Thomas James "Tom" Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows The Tomorrow Show, on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and The Late Late Show, on the CBS Television Network in the 1990s. Snyder was also the pioneer anchor of the primetime NBC News Update, in the 1970s and early 1980s, which was a one-minute capsule of news updates in primetime.^[1]

Early life[link]

Snyder was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to parents Frank and Marie Snyder. He received a Catholic upbringing and attended St. Agnes Elementary School and graduated from Jesuit-run Marquette University High School. He attended Marquette University, after which he had originally planned to study medicine and become a doctor.^[2]

Newscasting career[link]

Snyder had loved radio since he was a child and at some point changed his field of study from pre-med to journalism. He once told Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Tim Cuprisin that broadcasting became more important to him than attending classes, and he skipped a lot of them.^[3] Snyder began his career as a radio reporter at WRIT (unrelated to the present-day FM station) in Milwaukee and at WKZO in Kalamazoo (where he was fired by John Fetzer) in the 1950s. For a time he worked at Savannah, Georgia AM station WSAV (now WBMQ).

After moving to television in the 1960s, he was a news anchor for KYW-TV in Cleveland (now WKYC-TV) and, after a 1965 station switch, Philadelphia,^[4] and WNBC-TV and WABC-TV in New York City. He talked about driving cross country in an early Corvair from Atlanta to Los Angeles around 1963, where he landed a news job at KTLA, then on to KNBC-TV also in Los Angeles, where from 1970 to 1974 he was an anchor for the 6 p.m. newscast working with KNBC broadcaster Kelly Lange, who was then a weather reporter before serving as a long-time KNBC news anchor. Lange later became Snyder's regular substitute guest host on the Tomorrow program, prior to the hiring of co-host Rona Barrett in the program's last year. Even after attaining fame as host of Tomorrow, Snyder kept his hand in news anchoring with the Sunday broadcasts of NBC Nightly News during 1975 and 1976.

[edit] Tomorrow with Tom Snyder

Snyder gained national fame as the host of Tomorrow with Tom Snyder (more commonly known as The Tomorrow Show), which aired late nights after The Tonight Show on NBC from 1973 to 1982. It was a talk show unlike the usual late-night fare, with Snyder, cigarette in hand, alternating between asking hard-hitting questions and offering personal observations that made the interview closer to a conversation.

Unique one-on-one exchanges were common to the program, notably with author Harlan Ellison, John Lydon of PiL and The Sex Pistols in 1980, John Lennon in 1975, actor and writer Sterling Hayden, convicted serial killer Charles Manson, and author and philosopher Ayn Rand. A one-on-one program with David Brenner as the sole guest revealed that Snyder and Brenner worked together on several documentaries.

An infamous edition of The Tomorrow Show broadcast on October 31, 1979, saw Snyder interview the rock group KISS. During the episode, a visibly irritated Gene Simmons (bass) and Paul Stanley (guitar) tried to contain the bombastic (and drunk) Ace Frehley (lead guitar), whose nonstop laughter and joking overshadowed the conversation taking place between Snyder and the rest of the band. Drummer Peter Criss made repeated references to his large gun collection, to the chagrin of Simmons. Some of the footage from this show was later included on the Kissology – The Ultimate KISS Collection Vol. 2: 1978–1991 (2007) DVD.

When not grilling guests, Snyder would often joke around with offstage crewmen, often breaking out in the distinctively hearty laugh that was the basis of Dan Aykroyd's impersonation of Snyder on Saturday Night Live (12 occasions, 1976–1979 and 1995).^[5] Following a disastrous experiment with turning Tomorrow into a more typical talk show—renaming it Tomorrow Coast to Coast and adding a live audience and co-host, Rona Barrett (all of which Snyder resented)—the show was canceled in 1982 to make way for the up-and-coming young comedian David Letterman.

[edit] After Tomorrow

After Tomorrow was cancelled Snyder returned to news reporting, joining WABC in New York. In September 1982, Snyder and Kaity Tong began anchoring the 5PM Eyewitness News programs for the station. Snyder stayed at WABC for two years, leaving the station in 1984.^[6] In 1985, he returned to the talk format at KABC-TV in Los Angeles with a local afternoon show he had planned to gear up for national syndication the following year; those plans were scratched after Oprah Winfrey's Chicago-based syndicated show entered the market first and took over Snyder's time slot on KABC-TV.

An older, slightly more mellow Snyder returned to virtually the same format on ABC Radio. The show's three-hour format was a natural for Snyder. The first hour was spent chatting with a celebrity guest, during the second hour Snyder engaged someone in the news, and the final hour was consumed chatting with his legion of fans. Occasionally the caller would be a well-known fan like David Letterman or Ted Koppel. One of Snyder's's favorite callers was Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson on the hit television sitcom The Jeffersons. The Tom Snyder Show for ABC Radio Networks went off the air in late 1992, in part due to the rapid rise in popularity of The Rush Limbaugh Show, which aired in the same time slot and which ABC had already been airing on many of its own stations. Snyder returned to television on CNBC in the early 1990s, adding the opportunity for viewers to call in with their own questions for his guests. Snyder nicknamed his show "the Colorcast", reviving an old promotional term NBC-TV used in the early 1960s to hype its color broadcasts. He also continued his trademark of talking to offscreen crew and made frequent reference to the studio, reminding viewers of its location in Fort Lee, New Jersey.

[edit] The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder

Meanwhile, Letterman had moved on to CBS and was given control of creating a new program to follow his at 12:35 am. Letterman, who had idolized Snyder for years, hired Snyder in 1995 as host of The Late Late Show. The idea had actually begun as a running joke on Letterman's show, that Snyder would soon follow him on the air as he had once followed Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show; the unlikely suggestion caught on. As part of the joke, Snyder appeared as himself in 1993 in The Larry Sanders Show episode Life Behind Larry, in which talk-show host Sanders (Gary Shandling) steals Snyder from Letterman to host a talk-show in the slot immediately after his.

The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder aired live in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, and was simulcast to other time zones on radio to allow everyone a chance to call in. Snyder's CNBC show was taken over, largely unchanged in format, by Charles Grodin. One of the many memorable Late Late Show interviews was with Gloria Vanderbilt about her son's suicide, told dramatically over an entire hour. Another was a lengthy interview with Robert Blake very soon before Blake was charged with murder. In 1999 Snyder left The Late Late Show, which was then reformatted for Craig Kilborn. It has since been turned over to Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson.

In February 2000, Snyder hosted two shows of The Late Show Backstage done during the time Letterman was recovering from heart surgery.

Snyder also hosted a video production called A Century of Legendary Lionel Trains, commemorating 100 years of Lionel Trains. Additionally, he hosted another program from the same production company called Celebrity Train Layouts 2: Tom Snyder, featuring his own collection of trains.

Colortini.com[link]

Snyder posted regular messages on his own now-defunct website colortini.com during the early 2000s. A "colortini", according to Snyder in the CNBC era, was the drink you should enjoy while watching the show ("Fire up a colortini, sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."). For the CBS show, he redubbed the mythical drink a "simultini" as his show was also heard on selected radio stations.

On July 28, 2005, Snyder announced he was deleting his website after six years, stating: "The novelty of communicating this way has worn off." On August 1, 2005, his page was abruptly taken offline. The front page was replaced with a white screen with the simple phrase: "Colortini is gone. Thanks for the Memories".^[7] However, some 140 pages have been preserved at web.archive.org. The domain name has since been reused for other purposes.

Final years and death[link]

In April 2005, Snyder revealed that he was battling chronic lymphocytic leukemia, but that his doctors had told him it was "treatable". A year later, in June 2006, Snyder sold his home in the Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles, where he had lived for almost 30 years, and headed to Belvedere, in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he owned a second home.

Snyder died on July 29, 2007, in San Francisco at the age of 71 from complications of leukemia. He had one child, Anne Mari Snyder, who lives in Maui, Hawaii, and two grandchildren.

