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Battle of Malakoff [SEP] Malakhov Kurgan, where it was fought, now contains the Eternal Fire, commemorating the Siege of Sevastopol during World War II. A branch of Franz Roubaud's great panorama representing the battle of 1855 is also located there.

Prunella Scales [SEP] Prunella Margaret Scales ("née" Illingworth; born 22 June 1932) is an English actress best known for her role as Basil Fawlty's wife Sybil in the BBC comedy "Fawlty Towers" and her BAFTA award-nominated role as Queen Elizabeth II in "A Question of Attribution" ("Screen One", BBC 1991) by Alan Bennett.

Prunella Scales [SEP] Scales was born in Sutton Abinger, Surrey, the daughter of Catherine ("née" Scales), an actress, and John Richardson Illingworth, a cotton salesman. She attended Moira House Girls School, Eastbourne. She had a younger brother, Timothy ("Timmo") Illingworth (1934–2017). Scales' parents moved their family to Bucks Mill near Bideford in Devon in 1939 at the start of the Second World War.

Prunella Scales [SEP] Scales herself (and her brother) were evacuated to Near Sawrey (then in Lancashire, now in Cumbria). Scales started her career in 1951 as an assistant stage manager at the Bristol Old Vic. Throughout her career she has often been cast in comic roles. Her early work included the second UK adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" (1952), "Hobson's Choice" (1954), "Room at the Top" (1959) and "Waltz of the Toreadors" (1962).

Prunella Scales [SEP] Her career break came with the early 1960s sitcom "Marriage Lines" starring opposite Richard Briers. In addition to "Fawlty Towers", she has had roles in BBC Radio 4 sitcoms, and comedy series including "After Henry", "Smelling of Roses" and "Ladies of Letters"; on television she starred in the London Weekend Television/Channel 4 series "Mapp & Lucia" based on the novels by E. F. Benson.

Prunella Scales [SEP] She played Queen Elizabeth II in Alan Bennett's "A Question of Attribution". In 1973, Scales was cast with Ronnie Barker in "One Man's Meat" which formed part of Barker's "Seven of One" series, also for the BBC.

Prunella Scales [SEP] Her later film appearances include "Escape from the Dark" (1976), "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1978), "The Boys From Brazil" (1978), "The Wicked Lady" (1983), "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne" (1987), "Stiff Upper Lips" (1997), "Howards End" (1992) and "Wolf" (1994).

Prunella Scales [SEP] For the BBC Television Shakespeare production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (1982) she played Mistress Page and the "Theatre Night" series (BBC) she appeared with her husband Timothy West in the Joe Orton farce "What the Butler Saw" (1987) playing Mrs Prentice. For ten years, Prunella appeared with Jane Horrocks in advertisements for UK supermarket chain Tesco. In 1996, Scales starred in the television film, "Lord of Misrule", alongside Richard Wilson, Emily Mortimer and Stephen Moyer.

Prunella Scales [SEP] The film was directed by Guy Jenkins and filming took place in Fowey in Cornwall. Also in 1996, she appeared as Miss Bates in Jane Austen’s Emma. In 1997, Scales starred in Chris Barfoot's science-fiction film short "Phoenix" which was first aired in 1999 by NBC Universal's Sci Fi Channel. Scales played 'The Client', an evil government minister funding inter-genetic time travel experiments.

Prunella Scales [SEP] The same year she played Dr. Minny Stinkler in the comedy film "Mad Cows", directed by Sara Sugarman. In 1993 Scales voiced Mrs Tiggy-Winkle in The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. In 2000 she appeared in the film "The Ghost of Greville Lodge" as Sarah. The same year she appeared as Eleanor Dunsall in Midsomer Murders Beyond the Grave. In 2001 she appeared in 2 episodes of Silent Witness, “Faith” as Mrs Parker.

Prunella Scales [SEP] In 2003, she appeared as Hilda, "she who must be obeyed", wife of Horace Rumpole in four BBC Radio 4 plays, with Timothy West playing her fictional husband. Scales and West toured Australia at the same time in different productions. Scales appeared in a one-woman show called ""An Evening with Queen Victoria"", which also featured the tenor Ian Partridge singing songs written by Prince Albert.

Prunella Scales [SEP] Also in 2003, she voiced the speaking ("cawing") role of Magpie, the eponymous thief in a recording of Gioachino Rossini's opera "La gazza ladra" (The Thieving Magpie). In 2006, she appeared alongside Academy Award winners Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell in the mini-series "The Shell Seekers". On 16 November 2007, Scales appeared in "Children in Need", reprising her role as Sybil Fawlty, the new manager who wants to take over Hotel Babylon.

