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Culture

Happy 105th Birthday, Ayn Rand!

Katherine Mangu-Ward | 2.2.2010 11:49 AM

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Ayn Rand: She's hot. She's sexy. She's dead. But if she wasn't, she'd be 105 years old today! Over a century after Alisa Rosenbaum was born in St. Petersburg, she's bigger than ever.

A Twitter meme today suggests celebrating her birthday by "kicking a homeless person in her honor." But that's totally unfair to Rand, since even the people who only read the dirty bits in The Fountainhead know, Rand would prefer that we celebrate by kicking the person who most perfectly embodies Objectivist values:

For a more G-rated option (well, PG-13 anyway) why not enjoy a sampling from Reason's Rand archive in her honor?:

"She's Back! Ayn Rand is bigger than ever. But are her new fans radical enough for capitalism?" by Brian Doherty

"The Ayn and Only: Cult-empress or great thinker?" by Katherine Mangu-Ward

"Will Everyone Please Stop Freaking Out Over Ayn Rand?!?" by Peter Bagge

"Ready for Her Close-Up: Re-examining Ayn Rand's place in American intellectual and cultural life" by Nick Gillespie

"What's Wrong With Ayn Rand: The goddess of reason wasn't so reasonable" by Shikha Dalmia

"Why Ayn Rand is Hot Again: The unconservative Ayn Rand and her relationship to the American right" by Brian Doherty

"Ayn Rand at 100: Loved, hated, and always controversial, the best-selling author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged is more relevant than ever" by Cathy Young

Watch "Rand-O-Rama: The Long Shelf Life of Ayn Rand's Legacy" below:

Go here to Reason.tv's entire series "Radicals for Capitalism: Celebrating the Legacy of Ayn Rand."

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NEXT: Timmy von Trimble, Call Your Office

Katherine Mangu-Ward is editor in chief of Reason.

CultureAyn Rand
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