Biography portal

References[link]

Notes

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

External links[link]

• Tom Snyder at the Internet Movie Database
• Tom Snyder at Find a Grave
• Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia: Tom Snyder
• Tom Snyder Radio Show Episodes
• Tom Snyder's trains
• David Hinckley's tribute to Tom Snyder in the New York Daily News

John Lydon
John Lydon in 2011
Background information
Birth name	John Joseph Lydon
Also known as	Johnny Rotten
Born	(1956-01-31) 31 January 1956 (age 56) London, England, UK
Genres	Punk rock, post-punk, experimental rock, noise rock, alternative rock
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, saxophone, guitar, bass guitar, violin, stroh violin, synthesizer, keyboards
Years active	1975–present
Associated acts	Sex Pistols, Public Image Ltd., Leftfield

John Joseph Lydon (born 31 January 1956), also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s. He is the lead singer of the post-punk band Public Image Ltd, which he founded and fronted from 1978 until 1993, and again from 2009. Throughout his career, Lydon has made controversial or dismissive comments about the royal family and other subjects. There has been a recent revival of a 1980s movement to have Lydon knighted for his achievements with the Sex Pistols. Q Magazine remarked that "somehow he's assumed the status of national treasure."^[1]

Lydon's personally crafted image and fashion style led to him being asked to become the singer of the Sex Pistols by their manager, Malcolm McLaren. With the Pistols, he penned singles including "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen" and "Holidays in the Sun", the content of which precipitated the "last and greatest outbreak of pop-based moral pandemonium" in Britain.^[2] The band caused nationwide uproar in much of the media, who objected to the content of Lydon’s lyrics, and their antics, which included swearing on live television, in which Steve Jones called Bill Grundy a "fucking rotter". Due to the band's appearance in the media, Lydon was largely seen as the figurehead of the punk movement in the public image^[3] although this idea was not widely supported amongst the punk movement itself. Despite the negative reaction that they provoked, they are now regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of popular music.^[4][5]

Lydon left the Pistols in 1978 to found his own band, Public Image Ltd, that was far more experimental in nature, and which has been described as "arguably the first post-rock group".^[6] Although never as commercially successful as the Pistols, the band produced eight albums and a string of singles, including "Public Image", "Death Disco", and "Rise", before they went on hiatus in 1993, reforming in 2009. In subsequent years, Lydon hosted a number of television shows in the UK, US and Belgium, as well as writing an autobiography, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs (1993), and producing some solo musical work, such as the album Psycho's Path (1997).

Biography[link]

Early life: 1956–1974[link]

Lydon was born in London on 31 January 1956.^[7] His parents, John Christopher and Eileen (née Barry) Lydon, were working class immigrants from Ireland, and moved into a two-room Victorian flat with an outdoor toilet in Benwell Road, in the Holloway area of North London. At the time, the area was largely impoverished, with a high crime rate and a population comprised predominantly of working class Irish and Jamaican migrants. Lydon spent Summer holidays in his mother's native County Cork, where he also allegedly suffered abuse and name-calling for having an English accent, a prejudice he claims he still receives today even though he travels under an Irish passport.^[8] John was the eldest of four brothers, and as the eldest, he had to look after his siblings due to his mother's regular illnesses.^[9] As a child, he lived on the edge of an industrial estate, and would often play with friends in the factories when they were closed. He belonged to a local gang of neighbourhood kids, and would often end up in fights with other groups, something he would later look back on with fond memories: "Hilarious fiascoes, not at all like the knives and guns of today. The meanness wasn't there. It was more like yelling, shouting, throwing stones, and running away giggling. Maybe the reality was coloured by my youth."^[10] Describing himself as a "very shy" and "very retiring" kid who was "nervous as hell", he hated going to school, where he would get caned as punishment and where he "had several embarrassing incidents… I would shit my pants and be too scared to ask the teacher to leave the class. I'd sit there in a pants load of poo all day long."^[11]

When he was seven years old he contracted spinal meningitis and was hospitalised for a whole year in St. Anne's Hospital in Highgate. Throughout the entire experience he suffered from hallucinations, nausea and headaches, whilst the treatments administered by the nurses involved drawing fluid out of his spine with a surgical needle, something that left him with a permanent spinal curvature. The meningitis was also responsible for giving him what he would later describe as the "Lydon stare", and for him, this experience was "the first step that put me on the road to Rotten".^[12]

With his father often away on work, employed variously on building sites or oil rigs, Lydon got his first job aged 10 as a minicab dispatcher, something he kept up for a year whilst the family was in financial difficulty.^[13] He disliked his secondary school, the Sir William of York Catholic School in Islington, where initially he was bullied, but aged around 14 or 15 he "broke out of the mold" and began to fight back at what he saw as the oppressive nature of the school teachers, whom he felt instigated and encouraged the kids to all be the same and be "anti-anyone-who-doesn't-quite-fit-the-mold."^[14] Following the completion of his O-levels at school, he got into a row with his father, who disliked Lydon's long hair, and so, agreeing to get it cut, the teenager not only had it cut, but in an act of rebellion dyed it bright green.^[15] Growing up as a teenager, he listened mostly to rock bands like Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart, Alice Cooper and Iggy and the Stooges – bands his mother also used to like, a fact which somewhat embarrassed him – as well as more mainstream groups like T. Rex and Gary Glitter.^[16]

Aged 15, he was kicked out of the school after a run in with a teacher, and subsequently went to another state school, Hackney and Kingsway Princeton College, where he befriended John Simon Ritchie, who in later years would become better known as Sid Vicious. It was Lydon who gave him this nickname, after his parents' pet hamster.^[18] Lydon and Vicious began squatting in a house in the wealthy Hampstead area with a group of ageing hippies and stopped bothering to go to college, which was often far away from where they were living.^[19] Meanwhile, he began working on building sites during the summer, employment that his father was able to help him with. He also got a job at a children's play centre in Finsbury Park after friends had recommended him for the job. It was here that he taught woodwork to some of the older children, but he was eventually fired after parents complained that somebody "weird" with bright green hair was teaching their children.^[20] Lydon and his friends, including Vicious, John Gray, Jah Wobble, Dave Crowe and Tony Purcell, began going to many of the London clubs, such as the Lacey Lady in Ilford, and also frequented both reggae and gay clubs, the latter of which he enjoyed because in them "you could be yourself, nobody bothered you".^[21]

1975–1978: Sex Pistols and the punk movement[link]

In 1975, Lydon was among a group of youths who regularly hung around Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's fetish clothing shop SEX. McLaren had returned from a brief stint travelling with American protopunk band the New York Dolls, and he was working on promoting a new band formed by Steve Jones, Glen Matlock and Paul Cook called The Sex Pistols. McLaren was impressed with Lydon's ragged look and unique sense of style, particularly his orange hair and modified Pink Floyd T-shirt (with the band members' eyes scratched out and the words I Hate scrawled in felt-tip pen above the band's logo). After tunelessly singing Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" to the accompaniment of the shop's jukebox, Lydon was chosen as the band's frontman.^[22]

In 1977, the band released "God Save the Queen" during the week of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee. At the time, August 1977, Lydon commented –

^{[clarification needed][23]}

Lydon was also interested in dub music. McLaren was said to have been upset when Lydon revealed during a radio interview that his influences included progressive experimentalists like Magma, Can, Captain Beefheart and Van der Graaf Generator.^[24]

Tensions between Lydon and bassist Glen Matlock arose. The reasons for this are disputed, but Lydon claimed in his autobiography that he believed Matlock to be too white-collar and middle-class and that Matlock was "always going on about nice things like the Beatles". Matlock stated in his own autobiography that most of the tension in the band, and between himself and Lydon, were orchestrated by McLaren. Matlock quit and as a replacement, Lydon recommended his school friend John Simon Ritchie. Although Ritchie was an incompetent musician, McLaren agreed that he had the look the band wanted: pale, emaciated, spike-haired, with ripped clothes and a perpetual sneer. Rotten dubbed him "Sid Vicious" as a joke, taking the name from his pet hamster, named Sid the Vicious. During a brief meeting on 12 August 1977 in CBGB's according to Kit and Morgan Benson's biography, Ritchie got his name after Sid the hamster bit him on his hand, and he exclaimed: "Sid is really vicious!"^[25]