Prunella Scales [SEP] She appeared in the audio play "The Youth of Old Age", produced in 2008 by the Wireless Theatre Company, and available to download free of charge on their website. She appeared in a production of "Carrie's War", the Nina Bawden novel, at the Apollo Theatre in 2009. In 2008, she appeared in Agatha Christie's, "A Pocket Full of Rye", as Mrs. Mackenzie.

Prunella Scales [SEP] John Cleese said in an interview on 8 May 2009 that the role of Sybil Fawlty was originally offered to Bridget Turner, who turned down the part, claiming "it wasn't right for her". She starred in the 2011 British live-action 3D family comedy film "" as the titular character's Great Aunt Greta. Scales appeared in a short audio story, "Dandruff Hits the Turtleneck", written by John Mayfield, and available for download.

Prunella Scales [SEP] She starred in a Virgin Short "Stranger Danger" alongside Roderick Cowie in 2012. In 2013 she made a guest appearance in the popular BBC radio comedy "Cabin Pressure" as Wendy Crieff, the mother of Captain Martin Crieff. Alongside husband Timothy West she has appeared in "Great Canal Journeys" for Channel 4 every year since 2014. Stuart Heritage, writing for "The Guardian" in November 2016, commented that it "is ultimately a work about a devoted couple facing something huge together.

Prunella Scales [SEP] It’s a beautiful, meditative programme". " An emotional but unrooted glimpse of life with dementia" was Christopher Howse's characterization in October 2018, writing for "The Telegraph". Scales is married to the actor Timothy West, with whom she has two sons; the elder is actor and director Samuel West. Their younger son Joseph participated in two episodes of "Great Canal Journeys" filmed in France. Scales also has a step-daughter, Juliet, by West's first marriage.

Prunella Scales [SEP] Her biography, "Prunella", written by Teresa Ransom, was published by UK publishing imprint John Murray in 2005. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1992 Birthday Honours List. Her husband received the same honour in the 1984 Birthday Honours List. Scales is an ambassador of SOS Children's Villages charity. an international orphan charity providing homes and mothers for orphaned and abandoned children. She supports the charity's annual World Orphan Week campaign, which takes place each February.

Prunella Scales [SEP] Scales is a patron of the Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham. In 2005, she named the P&O cruise ship, "Artemis". In March 2014, her husband told "The Guardian" that Scales was living with Alzheimer's disease. The couple discussed practical measures in a radio programme about age and dementia on BBC Radio 4 in December 2014.

Prunella Scales [SEP] In June 2018, her husband characterized her short-term memory as "no good at all", and admitted her condition "slowed them down", but "not so it closes up opportunities."

The Unseen (band) [SEP] The Unseen is an American punk rock band that was formed in 1993 in Hingham, Massachusetts. One of the more prominent bands to revive street punk, The Unseen were originally called The Extinct. The Unseen formed in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1993. They then moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Along with other street punk bands, they set out to revive the English street punk sound of the 1980s.

The Unseen (band) [SEP] The quintet also released a best-of compilation for the European market in June 2000 titled "", which contained two previously unreleased tracks. The group's solid early line-up consisted of Tripp on bass and vocals, Scott on lead guitar, Civitarese on drums and vocals and Paul Russo on second guitar and vocals as well as drums and bass during live shows when the band switched instruments for certain songs.

The Unseen (band) [SEP] Most shows would begin with Russo and Tripp singing lead, and then the show would end with Paul playing drums and Civitarese singing lead. Russo went on to play in The Pinkerton Thugs as well as a solo project called The Strings. He is currently playing in a punk band called Broken Stereo. Mark Unseen (real name: Mark Civitarese), who played drums on the band's first few albums, became the lead singer after Paul Russo's departure. He also formed and currently runs ADD Records.

The Unseen (band) [SEP] He briefly joined the Boston punk group A Global Threat as a second singer, and recorded the full-length "What The Fuck Will Change?" and "Until We Die" before deciding to concentrate on his duties with The Unseen. However shortly after his departure he and Unseen guitarist Scott along with Mike Graves and Peter Curtis (then both members of A Global Threat) formed Self Destruct.

The Unseen (band) [SEP] They released only one 7-inch EP entitled "Violent Affair" and played fewer than 10 shows but the musical style and lyrical content displayed on their one record would have great influence on all Unseen music to follow, helping to shape their future sound with Civitarese as lead singer. In 2010 Civitarese started a punk rock band called Ashers in and released a 7" vinyl and full-length album "Kill Your Master".

The Unseen (band) [SEP] More recently Civitarese joined up with various member of Boston's hardcore scene to form the hardcore/metal band "Tenebrae.". There has been some controversy concerning the band, including allegations that in recent years they have "sold out". Also that the band should have called it quits after losing Paul Russo and therefore their strong political message (Paul Russo wrote and sang most of 'Lower Class Crucifixion', 'So This Is Freedom?', and 'The Anger and The Truth').

