Anthem
Ayn Rand
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Introduction
Leonard Peikoff
As Dr. Piekoff’s introduction to Anthem is currently under copyright, I have opted to merely include a few quotes therefrom instead of the entire introduction.
But reason is a property of the individual. There is no such thing as a colletive brain.
Ayn Rand chose the esthetic-moral concept “anthem” for her present title. In doing so, she was not surrendering to mysticism, but waging war against it. She was claiming for man and his ego the sacred respect that is actually due not to Heaven, but to life on earth. An “anthem to the ego” is blasphemy to the pious, because it implies that reverence pertains not to God, but to man and, above all, to that fundamental and inherently selfish thing within him that enables him to deal with reality and survive.
Anthem is Stylistically Different (p. vii)
As an anthem, or hymn of praise, the novel is not typical of Ayn Rand in form or in style (although it is typical in content).
To Rose Wilder Lane, in answer to a question, [Ayn Rand] classified [Anthem] officially as a “poem.”
On p. x, Piekoff incorrectly describes Leonard Read as a conservative. In actual fact, Read was a libertarian. I can only suspect that Piekoff does not wish to admit this because of the manner in which the ARI define libertarianism.
On p. xii, Piekoff refers to another Dark Age as some possible future event: “if and when it comes.” In so doing, he fails to recognise that we are living in the Dark Ages now. It is remarkable how few people who live during a Dark Age recognises it, but as long as statism and collectivism are the norm, how can this be anything but a Dark Age?
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Forward to Leonard Read’s Foreword
Introduction copyright © Leonard Peikoff and the Estate of Ayn Rand, 1995
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