Vicious' chaotic relationship with girlfriend Nancy Spungen, and his worsening heroin addiction, caused a great deal of friction among the band members, particularly with Lydon, whose sarcastic remarks often exacerbated the situation. Lydon closed the final Sid Vicious-era Sex Pistols concert in San Francisco's Winterland in January 1978 with a rhetorical question to the audience: "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" Shortly thereafter, McLaren, Jones, and Cook went to Brazil to meet and record with former train robber Ronnie Biggs. Lydon declined to go, deriding the concept as a whole and feeling that they were attempting to make a hero out of a criminal who attacked a train driver and stole "working-class money".^{[citation needed]}

The Sex Pistols' disintegration was documented in Julian Temple's satirical pseudo-biographical film, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, in which Jones, Cook and Vicious each played a character. Matlock only appeared in previously-recorded live footage and as an animation and did not participate personally. Lydon refused to have anything to do with The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, feeling that McLaren had far too much control over the project. Although Lydon was highly critical of the film, many years later he agreed to let Temple direct the Sex Pistols documentary The Filth and the Fury. That film included new interviews with the band members' faces hidden in silhouette. It featured an uncharacteristically emotional Lydon choking up as he discussed Vicious' decline and death. Lydon denounced previous journalistic works regarding the Sex Pistols in the introduction to his autobiography, Rotten – No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, which he described as "as close to the truth as one can get".^[26]

[edit] 1978–1993: Public Image Limited, Time Zone and Copkiller

This section of a biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2008)

John Lydon, 1986

In 1978, Lydon formed the post-punk outfit Public Image Limited (PiL). PiL lasted for 14 years with Lydon as the only consistent member. The group enjoyed some early critical acclaim for its 1979 album, Metal Box (a.k.a. Second Edition), and influenced many bands of the later industrial movement. The band was lauded for its innovation and rejection of traditional musical forms. Musicians citing their influence have ranged from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Massive Attack.^{[citation needed]}

The first lineup of the band included bassist Jah Wobble and former Clash guitarist Keith Levene. They released the albums Public Image (also known as First Issue), Metal Box and Paris in the Spring (live). Wobble then left and Lydon and Levene made The Flowers of Romance. Then came This Is What You Want...This Is What You Get featuring Martin Atkins on drums (he had also appeared on Metal Box and The Flowers of Romance); it featured their biggest hit, "This Is Not A Love Song", which hit No. 5 in 1983.

In 1983, Lydon co-starred with Harvey Keitel in the movie thriller Corrupt, a.k.a. Copkiller and The Order of Death. While the film was generally panned, Lydon won some praise for his role as a psychotic rich boy. Lydon would act again occasionally after that, such as a very small role in the 2000 film, The Independent, and as the host of the skateboard film, Sorry, featuring the Flip Skate Team.

In 1984, Lydon worked with Time Zone on their best-known single, "World Destruction". A collaboration between Lydon, Afrika Bambaataa and producer/bassist Bill Laswell, the single was an early example of "rap rock", along with Run-DMC. The song appears on Afrika Bambaataa's 1997 compilation album, Zulu Groove. It was arranged by Laswell after Lydon and Bambaataa had acknowledged respect for each others' work, as described in an interview from 1984:

Afrika Bambaataa: "I was talking to Bill Laswell saying I need somebody who's really crazy, man, and he thought of John Lydon. I knew he was perfect because I'd seen this movie that he'd made (Corrupt, a.k.a. Copkiller and The Order of Death), I knew about all the Sex Pistols and Public Image stuff, so we got together and we did a smashing crazy version, and a version where he cussed the Queen something terrible, which was never released."

John Lydon: "We went in, put a drum beat down on the machine and did the whole thing in about four-and-a-half hours. It was very, very quick."^[27]

The single also featured Bernie Worrell, Nicky Skopelitis and Aïyb Dieng, all of whom would later play on PiL's Album; Laswell also played bass and produced. In 1986 Public Image Limited released Album (also known as Compact Disc and Cassette). Most of the tracks on this album were written by Lydon and Bill Laswell. The musicians were session musicians including bassist Jonas Hellborg, guitarist Steve Vai and Cream drummer Ginger Baker. Like the previous album, this also featured a hit, the anti-apartheid anthem "Rise". The band's performance on the dance/concert TV show American Bandstand saw Lydon giving up on lip synching not long into the performance and dancing with audience members instead.^{[citation needed]}

In 1987 a new lineup was formed consisting of Lydon, former Magazine, Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Armoury Show guitarist John McGeoch, Allan Dias on bass guitar in addition to drummer Bruce Smith and Lu Edmunds. This lineup released Happy? and all except Lu Edmunds released the album 9 in 1989. In 1992 Lydon, Dias and McGeoch were joined by Curt Bisquera on drums and Gregg Arreguin on rhythm guitar for the album That What Is Not. This album also features the Tower of Power on two songs and Jimmie Wood on harmonica. Lydon, McGeoch and Dias also wrote the song "Criminal" for the movie Point Break. After this album, in 1993, Lydon put PiL on indefinite hiatus.

1993–2006: solo album, autobiography and celebrity status[link]

In 1993, Lydon's first autobiography, Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, was published. Aided by Keith and Kent Zimmerman, and featuring contributions from figures including Paul Cook, Chrissie Hynde, Billy Idol and Don Letts, the work covered his life up until the collapse of the Sex Pistols. Describing the book, he stated that it "is as close to the truth as one can get, looking back on events from the inside. All the people in this book were actually there, and this book is as much their point of view as it is mine. This means contradictions and insults have not been edited, and neither have the compliments, if any. I have no time for lies or fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy or die."^[28] In December 2005, Lydon told Q that he is working on a second autobiography to cover the PiL years.^[1]

In the mid-1990s, Lydon hosted Rotten Day, a daily syndicated US radio feature written by George Gimarc. The format of the show was a look back at events in popular music and culture occurring on the particular broadcast calendar date about which Lydon would offer cynical commentary. The show was originally developed as a radio vehicle for Gimarc's book, Punk Diary 1970–79, but after bringing Lydon onboard it was expanded to cover notable events from most of the second half of the 20th century.

In 1997 Lydon released a solo album on Virgin Records called Psycho's Path. He wrote all the songs and played all the instruments. In one song, "Sun", he sang the vocals through a toilet roll.^[29] It did not sell particularly well and received mixed reviews from critics. The US version included a Chemical Brothers remix of the song "Open Up" by Leftfield with vocals by Lydon. This song is heard during the title menu of the computer game All Star Baseball 2000 (Acclaim Entertainment). The song was also a club hit in the US and a big hit in England. John Lydon has recorded a second solo-album but it has not been released. One song from the album was released on The Best of British £1 Notes.

In November 1997, Lydon appeared on Judge Judy fighting a suit filed by his former tour drummer Robert Williams for breach of contract, assault and battery.^[30] Lydon won the case, although Judge Judy Sheindlin was not overly impressed with Lydon's antics and told him to keep quiet several times.

In 2000, Lydon hosted Rotten TV, a short-lived show on VH1. The show offered his acerbic commentary on American politics and pop culture. In one segment he attempted to take Neil Young to task for not appearing on the show, making fun of Young's singing style and pointing out that Young had once proclaimed Johnny Rotten "the king" in the song "Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)".