The Unseen (band) [SEP] Most widely cited is the fact that The Unseen have produced music videos to air on commercial music video channels such as GMTV2, an avenue looked-down upon in the underground street punk scene which also goes against the political message of the first few albums. Darkbuster, a band from The Unseen's area of origin, even released a joke song called "I Hate The Unseen". Members of Darkbuster and The Unseen are friends.

The Unseen (band) [SEP] They have toured Europe, North America, Australia, Japan, and Mexico with many punk bands from The Bouncing Souls and Rancid to decidedly more hardcore outfits like Hatebreed and Sick of It All.

The Unseen (band) [SEP] Since the departure of Russo, the band has used many replacements on tour such as members from The Virus, Strike Anywhere, and F-Minus, however, recently, on their MySpace page, The Unseen have included a fifth band member, Jonny, an ex-guitarist of A Global Threat who was in the band at the same time as Civitarese. 2006 also saw the release of Tripp's book "So This Is Readin'?",

The Unseen (band) [SEP] which details the life and hardships of being in an underground band with dry comedy. It started as a lengthy band history on the band's website, but after a few amusing "chapters" he was contacted by a publishing company to release it in book form. In May 2006, The Unseen announced on their official website that they would begin writing their sixth studio full-length album during the summer of that year. The album, titled "Internal Salvation", was released on July 10, 2007.

The Unseen (band) [SEP] The first song released from that album is a track titled "Right Before Your Eyes" which was followed up by the track "Break Away", for which the band shot a music video. In support of the new album, the band joined the thirteenth Warped Tour in 2007 and launched a US–Canada tour in March 2008. The Unseen remained inactive, until May 25, 2013, when they played at Punk Rock Bowling at the Fremont Country Club in Las Vegas.

The Unseen (band) [SEP] They have continued performing live sporadically since then.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] The Battle of Malplaquet, one of the bloodiest of modern times, was fought near the border of France on 11 September 1709, by the forces of Louis XIV of France commanded by Marshal Villars against a Dutch-British army led by Duke of Marlborough. After a string of defeats, failure of the harvest, and the prospect of invasion, Louis XIV had appealed to French patriotism, recruited fresh soldiers, and instructed Marshal Villars to use the country's last army to give battle against Marlborough's formidable force.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] After a series of manoeuvres, Villars settled on a position in which both his flanks were anchored in woods. Even though the French were outnumbered, Marlborough's by-now-familiar tactics of flank attacks to draw off troops from the centre incurred serious attrition by massed French musketry and skilful use of artillery. By the time Marlborough's assault on the denuded enemy centre came, his Allied army was badly weakened, and there was no attempt at pursuit by the Allies when the French retreated in good order.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] The Allies lost 20,000 men, twice as many as the French, and what was regarded by contemporaries as a shockingly large number of casualties caused Britain to question the sacrifices that might be required for Marlborough's campaign to continue. The Battle of Malplaquet is often regarded as a Pyrrhic victory because its main effect was to prevent the nominal winners from invading France. After a late start to the campaigning season owing to the unusually harsh winter preceding it, the allied campaign of 1709 began in mid-June.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] Unable to bring the French army under Marshal Villars to battle owing to strong French defensive lines and the Marshal's orders from Versailles not to risk battle, the Duke of Marlborough concentrated instead on taking the fortresses of Tournai and Ypres.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] Tournai fell after an unusually long siege of almost 70 days, by which time it was early September, and rather than run the risk of disease spreading in his army in the poorly draining land around Ypres, Marlborough instead moved eastwards towards the lesser fortress of Mons, hoping by taking it to outflank the French defensive lines in the west. Villars moved after him, under new orders from Louis XIV to prevent the fall of Mons at all costs—effectively an order for the aggressive Marshal to give battle.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] After several complicated manoeuvres, the two armies faced each other across the gap of Malplaquet, south-west of Mons. The Allied army, mainly consisting of Dutch and Austrian troops, but also with considerable British and Prussian contingents, was led by the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy, while the French were commanded by Villars and Marshal Boufflers. Boufflers was officially Villars' superior but voluntarily serving under him.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] The allies had about 86,000 troops and 100 guns and the French had about 75,000 and 80 guns, and they were encamped within cannon range of each other near what is now the France/Belgium border. At 9:00 am on 11 September, the Austrians attacked with the support of Prussian and Danish troops under the command of Count Albrecht Konrad Finck von Finckenstein, pushing the French left wing back into the forest behind them. Prince Eugene was wounded twice in the fighting.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] The Dutch under command of John William Friso, Prince of Orange, on the Allied left wing, attacked the French right flank half an hour later, and succeeded with heavy casualties in distracting Boufflers enough so that he could not come to Villars' aid. Villars was able to regroup his forces, but Marlborough and Savoy attacked again, assisted by the advance of a detachment under General Henry Withers advancing on the French left flank, forcing Villars to divert forces from his centre to confront them.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] At around 1:00 pm Villars was badly wounded by a musket ball which smashed his knee, and command passed to Boufflers. The decisive final attack was made on the now weakened French centre by British infantry under the command of the Earl of Orkney, which managed to occupy the French line of redans. This enabled the Allied cavalry to advance through this line and confront the French cavalry behind it. A fierce cavalry battle now ensued, in which Boufflers personally led the elite troops of the Maison du Roi.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] He managed six times to drive the Allied cavalry back upon the redans, but every time the French cavalry in its turn was driven back by British infantry fire. Finally, by 3:00 pm Boufflers, realising that the battle could not be won, ordered a retreat, which was made in good order. The Allies had suffered so many casualties in their attack that they could not pursue him. By this time they had lost over 24,000 men, including 6,500 killed, almost twice as many as the French.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] Villars himself remarked on the enemy's Pyrrhic victory via the flip-side of King Pyrrhus's famous quote: "If it please God to give your majesty's enemies another such victory, they are ruined." A first-hand account of the Battle of Malplaquet is given in the book "Amiable Renegade: The Memoirs of Peter Drake (1671–1753)" on pages 163 to 170.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] Captain Drake, an Irishman who served as a mercenary in various European armies, served the French cause in the battle and was wounded several times. Drake wrote his memoirs at an advanced age (another Irish émigré, Féilim Ó Néill, died in the battle). By the norms of warfare of the era, the battle was an allied victory, because the French withdrew at the end of the day's fighting, and left Marlborough's army in possession of the battlefield, but with double the casualties.

