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THE EDUCATION OF AYN RAND, 1905–1943
scarcely a hundred pages that she titled Anthem. Again Rand did not
hesitate to borrow an idea that had worked well for another writer. She
began the project after reading a short science fi ction story, “The Place of
the Gods,” in the Saturday Evening Post. Many of Anthem’s basic elements
mirror those of the story and another famous science fi ction work, Evgeny
Zamyatin’s We, a novel that circulated samizdat in Russia when Rand
lived there. 32 Unlike these other works, however, Rand’s fable emphasized
individual creativity and the destructive power of state control.
Although set in a generic dystopia, Anthem is Rand’s extrapolation of
Communist Russia far into the future, to a time when even the word “I”
has been lost. The novel opens with the fi rst line of Equality 7–2521’s furtive
diary, “We know it is a sin to write this,” and continues in the fi rst-person
plural, giving the novel a sonorous, almost biblical quality. Over the course
of the story Equality 7–2521 fi nds a hidden tunnel where he can escape his
oppressive collectivist society, fi nds love with Liberty 5–3000, and invents
electricity. Rather than welcoming Equality 7–2521’s lightbulb, the despotic
Council of Elders tries to kill him and destroy his invention. The two lovers
fl ee into the forest, where Equality rediscovers the word “I.”
Anthem was a signifi cant departure from Rand’s earlier work because
the story’s hero is a creative and productive individual rather than an
alienated misanthrope. Rand was moving from a reactive depiction of
individualism to a more dynamic and positive celebration of individual
creativity and accomplishment. Much of this must have come from her
research into Frank Lloyd Wright, whose architectural brilliance far outweighed
the crimes of William Hickman and Ivar Kreuger, her previous
literary inspirations. Integrating technology, discovery, and invention
into her story broadened her reach and made the book a relevant commentary
on the potentially destructive nature of state control.
Strange in style and provocative in substance, Anthem aroused little
interest among American publishers but was recognized as a trenchant
political parable in Britain. It was released there in 1938 by Cassells, the
same fi rm that handled British distribution of We the Living. Despite the
cool reception it initially received in the United States, Rand considered
Anthem one of her favorite pieces of writing. The brief novel was her
hymn to individualism, “the theme song, the goal, the only aim of all my
writing.” 33 It had been a welcome break from the planning of her novelin-progress.
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