In 2003 Lydon appeared as a panelist on an episode of Richard Belzer's ill-fated conspiracy-themed panel show, The Belzer Connection. The episode in question posed the query, "Was there a conspiracy involved in the death of Princess Diana?" For his part, Lydon responded to suggestions of British Royal Family involvement by proclaiming "If the Royal Family was going to assassinate someone, they would have gotten rid of me a long time ago." The series ran for only two episodes.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2004, Lydon appeared on the British reality television programme, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which took place in Australia. He proved he still had the capability to shock by calling the show's viewers "fucking cunts" during a live broadcast. The television regulator and ITV, the channel broadcasting the show, between them received 91 complaints about Lydon's language.^[31]

In a February 2004 interview with the Scottish Sunday Mirror, Lydon said that he and his wife "should be dead", since on 21 December 1988, thanks to delays caused by his wife's packing, they missed the doomed Pan Am Flight 103.^[32] During this interview, Lydon said that the real reason for him leaving Get Me Out of Here! was his fear over the Pan Am incident and the "appalling" refusal of the programme makers to let him know whether his wife had arrived safely in Australia. In an interview previous to the show's first episode, he had described it as "moronic", and throughout the show's run he had displayed an indifferent attitude to staying and threatened to walk out on numerous occasions. Thirty hours following ex-football star Neil Ruddock's departure, Lydon left the show for unclear reasons, although he had been very visibly angry both to and about fellow star Jordan. British newspapers claimed that Lydon had won a £100 bet with Ruddock over who would stay in the longest. Lydon, however, stated on air that he felt he would win outright and that it would be unfair to the other celebrities for him to win.

After I'm a Celebrity..., he presented a documentary about insects and spiders called John Lydon's Megabugs that was shown on the Discovery Channel.^[33] Radio Times described him as "more an enthusiast than an expert". He went to present two further programmes: John Lydon Goes Ape in which he searched for gorillas in Central Africa, and John Lydon's Shark Attack in which he swam with sharks off South Africa.

In 2005, he appeared in Reynebeau & Rotten, a five episode documentary on Canvas, the cultural channel of the Flemish public broadcaster VRT, in which Lydon guided Belgian journalist Marc Reynebeau through Great Britain in a chauffeured Rolls Royce, having a go at things typically 'British'. When asked why he was chosen as a guide, he answered that he was the cheapest one available. After the show had been broadcast, Lydon claimed in an interview with the popular Belgian magazine HUMO that he was very unhappy with the way they handled post-production and was very angry with the way they depicted him in this particular show. He claimed that the creators mainly showed his humorous, sometimes clownish antics, instead of focusing on his personal opinions and arguably philosophical conversations he had with Marc Reynebeau. Lydon was reportedly infuriated that the production company used songs from the Sex Pistols' catalogue, without consulting all the remaining members of the band, including him.^{[citation needed]}

Lydon broadcast a short pod on Current TV in which he critiqued The Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek's previously broadcast pod. Manzarek's advice to young people had been to "fuck your brains out." He emphasised this especially for 25-year-old women, saying that "it won't last." Lydon had several choice words for Manzarek and told young people that the best thing they could do was get an education because knowledge is free. In late 2008 Lydon appeared in an advertising campaign for "Country Life", a popular brand of butter, on British television. Lydon was widely mocked as a sell-out for this move.^[34]

Lydon defended the move by stating that the main reason he accepted the offer was to raise money to reform Public Image Limited from the ground-up without a record deal. The advertising campaign proved to be highly successful, with sales of the brand raising 85% in the quarter following, which many in the media attributed to Lydon's presence in the advert.^[35]

2006–2009: Sex Pistols revival[link]

John Lydon (2008)

Although Lydon spent years furiously denying that the Sex Pistols would ever perform together again, the band re-united (with Matlock returning on bass) in the 1990s, and continues to perform occasionally. In 2004, Lydon publicly refused to allow the Rhino record label to include any Sex Pistols songs on its box set No Thanks!: The 70s Punk Rebellion. In 2006, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Sex Pistols, but the band refused to attend the ceremony or acknowledge the induction, complaining that they had been asked for large sums of money to attend^[36] and stating that it went against everything the band stood for.

In June 2007, Lydon, Jones and Cook re-recorded "Pretty Vacant" in a Los Angeles studio for the video game Skate and, in a radio interview in the same month, Lydon announced that the Sex Pistols may perform again over the Christmas period. They also re-recorded "Anarchy in the UK" for the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. In September 2007, Lydon announced that the Sex Pistols would play a concert for the 30th anniversary of Never Mind the Bollocks at the Brixton Academy in London on 8 November 2007. Due to popular demand,^{[citation needed]} four additional concerts were added, as well as further shows in Manchester and Glasgow. The Sex Pistols appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival 2008 as the headlining act on Saturday night. They also appeared at the Peace and Love Festival (Sweden), Electric Picnic (Ireland), Lokerse Feesten festival in Lokeren (Belgium), the Live at Loch Lomond Festival (Scotland), Heineken Open'er Festival (Gdynia, Poland), Paredes de Coura Festival (Portugal), Traffic Free Festival (Turin, Italy), SZIGET Fesztival (Budapest, Hungary) and EXIT festival (Serbia), the same summer.^{[citation needed]}

2009–present PiL reformation[link]

John Lydon onstage with PiL at Guilfest 2011

In September 2009 it was announced that PiL would reform, including earlier members Bruce Smith and Lu Edmonds, for a number of Christmas shows in the UK.^[37] Lydon financed the reunion using money he earned doing a UK TV commercial for Country Life butter. "The money that I earned from that has now gone completely—lock stock and barrel—into reforming PiL,"^[38] said Lydon.

Controversies[link]

2008 Ritz Carlton Hotel incident[link]

On 23 January 2008 Lydon was reportedly involved in a string of offences, including sexual harrassment, physical assault and battery in Marina del Rey.^[39] Roxane Davis, who was a talent producer for the television program Bodog Battle Of The Bands, claimed that she was punched in the face by Lydon after being shouted at and called a "cunt" several times.^[39]

Lydon was one of three celebrity judges appearing on the reality show and Davis was responsible for "handling" them. According to the story appearing in the Belfast Telegraph, Lydon first refused accommodation at the Radisson hotel, stating it was sub-standard. After he and his personal assistant were relocated to the Ritz Carlton, Lydon reportedly became infuriated with the hotel staff after he was given a room lacking an interior connecting door to his assistant's room.^[39] According to the lawsuit, Davis heard Lydon screaming at a hotel employee, she approached him and he began screaming at her. After Davis apologised, Lydon and his assistant began screaming sexual epithets and obscene insults at Davis, and Lydon then punched her in the face.^[39] Davis reportedly initiated legal action on 19 causes of action, including retaliation, wrongful termination, assault and battery.^[39] Davis sued in June 2008 and filed an amended version about four months later. On 28 January 2010, however, Davis's lawyers filed papers in Los Angeles Superior Court stating that the case was resolved, although no terms were divulged.^[40]

2008 Summercase incident[link]

Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke claims he was left with severe facial bruising and a split lip following what he alleges was a verbal and physical racist assault by three members of Lydon's entourage. The incident occurred on the evening of 19 July 2008 at the Summercase festival in Barcelona while the bands were socialising backstage.^[41] In a statement to NME, Lydon denied the allegations of his involvement in this assault.^[42] After the report, Super Furry Animals lead singer Gruff Rhys came forward in support of Okereke's claim, saying "the statements Kele has said are absolutely true, it did happen."^[43]

A British tabloid accused Lydon of racism due to the incident, something he strongly denied during an appearance on The One Show, claiming that they were "atrocious" and "hurtful". He went on to say that:

He went on to say, when asked if he was racist, that:

2008 Duffy incident[link]

At the 2008 MoJo awards ceremony, Welsh singer Duffy attempted to say hello to Lydon when, according to her; "I was literally slammed against the wall, pinned by his arm at my throat. He called me a cunt."^[45] Other reports indicate a slightly different scenario, that Lydon "was being interviewed and he had his back to (the) door and she banged into him and then grabbed him. He then turned round in no uncertain terms to tell her to back off him".^[46] Lydon later claimed he had not realised who Duffy was, saying; "people are trying to pin something on me. I don't know who this Duffy person is, or why she'd want to get publicity from this. I was doing an interview and she came up behind me—I didn't see anything. I've been with my wife for 30 years and I've been brought up to be polite and have respect for people, especially women."^[47]

Adam Sherwin of The Times, witnessed the incident and has given an account which differs from that offered by Lydon, placing the blame for the physical assault on Lydon's personal assistant.^[48]

2010 performing in Israel[link]

Lydon played with Public Image Ltd in Tel Aviv, Israel, in August 2010. He refused to accept calls for him not to go to Israel.^[49][50]

^[51]

Lydon has also commented:

Origin of Johnny Rotten stage name[link]

The origin of John Lydon's stage name, Johnny Rotten, has had two longstanding explanations. One, given in a Daily Telegraph feature interview with Lydon in 2007, was that he was given the name in the mid 1970s, when his lack of oral hygiene led to his teeth turning green.^[52] Another story says the name was given to him by Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, who saw Lydon's teeth and exclaimed, "You're rotten, you are!"^[53]

In 2008, however, Lydon had extensive dental work performed in Los Angeles, at a reported cost of US $22,000. Lydon explained that it wasn't done out of vanity: "It was necessity ... all those rotten teeth were seriously beginning to corrupt my system".^[54]

Personal life[link]

Lydon is married to Nora Forster, a publishing heiress from Germany.^[55] He is the stepfather of Forster's daughter, Ari Up, who herself had been the lead singer in the post-punk band The Slits before her death in 2010. Lydon resides in Los Angeles, California.^[52] Lydon's parents raised him and his brothers in the Roman Catholic faith, but he "never had any godlike epiphanies or thought that God had anything to do with this dismal occurrence called life."^[56]

Lydon has been a fan of Oscar Wilde since he studied his works at school, when he came to the conclusion that "his stuff was fucking brilliant. What an attitude to life!… He turned out to be the biggest poof on earth at a time when that was completely unacceptable. What a genius."^[15]

Political and social criticism[link]

Ever since his rise to public attention, Lydon has remained a critic of much in British politics and society. Coming from a working class background, he has remained heavily opposed to the class system, describing how private schools "tend to turn out little snobs. They're taught a sense of superiority, which is the kiss of death… They're absolutely screwed up for life."^[57] He is critical of the upper classes, stating that they "parasite off the population as their friends help them along", but he equally criticises the working classes, claiming that "We're lazy, good-for-nothing bastards, absolute cop-outs [who] never accept responsibility for our own lives and that's why we'll always be downtrodden."^[58] He opposes all forms of segregation in schools, not only through the private and state school division, but also with single-sex schools; "It doesn't make sense. It's a much better environment with girls in the class. You learn a lot more, as diversity makes things more interesting."^[59]

He has also criticised the paramilitary organisations involved in the Northern Ireland conflict, remarking that both the Irish Republican Army and the Ulster Defence Association were "like two mafia gangs punching each other out… They both run their extortion rackets and plague people to no end." He remarked that "The Northern Ireland problem is a terrible thing, and its only the ignorance of the people living outside of it that keeps it going", but that ultimately the British government's exploitative attitude to the problem was in his opinion the main cause.^[60]

Discography[link]

All chart positions are UK.

Sex Pistols[link]

Studio albums

• Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (Virgin, 1977) Platinum No. 1

Compilations and live albums

• Flogging a Dead Horse (Virgin,1979)
• The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (Virgin, 1979)
• Some Product: Carri On Sex Pistols (Virgin, 1979)
• Kiss This (Virgin, 1992)
• Never Mind the Bollocks / Spunk (aka This is Crap) (Virgin, 1996)
• Filthy Lucre Live (Virgin, 1996)
• The Filth and the Fury (Virgin, 2000)
• Jubilee (Virgin, 2002)
• Sex Pistols Box Set (Virgin, 2002)

Singles

• "Anarchy in the UK" – 1976 No. 38
• "God Save the Queen" – 1977 No. 2
• "Pretty Vacant" – 1977 No. 6
• "Holidays in the Sun" – 1977 No. 8
• "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" – 1980 No. 21
• "Anarchy in the UK" (re-issue) – 1992 No. 33
• "Pretty Vacant" (live) – 1996 No. 18
• "God Save the Queen" (re-issue) – 2002 No. 15

Public Image Ltd.[link]

Studio albums

• First Issue (Virgin, 1978), No. 22
• Metal Box (a.k.a. Second Edition) (Virgin, 1979) #18, US No. 171
• Flowers of Romance (Virgin, 1981) #11, US No. 114
• Commercial Zone (PiL Records, 1983)
• This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get (Virgin, 1984)
• Album (Virgin, 1986)
• Happy? (Virgin, 1987)
• 9 (Virgin, 1989)
• That What Is Not (Virgin, 1992)
• This Is PiL (PiL Official, 2012)

Compilations and live albums

• Paris in the Spring (Paris au Printemps) (Virgin, 1980)
• Live in Tokyo (Virgin, 1983)
• The Greatest Hits, So Far (Virgin, 1990)

Singles

• "Public Image" – 1978 No. 9
• "Death Disco" – 1979 No. 20
• "Memories" – 1979 No. 60
• "Flowers of Romance" – 1981 No. 24
• "This Is Not a Love Song" – 1983 No. 5
• "Bad Life" – 1984 No. 71
• "Rise" – 1986 No. 11
• "Home" – 1986 No. 75
• "Seattle" – 1987 No. 47
• "The Body" – 1987 No. 100
• "Disappointed" – 1989 No. 38
• "Don't Ask Me" – 1990 No. 22
• "Cruel" – 1992 No. 49
• "One Drop" – 2012

The Lydons and The O'Donnells[link]

Studio albums

• Family Album (MBC records, 1986)

Time Zone[link]

Single

• "World Destruction" – 1984

Solo[link]

Studio albums

• Psycho's Path (Virgin, 1997)

Compilations

• The Best of British £1 Notes (Lydon, PiL & Sex Pistols) (Virgin/EMI, 2005)

Singles

• "Open Up" (with Leftfield) – 1993 – No. 11 UK
• "Sun" – 1997 – No. 42 UK

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Lydon, John (1993). Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs. Hodder & Stoughton

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Lydon

• John Lydon – official website
• John Lydon discography on Discogs
• Johnny Rotten on The Hour
• interview with John Lydon at SuicideGirls
• John Lydon fronts UK butter campaign

Ayn Rand
File:Ayn Rand1.jpg Ayn Rand in 1957
Born	Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (1905-02-02)February 2, 1905 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Died	March 6, 1982(1982-03-06) (aged 77) New York City, United States
Resting place	Kensico Cemetery
Occupation	Philosopher, writer
Language	English
Ethnicity	Russian Jew
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Petrograd State University
Period	1934–1982
Subjects	Philosophy
Notable work(s)	The Fountainhead Atlas Shrugged
Notable award(s)	Prometheus Award – Hall of Fame 1983 Atlas Shrugged 1987 Anthem
Spouse(s)	Frank O'Connor (m. 1929-1979, his death)
Influences Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, O. Henry, Victor Hugo, Ludwig von Mises, H.L. Mencken, Friedrich Nietzsche, Isabel Paterson
Influenced Martin Anderson, Bob Barr, Andrew Bernstein, Harry Binswanger, Barbara Branden, Nathaniel Branden, Steve Ditko, Edith Efron, Terry Goodkind, Allan Gotthelf, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen, Erika Holzer, John Hospers, David Kelley, Anton LaVey, Liu Junning, Edwin A. Locke, Tibor Machan, Stefan Molyneux, Ron Paul, Neil Peart, Leonard Peikoff, George Reisman, Murray Rothbard, John Ridpath, Paul Ryan, Chris Matthew Sciabarra, George H. Smith, Kay Nolte Smith, L. Neil Smith, Tara Smith, John Stossel, Clarence Thomas, Jimmy Wales
Signature

Ayn Rand ( /ˈaɪn ˈrænd/;^[1] born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, February 2 [O.S. January 20] 1905 – March 6, 1982) was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher,^[2] 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.