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] In contrast with the Duke's previous victories, however, the French army was able to withdraw in good order and relatively intact, and remained a potent threat to further allied operations. As Winston Churchill noted in "": "The enemy had been beaten... But they had not been routed; they had not been destroyed. They retreated, but they cheered. They were beaten, but they boasted."

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] Indeed, Villars wrote to Louis XIV that another such French defeat would destroy the allied armies, and historian John A. Lynn in "The Wars of Louis XIV 1667–1714" terms the battle a Pyrrhic victory. However, the attempt to save Mons failed and the fortress fell on 20 October. News of Malplaquet, the bloodiest battle of the eighteenth century, stunned Europe; a rumour abounded that even Marlborough had died, possibly inspiring the popular French folk song, ""Marlbrough s'en va-t-en guerre"".

Battle of Malplaquet [SEP] For the last of his four great battlefield victories, the Duke of Marlborough received no personal letter of thanks from Queen Anne. Richard Blackmore's "Instructions to Vander Beck" was virtually alone among English poems in attempting to celebrate the "victory" of Marlborough at Malplaquet, while it moved the English Tory party to begin agitating for a withdrawal from the alliance as soon as they formed a government the next year.

Bremen (state) [SEP] Bremen (), officially the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), is the smallest and least populous of Germany's 16 states. It is informally called "Land Bremen" ("State of Bremen"), although this is sometimes used in official contexts. The state consists of the city of Bremen as well as the small exclave of Bremerhaven in Northern Germany, surrounded by the larger state of Lower Saxony. The state of Bremen consists of two separated enclaves.

Bremen (state) [SEP] These enclaves contain Bremen, officially the 'City' ("Stadtgemeinde Bremen") which is the state capital and located in both enclaves, and the city of Bremerhaven ("Stadt Bremerhaven"). Both are located on the River Weser; Bremerhaven is further downstream than the main parts of Bremen and serves as a North Sea harbour (the name "Bremerhaven" means "Bremen's harbour"). Both enclaves are completely surrounded by the neighbouring State of Lower Saxony ("Niedersachsen").

Bremen (state) [SEP] The two cities are the only administrative subdivisions the state has. The highest point in the state is in Friedehorst Park (32.5m). At the unwinding of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 the Free Imperial City of Bremen (as of 1646, after earlier privileges of autonomy of 1186) was not mediatised but became a sovereign state officially titled "Free Hanseatic City of Bremen". Its currency was the Bremen thaler (until 1873). In 1811 the First French Empire annexed the city-state.

Bremen (state) [SEP] Upon the first, albeit only preliminary, defeat of Napoléon Bonaparte, Bremen resumed its pre-1811 status as city-state in 1813. The Vienna Congress of 1815 confirmed Bremen's—as well as Frankfurt's, Hamburg's, and Lübeck's—independence after pressuring by Bremen's emissary, and later burgomaster, Johann Smidt. Bremen became one of 39 sovereign states of the German Confederation. In 1827 the state of Bremen bought the tract of land from the Kingdom of Hanover, where future Bremerhaven would be established.

