measures 11 inches by 14 inches. Matted and framed, which measures 17.5 inches by 20.5 inches. Photographs signed by Rand are exceptionally rare.

Ayn Rand is known for her two best-selling novels, The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957), and for developing a philosophical system called Objectivism. “From 1943 until its publication in 1957, [Rand] worked on the book that many say is her masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged. This novel describes how a genius named John Galt grows weary of supporting a society of ungrateful parasites and one day simply shrugs and walks away. He becomes an inspiration to like-minded men and women, all of whom eventually follow his example, until society, in its agony, calls them back to responsibility and respect. Again [as with Rand’s novel The Fountainhead in 1943] reviews were unsympathetic, and again people bought the book” (ANB). By 1984 more than five million copies of Atlas Shrugged had been sold, and in a 1991 Library of Congress survey Americans named it second only to the Bible as the book that had most influenced their lives.