Born and educated in Russia, Rand moved to the United States in 1926. She worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood and had a play produced on Broadway in 1935–1936. After two initially unsuccessful early novels, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel The Fountainhead. In 1957, she published her best-known work, the philosophical novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward she turned to nonfiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own magazines and releasing several collections of essays until her death in 1982.

Rand advocated reason as the only means of acquiring knowledge and rejected all forms of faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism, and rejected ethical altruism. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and opposed all forms of collectivism and statism, instead supporting laissez-faire capitalism, which she believed was the only social system that protected individual rights. She promoted romantic realism in art. She was sharply critical of the philosophers and philosophical traditions known to her besides Aristotle.

Rand's fiction was poorly received by many literary critics,^[3] and academia generally ignored or rejected her philosophy. The Objectivist movement attempts to spread her ideas, both to the public and in academic settings.^[4] She is a major influence among libertarians and American conservatives.

Life[link]

Early life[link]

Rand was born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum (Russian: Алиса Зиновьевна Розенбаум) on February 2, 1905, to a bourgeois family living in Saint Petersburg. She was the eldest of the three daughters of Zinovy Zakharovich Rosenbaum and Anna Borisovna Rosenbaum, largely non-observant Jews. Rand's father was a successful pharmacist, eventually owning a pharmacy and the building in which it was located.^[5] Rand was twelve at the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, during which her sympathies were with Alexander Kerensky. Rand's family life was disrupted by the rise of the Bolshevik party under Vladimir Lenin. Her father's pharmacy was confiscated by the Bolsheviks, and the family fled to the Crimea, which was initially under the control of the White Army during the Russian Civil War. She later recalled that while in high school she determined that she was an atheist and that she valued reason above any other human attribute. After graduating from high school in the Crimea, at 16 Rand returned with her family to Petrograd (the new name for Saint Petersburg), where they faced desperate conditions, on occasion nearly starving.^[6][7]

Rand completed a three-year program at Petrograd State University.

After the Russian Revolution, universities were opened to women, including Jews, allowing Rand to be in the first group of women to enroll at Petrograd State University,^[8] where she studied in the department of social pedagogy, majoring in history.^[9] At the university she was introduced to the writings of Aristotle and Plato,^[10] who would form two of her greatest influences and counter-influences, respectively.^[11] A third figure whose philosophical works she studied heavily was Friedrich Nietzsche.^[12] Able to read French, German and Russian, Rand also discovered the writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, Victor Hugo, Edmond Rostand, and Friedrich Schiller, who became her perennial favorites.^[13]

Along with many other "bourgeois" students, Rand was purged from the university shortly before graduating. However, after complaints from a group of visiting foreign scientists, many of the purged students were allowed to complete their work and graduate,^[14] which Rand did in October 1924.^[15] She subsequently studied for a year at the State Technicum for Screen Arts in Leningrad. For one of her assignments, she wrote an essay about the actress Pola Negri, which became her first published work.^[16]

By this time she had decided her professional surname for writing would be Rand,^[17] possibly as a Cyrillic contraction of her birth surname,^[18] and she adopted the first name Ayn, either from a Finnish name or from the Hebrew word עין (ayin, meaning "eye").^[19]

Cover of Rand's first published work, a 2,500-word monograph on the Polish femme fatale Pola Negri published in 1925.^[16]

In the fall of 1925, Rand was granted a visa to visit American relatives. Rand was so impressed with the skyline of Manhattan upon her arrival in New York Harbor that she cried what she later called "tears of splendor".^[20] Intent on staying in the United States to become a screenwriter, she lived for a few months with relatives in Chicago, one of whom owned a movie theater and allowed her to watch dozens of films for free. She then set out for Hollywood, California.^[21]

Initially, Rand struggled in Hollywood and took odd jobs to pay her basic living expenses. A chance meeting with famed director Cecil B. DeMille led to a job as an extra in his film, The King of Kings, and to subsequent work as a junior screenwriter.^[22] While working on The King of Kings, she met an aspiring young actor, Frank O'Connor; the two were married on April 15, 1929. Rand became an American citizen in 1931. Taking various jobs during the 1930s to support her writing, Rand worked for a time as the head of the costume department at RKO Studios.^[23] She made several attempts to bring her parents and sisters to the United States, but they were unable to acquire permission to emigrate.^[24]

Early fiction[link]

Rand's first literary success came with the sale of her screenplay Red Pawn to Universal Studios in 1932, although it was never produced.^[25] 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 the "jury" was selected from members of the audience, and one of the two different endings, depending on the jury's "verdict", would then be performed.^[26] In 1941, Paramount Pictures produced a movie version of the play. Rand did not participate in the production and was highly critical of the result.^[27]

Rand's first 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. It is not an autobiography in the literal, but only in the intellectual sense. The plot is invented, the background is not..."^[28] Initial sales were slow and the American publisher let it go out of print,^[29] although European editions continued to sell.^[30] 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.^[31] Without Rand's knowledge or permission, the novel was made into a pair of Italian films, Noi vivi and Addio, Kira, in 1942. 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.^[32]

Her novella Anthem was written during a break from the writing of her next major novel, The Fountainhead. 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'.^[33] 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.^[34]

[edit] The Fountainhead and political activism

During the 1940s, Rand became politically active. Both she and her husband worked full time in volunteer positions for the 1940 Presidential campaign of Republican Wendell Willkie. This work led to Rand's first public speaking experiences, including fielding the sometimes hostile questions from New York City audiences who had just viewed pro-Willkie newsreels, an experience she greatly enjoyed.^[35] This activity also 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. 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. Once von Mises referred to Rand as "the most courageous man in America," a compliment that particularly pleased her because he said "man" instead of "woman."^[36] Rand also developed a friendship with libertarian writer Isabel Paterson. Rand questioned the well-informed Paterson about American history and politics long into the night during their numerous meetings and gave Paterson ideas for her only nonfiction book, The God of the Machine.^[37]

Rand's first major success as a writer came with The Fountainhead in 1943, a romantic and philosophical novel that she wrote over a period of seven years.^[38] 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 self. 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.^[39] While completing the novel, Rand was prescribed the amphetamine Benzedrine to fight fatigue.^[40] The drug helped her to work long hours to meet her deadline for delivering the finished novel, but when the book was done, she was so exhausted that her doctor ordered two weeks' rest.^[41] Her continued use of the drug for a number of years may have contributed to what some of her later associates described as volatile mood swings.^[42]

The Fountainhead eventually became a worldwide success, bringing Rand fame and financial security.^[43] In 1943, Rand sold the rights for a film version to Warner Bros., and she returned to Hollywood to write the screenplay. Finishing her work on that screenplay, she was hired by producer Hal Wallis as a screenwriter and script-doctor. Her work for Wallis included the screenplays for the Oscar-nominated Love Letters and You Came Along.^[44] This role gave Rand time to work on other projects, including a planned nonfiction treatment of her philosophy to be called The Moral Basis of Individualism. 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.^[45]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Ayn Rand's testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities

While working in Hollywood, Rand extended her involvement with free-market and anti-communist activism. 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.^[46] 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 that Rand saw as rude to valued political allies.^[47] 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.^[48] Rand argued that the film grossly misrepresented conditions in the Soviet Union, portraying life there as being much better and happier than it actually was.^[49] When asked about her feelings on the effectiveness of the investigations after the hearings, Rand described the process as "futile".^[50]

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," complaining about its editing, acting, and other elements.^[51]