Bremen (state) [SEP] Bremen became part of the North German Confederation in 1867 and became an autonomous component state of the new-founded German Empire in 1871 and stayed with Germany in its following forms of government. Bremen, which in 1935 had become a regular city at the de facto abolition of statehood of all component German states within the Third Reich, was reestablished as a state in 1947.

Bremen (state) [SEP] Being—at that time—actually located in the British Zone of Occupation the Control Commission for Germany - British Element and the Office of Military Government for Germany, U.S. (OMGUS) agreed in 1947 to constitute the cities of "Bremen" and then Wesermünde—in their borders altered in 1939—as a German state named again "Free Hanseatic City of Bremen", becoming at that occasion an exclave of the American Zone of Occupation within the "British zone".

Bremen (state) [SEP] In 1949 the city-state joined the then West German Federal Republic of Germany. The legislature of the state of Bremen is the 83-member Bürgerschaft (citizens' assembly), elected by the citizens in the two cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven. The executive is constituted by the Senate of Bremen, elected by the Bürgerschaft.

Bremen (state) [SEP] The Senate is chaired by the President of the senate ("Senatspräsident"), who is also one of the mayors of the city of Bremen ("Bürgermeister") and is elected directly by the Bürgerschaft. The Senate selects of its members as a second mayor who serves as deputy of the president. In contrast to the Federal Chancellor of Germany or other German states, the President of the Senate has no authority to override senators on policy, which is decided upon by the senate collectively.

Bremen (state) [SEP] Since 1945, the Senate has continuously been dominated by the Social Democratic Party. On a municipal level, the two cities in the state are administered separately: Henning Scherf (SPD) remained Mayor and Senate President, in an SPD-CDU grand coalition. As promised he resigned after half of the legislative period. The Mayor and Senate President from 8 November 2005, until 17 July 2015, was Jens Böhrnsen.

Bremen (state) [SEP] The 2007 elections were held on 13 May. The coat of arms and flag of Bremen state include: The unemployment rate stood at 9.5% in October 2018 and was the highest of all 16 German states. The University of Bremen is the largest university in Bremen. Furthermore, Bremen has a University of the Arts Bremen, a University of Applied Sciences in Bremen and another one in Bremerhaven, and more recently the Jacobs University Bremen.

Ayn Rand [SEP] Ayn Rand (; born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;  – March 6, 1982) was a Russian-American writer and philosopher. She is known for her two best-selling novels, "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged", and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism. Educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. She had a play produced on Broadway in 1935 and 1936.

Ayn Rand [SEP] After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, "The Fountainhead". In 1957, Rand published her best-known work, the novel "Atlas Shrugged". Afterward, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays until her death in 1982. Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge and rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism and rejected altruism.

Ayn Rand [SEP] In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and opposed collectivism and statism as well as anarchism, instead supporting "laissez-faire" capitalism, which she defined as the system based on recognizing individual rights, including property rights. In art, Rand promoted romantic realism. She was sharply critical of most philosophers and philosophical traditions known to her, except for Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and classical liberals.

Ayn Rand [SEP] Literary critics received Rand's fiction with mixed reviews and academia generally ignored or rejected her philosophy, though academic interest has increased in recent decades. The Objectivist movement attempts to spread her ideas, both to the public and in academic settings. She has been a significant influence among libertarians and American conservatives. Rand was born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum () on February 2, 1905, to a Russian-Jewish bourgeois family living in Saint Petersburg.

Ayn Rand [SEP] She was the eldest of three daughters of Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum and his wife, Anna Borisovna (née Kaplan). Her father was upwardly mobile and a pharmacist and her mother was socially ambitious and religiously observant. Rand later said she found school unchallenging and began writing screenplays at the age of eight and novels at the age of ten. At the prestigious , her closest friend was Vladimir Nabokov's younger sister, Olga.

Ayn Rand [SEP] The two girls shared an intense interest in politics and would engage in debates at the Nabokov mansion: while Olga defended constitutional monarchy, Alisa supported republican ideals. She was twelve at the time of the February Revolution of 1917, during which she favored Alexander Kerensky over Tsar Nicholas II. The subsequent October Revolution and the rule of the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin disrupted the life the family had previously enjoyed.

Ayn Rand [SEP] Her father's business was confiscated, and the family fled to the Crimean Peninsula, which was initially under control of the White Army during the Russian Civil War. While in high school, she realized that she was an atheist and valued reason above any other human virtue. After graduating from high school in the Crimea in June 1921, she returned with her family to Petrograd (as Saint Petersburg was renamed at that time), where they faced desperate conditions, on occasion nearly starving.

