Anthem: The Original 1938 Edition (Booklover's Library Classics)

The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see but only for those who will seek them. Ayn Rand Anthem Anthem has long been hailed as one of Ayn Rands classic novels and a clear predecessor to her later masterpieces The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. In Anthem Rand examines a frightening future in which individuals have no name no independence and no values. Equality 7-2521 lives in the dark ages of the future where all decisions are made by committee all people live in collectives and all traces of individualism have been wiped out. Despite such a restrictive environment the spark of individual thought and freedom still burns in him--a passion which he has been taught to call sinful. In a purely egalitarian world Equality 7-2521 dares to stand apart from the herd--to think and choose for himself to discover electricity and to love the woman of his choice. Now he has been marked for death for committing the ultimate sin. In a world where the great "we" reign supreme he has rediscovered the lost and holy word--"I." Alisa Rosenbaum (Ayn Rand) was born in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg to a prosperous Jewish family. When the Bolsheviks requisitioned the pharmacy owned by her father Fronz the Rosenbaums fled to the Crimea. Alisa returned to the city (renamed Leningrad) to attend the university but in 1926 relatives who had already settled in America offered her the chance of joining them there. With money from the sale of her mothers jewelry Alisa bought a ticket to New York. On arrival at Ellis Island she changed into Ayn (after a name of some Finnish author probably "Aino") Rand (which she said was an abbreviation of her Russian surname). A Best Seller Classic that Belongs to all Booklovers Library.