[edit] Atlas Shrugged and Objectivism

After the publication of The Fountainhead, Rand received numerous letters from readers, some of whom it had profoundly influenced. 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. At first the group was an informal gathering of friends who met with Rand on weekends at her apartment to discuss philosophy. Later she 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 much younger Nathaniel Branden turned into a romantic affair, with the consent of their spouses.^[52]

Atlas Shrugged, published in 1957, was Rand's magnum opus.^[53] 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."^[54] It advocates the core tenets of Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and expresses her concept of human achievement. The plot involves a dystopian United States in which the most creative industrialists, scientists and artists go on strike and retreat 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. 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 and science fiction,^[55] and it contains Rand's most extensive statement of Objectivism in any of her works of fiction, a lengthy monologue delivered by Galt. Atlas Shrugged became an international bestseller, and in an interview with Mike Wallace, Rand declared herself "the most creative thinker alive."^[56] Atlas Shrugged was to be Rand's last work of fiction; a turning point in her life, it marked the end of Rand's career as a novelist and the beginning of her role as a popular philosopher.^[57] After completing the novel of more than one thousand pages, however, Rand fell into a severe depression that may have been aggravated by her use of prescription amphetamines.^[58]

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. Rand later published some of these articles in book form. Critics, including some former NBI students and Branden himself, have described the culture of NBI as one of intellectual conformity and excessive reverence for Rand, with some describing NBI or the entire Objectivist movement as a cult or religion.^[59] Rand expressed opinions on a wide range of topics, including literature, music, sexuality, even facial hair, and some of her followers mimicked all her preferences, wearing clothes to match characters from her novels and buying furniture like hers.^[60] Rand was unimpressed with many of the NBI students^[61] and held them to strict standards, sometimes reacting coldly or angrily to those who disagreed with her.^[62] However, some former NBI students believe the extent of these behaviors has been exaggerated, with the problem being concentrated among Rand's closest followers in New York.^[63]

Later years[link]

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 University, Princeton University, Columbia University,^[64] Harvard University and MIT.^[65] She received an honorary doctorate from Lewis & Clark College in 1963.^[66] She also began delivering annual lectures at the Ford Hall Forum, responding afterward to questions from the audience.^[67] During these speeches and Q&A sessions, she often took controversial stances on political and social issues of the day. These included supporting abortion rights,^[68] opposing the Vietnam War and the military draft (but condemning many draft dodgers as "bums"),^[69] supporting Israel in the Arab-Israeli War of 1973 as "civilized men fighting savages",^[70] saying European colonists had the right to take land from American Indians,^[71] and calling homosexuality "immoral" and "disgusting", while also advocating the repeal of all laws against it.^[72] 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.^[73]

Grave marker for Rand and her husband at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York

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,^[74] Rand terminated her relationship with both Brandens, which led to the closure of NBI.^[75] Rand published an article in The Objectivist repudiating Nathaniel Branden for dishonesty and other "irrational behavior in his private life."^[76] Branden later apologized in an interview to "every student of Objectivism" for "perpetuating the Ayn Rand mystique" and for "contributing to that dreadful atmosphere of intellectual repressiveness that pervades the Objectivist movement."^[77] In subsequent years, several more of her closest associates parted company with her.^[78]

Rand underwent surgery for lung cancer in 1974 after decades of heavy smoking.^[79] In 1976 she retired from writing her newsletter and, despite her initial objections, reluctantly allowed Evva Pryor, a consultant from her attorney's office, to sign her up for Social Security and Medicare.^[80] During the late 1970s her activities within the Objectivist movement declined, especially after the death of her husband on November 9, 1979.^[81] One of her final projects was work on a never-completed television adaptation of Atlas Shrugged.^[82]

Rand died of heart failure on March 6, 1982, at her home in New York City,^[83] and was interred in the Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York.^[84] Rand's funeral was attended by some of her prominent followers, including Alan Greenspan. A six-foot floral arrangement in the shape of a dollar sign was placed near her casket.^[85] In her will, Rand named Leonard Peikoff the heir to her estate.^[86]

Philosophy[link]

Objectivist movement
Philosophy Objectivism Rational egoism Individualism Capitalism Romantic realism
Organizations Ayn Rand Institute Atlas Society Nathaniel Branden Institute Objectivist Party Libertarianz
Theorists Ayn Rand Andrew Bernstein Harry Binswanger Nathaniel Branden · Yaron Brook Allan Gotthelf · David Kelley Tibor R. Machan Leonard Peikoff · George Reisman John Ridpath · Richard Salsman Tara Smith
Literature Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal For the New Intellectual Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology The New Left Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand Philosophy: Who Needs It The Romantic Manifesto The Virtue of Selfishness The Voice of Reason Objectivist periodicals Journal of Ayn Rand Studies
Related topics Libertarianism and Objectivism Objectivism and homosexuality Objectivist movement in India Randian hero Philosophical movement
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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."^[87] She considered Objectivism a systematic philosophy and laid out positions on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy and esthetics.^[88]

In metaphysics, Rand supported philosophical realism, and opposed anything she regarded as mysticism or supernaturalism, including all forms of religion.^[89] In epistemology, she considered all knowledge to be based on sense perception, the validity of which she considered axiomatic,^[90] and reason, which she described as "the faculty that identifies and integrates the material provided by man's senses."^[91] She rejected all claims of non-perceptual or a priori knowledge, including "'instinct,' 'intuition,' 'revelation,' or any form of 'just knowing.'"^[92] In her Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, Rand presented a theory of concept formation and endorsed the rejection of the analytic–synthetic dichotomy.^[93]

In ethics, Rand argued for rational egoism (rational self-interest), as the guiding moral principle. She said the individual should "exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself."^[94] She referred to egoism as "the virtue of selfishness" in her book of that title,^[95] in which she presented her solution to the is-ought problem by describing a meta-ethical theory that based morality in the needs of "man's survival qua man".^[96] She condemned ethical altruism as incompatible with the requirements of human life and happiness,^[97] and held that the initiation of force was evil and irrational, writing in Atlas Shrugged that "Force and mind are opposites".^[98]

Rand's political philosophy emphasized individual rights (including property rights),^[99] and she considered laissez-faire capitalism the only moral social system because in her view it was the only system based on the protection of those rights.^[100] She opposed statism, which she understood to include theocracy, absolute monarchy, Nazism, fascism, communism, democratic socialism, and dictatorship.^[101] Rand believed that rights should be enforced by a constitutionally limited government.^[102] Although her political views are often classified as conservative or libertarian, she preferred the term "radical for capitalism". She worked with conservatives on political projects, but disagreed with them over issues such as religion and ethics.^[103] She denounced libertarianism, which she associated with anarchism.^[104] She rejected anarchism as a naïve theory based in subjectivism that could only lead to collectivism in practice.^[105]

Rand's esthetics defined art as a "selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments." According to Rand, art allows philosophical concepts to be presented in a concrete form that can be easily grasped, thereby fulfilling a need of human consciousness.^[106] As a writer, the art form Rand focused on most closely was literature, where she considered Romanticism to be the approach that most accurately reflected the existence of human free will.^[107] She described her own approach to literature as "romantic realism".^[108]

Rand acknowledged Aristotle as her greatest influence^[109] and remarked that in the history of philosophy she could only recommend "three A's"—Aristotle, Aquinas, and Ayn Rand.^[110] She also found early inspiration in Friedrich Nietzsche,^[111] and scholars have found indications of his influence in early notes from Rand's journals,^[112] in passages from the first edition of We the Living (which Rand later revised),^[113] and in her overall writing style.^[114] However, by the time she wrote The Fountainhead, Rand had turned against Nietzsche's ideas,^[115] and the extent of his influence on her even during her early years is disputed.^[116] Among the philosophers Rand held in particular disdain was Immanuel Kant, whom she referred to as a "monster",^[117] although philosophers George Walsh^[118] and Fred Seddon^[119] have argued that she misinterpreted Kant and exaggerated their differences.