Ayn Rand [SEP] After the Russian Revolution, universities were opened to women, allowing her to be in the first group of women to enroll at Petrograd State University. At the age of 16, she began her studies in the department of social pedagogy, majoring in history. At the university she was introduced to the writings of Aristotle and Plato, who would be her greatest influence and counter-influence, respectively. She also studied the philosophical works of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Ayn Rand [SEP] Able to read French, German and Russian, she also discovered the writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, Victor Hugo, Edmond Rostand, and Friedrich Schiller, who became her perennial favorites. Along with many other bourgeois students, she was purged from the university shortly before graduating. After complaints from a group of visiting foreign scientists, however, many of the purged students were allowed to complete their work and graduate, which she did in October 1924. She then studied for a year at the State Technicum for Screen Arts in Leningrad.

Ayn Rand [SEP] For an assignment she wrote an essay about the Polish actress Pola Negri, which became her first published work. By this time she had decided her professional surname for writing would be "Rand", possibly because it is graphically similar to a vowelless excerpt of her birth surname in Cyrillic handwriting, and she adopted the first name "Ayn", either from a Finnish name "Aino" or from the Hebrew word ("ayin", meaning "eye").

Ayn Rand [SEP] In late 1925, Rand was granted a visa to visit relatives in Chicago. She departed on January 17, 1926. When she arrived in New York City on February 19, 1926, she was so impressed with the skyline of Manhattan that she cried what she later called "tears of splendor". Intent on staying in the United States to become a screenwriter, she lived for a few months with her relatives, one of whom owned a movie theater and allowed her to watch dozens of films free of charge.

Ayn Rand [SEP] She then left for Hollywood, California. In Hollywood, a chance meeting with famed director Cecil B. DeMille led to work as an extra in his film "The King of Kings" and a subsequent job as a junior screenwriter. While working on "The King of Kings", she met an aspiring young actor, Frank O'Connor; the two were married on April 15, 1929. She became a permanent American resident in July 1929 and an American citizen on March 3, 1931.

Ayn Rand [SEP] Taking various jobs during the 1930s to support her writing, she worked for a time as the head of the costume department at RKO Studios. She made several attempts to bring her parents and sisters to the United States, but they were unable to acquire permission to emigrate. Rand's first literary success came with the sale of her screenplay "Red Pawn" to Universal Studios in 1932, although it was never produced.

Ayn Rand [SEP] This was followed by the courtroom drama "Night of January 16th", first produced by E. E. Clive in Hollywood in 1934 and then successfully reopened on Broadway in 1935. Each night a jury was selected from members of the audience; based on the jury's vote, one of two different endings would be performed. In 1941, Paramount Pictures produced a movie loosely based on the play. Rand did not participate in the production and was highly critical of the result. "

Ayn Rand [SEP] Ideal" is a novel and play written in 1934 which were first published in 2015 by her estate. The heroine is an actress who embodies Randian ideals. Rand's first published novel, the semi-autobiographical "We the Living", was published in 1936. Set in Soviet Russia, it focused on the struggle between the individual and the state. In a 1959 foreword to the novel, Rand stated that "We the Living" "is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write.

Ayn Rand [SEP] It is not an autobiography in the literal, but only in the intellectual sense. The plot is invented, the background is not ..." Initial sales were slow and the American publisher let it go out of print, although European editions continued to sell. After the success of her later novels, Rand was able to release a revised version in 1959 that has since sold over three million copies.

Ayn Rand [SEP] In 1942, without Rand's knowledge or permission, the novel was made into a pair of Italian films, "Noi vivi" and "Addio, Kira". Rediscovered in the 1960s, these films were re-edited into a new version which was approved by Rand and re-released as "We the Living" in 1986. Her novella "Anthem" was written during a break from the writing of her next major novel, "The Fountainhead".

Ayn Rand [SEP] It presents a vision of a dystopian future world in which totalitarian collectivism has triumphed to such an extent that even the word 'I' has been forgotten and replaced with 'we'. It was published in England in 1938, but Rand initially could not find an American publisher. As with "We the Living", Rand's later success allowed her to get a revised version published in 1946, which has sold more than 3.5 million copies. During the 1940s, Rand became politically active.

Ayn Rand [SEP] She and her husband worked as full-time volunteers for the 1940 presidential campaign of Republican Wendell Willkie. This work led to Rand's first public speaking experiences; she enjoyed fielding sometimes hostile questions from New York City audiences who had viewed pro-Willkie newsreels. This activity brought her into contact with other intellectuals sympathetic to free-market capitalism. She became friends with journalist Henry Hazlitt and his wife, and Hazlitt introduced her to the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises.

