Summary: Introduction
Leonard Peikoff introduces the fiftieth anniversary edition
of Anthem with a discussion of Ayn Rand’s philosophy,
objectivism. He discusses Rand’s constancy as a political thinker
and philosopher and her persistence in flouting the criticism of
those who believed in socialism and responded to her work by saying
that she did not understand socialism’s tenets. He points to quotations
from several of her letters to support the idea that she believed
from a very young age in the primacy of the individual and the danger
of collective ideals and social planning.
Peikoff discusses Rand’s decision to change the title
of the novel from Ego, its working title, to Anthem, a
move he says was motivated by a purely artistic decision not to
give away too much of the plot and philosophy before the reader
had read the novella. He says Rand believed Anthem did
not have a climax or plot in the traditional sense, but was instead
a kind of anthem, an exploration of an understanding of the world
and a coming to terms with this philosophy’s rejection of general
society. Peikoff characterizes objectivism as a way of resolving
a conflict between facts and -values—in other words, as a way of
seeing the world for what it is while at the same time holding true
to a moral ideal. He claims that Rand deliberately uses biblical
language, even in the title, in order to turn on its head the idea
that profound awe can be experienced only in the face of the supernatural.
Anthem was not immediately accepted by
the American literary establishment, according to Peikoff, who chronicles
in some detail Rand’s efforts to get the novella published. He says
American intellectuals were in the grip of Communist ideas at the
time Rand wrote the work, and it took the recognition of two conservative
publishing houses for it to gain an American following. Once it
was published, however, it gained tremendous popularity. Rand originally
conceived Anthem, according to Peikoff, as a play,
later as a magazine serial, and finally, at the suggestion of her
publisher, as a novella.
Summary: Author’s Preface
Rand herself prefaces Anthem by exhorting
collectivists, those who believe in uniting individual labor efforts
under the auspices of the single government for the good of the
whole, to acknowledge that they are forcing individuals into slavery.
She asserts that social goals have become commonplace in society,
and that it should be obvious to all people that the world is headed
toward a complete disintegration of the kind she portrays in Anthem.
She wants those who advocate such goals to be honest about their
intentions, and where their intentions may lead, so that in the
future, when the world completely yields to the ideals of the collective,
and people find themselves slaves, they will not be able to deny
that they chose their own paths.
Rand also is careful to emphasize that in this, the American
edition of the novel, she has not changed any of Anthem’s
substance. She notes that she has only clarified the language and
not changed the spirit of the novella. She claims the idea of objectivism
has always been clear and does not need any further examination.
Furthermore, Rand responds to criticism that Anthem is
unfair to the ideals of collectivism. She points to the state of
the world in 1946 to show that forced labor
and co-opting the profits of the work of individuals are accepted
and advocated practices. She claims that the world does in fact
contain councils of the kind she describes in Anthem, and
that if her novella seems exaggerated, it is only because the world
has not yet totally fallen into collective despair. Nevertheless,
she says, the world is headed for just such a collapse, and Anthem is
meant to change the minds of those who believe that socialism can
exist without leading directly to its logical conclusion. This conclusion,
she believes, is the disembodiment of the individual, the boredom
and fear of the citizenry, and the inability of society to reap
the benefit of individual work and products.
