Ayn Rand was a novelist.
Atlas Shrugged is a 1957 novel by Ayn Rand . Ayn Rand ( [ ˈaɪn_ˈrænd ] born Alisa Zinov ` yevna Rosenbaum , Али́са Зино́вьевна Розенба́ум -- March 6 , 1982 ) was a Russian-American novelist , philosopher , playwright , and screenwriter . She is known for her two best-selling novels , The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged , and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism . After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful in America , she achieved fame with her 1943 novel , The Fountainhead .