Ayn Rand [SEP] Despite her philosophical differences with them, Rand strongly endorsed the writings of both men throughout her career, and both of them expressed admiration for her. Mises once referred to Rand as "the most courageous man in America", a compliment that particularly pleased her because he said "man" instead of "woman". Rand also became friends with libertarian writer Isabel Paterson.

Ayn Rand [SEP] Rand questioned Paterson about American history and politics long into the night during their many meetings and gave Paterson ideas for her only non-fiction book, "The God of the Machine". Rand's first major success as a writer came in 1943 with "The Fountainhead", a romantic and philosophical novel that she wrote over a period of seven years.

Ayn Rand [SEP] The novel centers on an uncompromising young architect named Howard Roark and his struggle against what Rand described as "second-handers"—those who attempt to live through others, placing others above themselves. It was rejected by twelve publishers before finally being accepted by the Bobbs-Merrill Company on the insistence of editor Archibald Ogden, who threatened to quit if his employer did not publish it. While completing the novel, Rand was prescribed the amphetamine Benzedrine to fight fatigue.

Ayn Rand [SEP] The drug helped her to work long hours to meet her deadline for delivering the novel, but afterwards she was so exhausted that her doctor ordered two weeks' rest. Her use of the drug for approximately three decades may have contributed to what some of her later associates described as volatile mood swings. "The Fountainhead" became a worldwide success, bringing Rand fame and financial security. In 1943, Rand sold the rights for a film version to Warner Bros. and she returned to Hollywood to write the screenplay.

Ayn Rand [SEP] Finishing her work on that screenplay, she was hired by producer Hal B. Wallis as a screenwriter and script-doctor. Her work for Wallis included the screenplays for the Oscar-nominated "Love Letters" and "You Came Along". Rand also worked on other projects, including a planned nonfiction treatment of her philosophy to be called "The Moral Basis of Individualism".

Ayn Rand [SEP] Although the planned book was never completed, a condensed version was published as an essay titled "The Only Path to Tomorrow" in the January 1944 edition of "Reader's Digest" magazine. Rand extended her involvement with free-market and anti-communist activism while working in Hollywood. She became involved with the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, a Hollywood anti-Communist group, and wrote articles on the group's behalf. She also joined the anti-Communist American Writers Association.

Ayn Rand [SEP] A visit by Isabel Paterson to meet with Rand's California associates led to a final falling out between the two when Paterson made comments, which Rand considered rude, to valued political allies. In 1947, during the Second Red Scare, Rand testified as a "friendly witness" before the United States House Un-American Activities Committee. Her testimony described the disparity between her personal experiences in the Soviet Union and the portrayal of it in the 1944 film "Song of Russia".

Ayn Rand [SEP] Rand argued that the film grossly misrepresented conditions in the Soviet Union, portraying life there as much better and happier than it actually was. She wanted to also criticize the lauded 1946 film "The Best Years of Our Lives" for what she interpreted as its negative presentation of the business world, but she was not allowed to testify about it. When asked after the hearings about her feelings on the effectiveness of the investigations, Rand described the process as "futile".

Ayn Rand [SEP] After several delays, the film version of "The Fountainhead" was released in 1949. Although it used Rand's screenplay with minimal alterations, she "disliked the movie from beginning to end", and complained about its editing, acting, and other elements. In the years following the publication of "The Fountainhead", Rand received numerous letters from readers, some of whom the book profoundly influenced.

Ayn Rand [SEP] In 1951, Rand moved from Los Angeles to New York City, where she gathered a group of these admirers around her. This group (jokingly designated "The Collective") included future Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, a young psychology student named Nathan Blumenthal (later Nathaniel Branden) and his wife Barbara and Barbara's cousin Leonard Peikoff. Initially the group was an informal gathering of friends who met with Rand on weekends at her apartment to discuss philosophy.

Ayn Rand [SEP] She later began allowing them to read the drafts of her new novel, "Atlas Shrugged", as the manuscript pages were written. In 1954 Rand's close relationship with the younger Nathaniel Branden turned into a romantic affair, with the consent of their spouses. "Atlas Shrugged", published in 1957, was considered Rand's "magnum opus".

Ayn Rand [SEP] Rand described the theme of the novel as "the role of the mind in man's existence—and, as a corollary, the demonstration of a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest". It advocates the core tenets of Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and expresses her concept of human achievement.

Ayn Rand [SEP] The plot involves a dystopian United States in which the most creative industrialists, scientists, and artists respond to a welfare state government by going on strike and retreating to a mountainous hideaway where they build an independent free economy. The novel's hero and leader of the strike, John Galt, describes the strike as "stopping the motor of the world" by withdrawing the minds of the individuals most contributing to the nation's wealth and achievement.

Ayn Rand [SEP] With this fictional strike, Rand intended to illustrate that without the efforts of the rational and productive, the economy would collapse and society would fall apart. The novel includes elements of mystery, romance, and science fiction, and it contains an extended exposition of Objectivism in the form of a lengthy monologue delivered by Galt. Despite many negative reviews, "Atlas Shrugged" became an international bestseller. In an interview with Mike Wallace, Rand declared herself "the most creative thinker alive".

Ayn Rand [SEP] However, Rand was discouraged and depressed by the reaction of intellectuals to the novel. " Atlas Shrugged" was Rand's last completed work of fiction; it marked the end of her career as a novelist and the beginning of her role as a popular philosopher. In 1958, Nathaniel Branden established Nathaniel Branden Lectures, later incorporated as the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI), to promote Rand's philosophy. Collective members gave lectures for NBI and wrote articles for Objectivist periodicals that she edited.

Ayn Rand [SEP] Rand later published some of these articles in book form. Critics, including some former NBI students and Branden himself, later described the culture of NBI as one of intellectual conformity and excessive reverence for Rand, with some describing NBI or the Objectivist movement itself as a cult or religion. Rand expressed opinions on a wide range of topics, from literature and music to sexuality and facial hair, and some of her followers mimicked her preferences, wearing clothes to match characters from her novels and buying furniture like hers.

Ayn Rand [SEP] However, some former NBI students believed the extent of these behaviors was exaggerated, and the problem was concentrated among Rand's closest followers in New York. Rand was unimpressed with many of the NBI students and held them to strict standards, sometimes reacting coldly or angrily to those who disagreed with her. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Rand developed and promoted her Objectivist philosophy through her nonfiction works and by giving talks to students at institutions such as Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ayn Rand [SEP] She received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Lewis & Clark College on 2 October 1963. She also began delivering annual lectures at the Ford Hall Forum, responding afterward to questions from the audience. During these speeches and Q&A sessions, she often took controversial stances on political and social issues of the day.

Ayn Rand [SEP] These included supporting abortion rights, opposing the Vietnam War and the military draft (but condemning many draft dodgers as "bums"), supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 against a coalition of Arab nations as "civilized men fighting savages", saying European colonists had the right to develop land taken from American Indians, and calling homosexuality "immoral" and "disgusting", while also advocating the repeal of all laws about it.

Ayn Rand [SEP] She also endorsed several Republican candidates for President of the United States, most strongly Barry Goldwater in 1964, whose candidacy she promoted in several articles for "The Objectivist Newsletter". In 1964, Nathaniel Branden began an affair with the young actress Patrecia Scott, whom he later married. Nathaniel and Barbara Branden kept the affair hidden from Rand. When she learned of it in 1968, though her romantic relationship with Branden had already ended, Rand terminated her relationship with both Brandens, which led to the closure of NBI.

Ayn Rand [SEP] Rand published an article in "The Objectivist" repudiating Nathaniel Branden for dishonesty and other "irrational behavior in his private life". In subsequent years, Rand and several more of her closest associates parted company. Rand underwent surgery for lung cancer in 1974 after decades of heavy smoking. In 1976, she retired from writing her newsletter and, after her initial objections, she allowed social worker Evva Pryor, an employee of her attorney, to enroll her in Social Security and Medicare.

Ayn Rand [SEP] During the late 1970s her activities within the Objectivist movement declined, especially after the death of her husband on November 9, 1979. One of her final projects was work on a never-completed television adaptation of "Atlas Shrugged". Rand died of heart failure on March 6, 1982, at her home in New York City, and was interred in the Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York. Rand's funeral was attended by some of her prominent followers, including Alan Greenspan.

Ayn Rand [SEP] A floral arrangement in the shape of a dollar sign was placed near her casket. In her will, Rand named Leonard Peikoff to inherit her estate. Rand called her philosophy "Objectivism", describing its essence as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute".

Ayn Rand [SEP] She considered Objectivism a systematic philosophy and laid out positions on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics. In metaphysics, Rand supported philosophical realism, and opposed anything she regarded as mysticism or supernaturalism, including all forms of religion. In epistemology, she considered all knowledge to be based on sense perception, the validity of which she considered axiomatic, and reason, which she described as "the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses".

Ayn Rand [SEP] She rejected all claims of non-perceptual or "a priori" knowledge, including instinct,' 'intuition,' 'revelation,' or any form of 'just knowing. In her "Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology", Rand presented a theory of concept formation and rejected the analytic–synthetic dichotomy. In ethics, Rand argued for rational and ethical egoism (rational self-interest), as the guiding moral principle.