Rand said her most important contributions to philosophy were her "theory of concepts, [her] ethics, and [her] discovery in politics that evil—the violation of rights—consists of the initiation of force."^[120] She believed epistemology was a foundational branch of philosophy and considered the advocacy of reason to be the single most significant aspect of her philosophy,^[121] stating, "I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows."^[122]

Reception and legacy[link]

Reviews[link]

During Rand's lifetime, her work evoked both extreme praise and condemnation. Rand's first novel, We the Living, was admired by the literary critic H.L. Mencken,^[123] her Broadway play Night of January 16th was both a critical and popular success,^[124] and The Fountainhead was hailed by a reviewer in The New York Times as "masterful".^[125] Rand's novels were derided by some critics when they were first published as being long and melodramatic.^[3] However, they became bestsellers largely through word of mouth.^[126]

The first reviews Rand received were for Night of January 16th. Reviews of the production were largely positive, but Rand considered even positive reviews to be embarrassing because of significant changes made to her script by the producer.^[124] Rand believed that her first novel, We the Living, was not widely reviewed, but Rand scholar Michael S. Berliner says "it was the most reviewed of any of her works," with approximately 125 different reviews being published in more than 200 publications. Overall these reviews were more positive than the reviews she received for her later work.^[127] Her 1938 novella Anthem received little attention from reviewers, both for its first publication in England and for subsequent re-issues.^[128]

Rand's first bestseller, The Fountainhead, received far fewer reviews than We the Living, and reviewers' opinions were mixed.^[129] There was a positive review in The New York Times that Rand greatly appreciated.^[130] The reviewer called Rand "a writer of great power" who wrote "brilliantly, beautifully and bitterly," and stated that "you will not be able to read this masterful book without thinking through some of the basic concepts of our time."^[125] There were other positive reviews, but Rand dismissed most of them as either not understanding her message or as being from unimportant publications.^[129] Some negative reviews focused on the length of the novel,^[3] such as one that called it "a whale of a book" and another that said "anyone who is taken in by it deserves a stern lecture on paper-rationing." Other negative reviews called the characters unsympathetic and Rand's style "offensively pedestrian."^[129]

Rand's 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged was widely reviewed, and many of the reviews were strongly negative.^[3][131] In the National Review, conservative author Whittaker Chambers called the book "sophomoric" and "remarkably silly". He described the tone of the book as "shrillness without reprieve" and accused Rand of supporting a Godless system (which he related to that of the Soviets), claiming "From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: 'To a gas chamber—go!'"^[132] Atlas Shrugged received positive reviews from a few publications, including praise from the noted book reviewer John Chamberlain,^[131] but Rand scholar Mimi Reisel Gladstein later wrote that "reviewers seemed to vie with each other in a contest to devise the cleverest put-downs," calling it "execrable claptrap" and "a nightmare;" they said it was "written out of hate" and showed "remorseless hectoring and prolixity."^[3] Author Flannery O'Connor wrote in a letter to a friend that "The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail."^[133]

Rand's nonfiction received far fewer reviews than her novels had. The tenor of the criticism for her first nonfiction book, For the New Intellectual, was similar to that for Atlas Shrugged,^[134][135] with philosopher Sidney Hook likening her certainty to "the way philosophy is written in the Soviet Union",^[136] and author Gore Vidal calling her viewpoint "nearly perfect in its immorality".^[137] Her subsequent books got progressively less attention from reviewers.^[134]

On the 100th anniversary of Rand's birth in 2005, Edward Rothstein, writing for The New York Times, referred to her fictional writing as quaint utopian "retro fantasy" and programmatic neo-Romanticism of the misunderstood artist, while criticizing her characters' "isolated rejection of democratic society".^[138] In 2007, book critic Leslie Clark described her fiction as "romance novels with a patina of pseudo-philosophy".^[139] In 2009, GQ's critic columnist Tom Carson described her books as "capitalism's version of middlebrow religious novels" such as Ben-Hur and the Left Behind series.^[140]

Popular interest[link]

A quote from Rand's book The Fountainhead, on the wall directly across from the entrance to The American Adventure rotunda at Walt Disney World's Epcot

In 1991, a survey conducted for the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club asked club members what the most influential book in the respondent's life was. Rand's Atlas Shrugged was the second most popular choice, after the Bible.^[141] Rand's books continue to be widely sold and read, with 25 million copies sold as of 2007^[142] and another 800,000 sold in 2008. (This includes approximately 300,000 copies distributed for free by the Ayn Rand Institute.)^[143] Although Rand's influence has been greatest in the United States, there has been international interest in her work.^[144]

Rand's contemporary admirers included fellow novelists, such as Ira Levin, Kay Nolte Smith and L. Neil Smith, and later writers such as Erika Holzer and Terry Goodkind have been influenced by her.^[145] Other artists who have cited Rand as an important influence on their lives and thought include comic book artist Steve Ditko^[146] and musician Neil Peart of Rush.^[147] Rand provided a positive view of business, and in response business executives and entrepreneurs have admired and promoted her work.^[148] John Allison of BB&T and Ed Snider of Comcast Spectacor have funded the promotion of Rand's ideas,^[149] while Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and John P. Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, among others, have said they consider Rand crucial to their success.^[150]

Rand and her works have been referred to in a variety of media. References to her have appeared on television shows including animated sitcoms, live-action comedies, dramas, and game shows.^[151] She, or characters based on her, figure prominently (in positive and negative lights) in literary and science fiction novels by prominent American authors.^[152] Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of Reason, has remarked that "Rand's is a tortured immortality, one in which she's as likely to be a punch line as a protagonist..." and that "jibes at Rand as cold and inhuman, run through the popular culture."^[153] Two movies have been made about Rand's life. A 1997 documentary film, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Feature.^[154] The Passion of Ayn Rand, a 1999 television adaptation of the book of the same name, won several awards.^[142] Rand's image also appears on a U.S. postage stamp designed by artist Nick Gaetano.^[155]

Political influence[link]

A protester at an April 2009 Tea Party rally carries a sign referring to John Galt, the hero of Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged

Although she rejected the labels "conservative" and "libertarian,"^[156] Rand has had continuing influence on right-wing politics and libertarianism.^[157] Jim Powell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, considers Rand one of the three most important women (along with Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel Paterson) of modern American libertarianism,^[158] and David Nolan, one of the founders of the Libertarian Party, stated that "without Ayn Rand, the libertarian movement would not exist."^[159] In his history of the libertarian movement, journalist Brian Doherty described her as "the most influential libertarian of the twentieth century to the public at large,"^[141] and biographer Jennifer Burns referred to her as "the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right."^[160]

She faced intense opposition from William F. Buckley, Jr. and other contributors for the National Review magazine. They published numerous attacks in the 1950s and 1960s by Whittaker Chambers, Garry Wills, and M. Stanton Evans. Nevertheless, her influence among conservatives forced Buckley and other National Review contributors to reconsider how traditional notions of virtue and Christianity could be integrated with support for capitalism.^[161]

The political figures who cite Rand as an influence are most often members of the United States Republican Party^[162] despite Rand being a pro-choice atheist.^[163] A 1987 article in The New York Times referred to her as the Reagan administration's "novelist laureate".^[164] Republican Congressmen and conservative pundits have acknowledged her influence on their lives and recommended her novels.^[165]

The late-2000s financial crisis spurred renewed interest in her works, especially Atlas Shrugged, which some saw as foreshadowing the crisis,^[166] and opinion articles compared real-world events with the plot of the novel.^[167] During this time, signs mentioning Rand and her fictional hero John Galt appeared at Tea Party protests.^[168] There was also increased criticism of her ideas, especially from the political left, with critics blaming the economic crisis on her support of selfishness and free markets, particularly through her influence on Alan Greenspan.^[169] For example, Mother Jones remarked that "Rand's particular genius has always been her ability to turn upside down traditional hierarchies and recast the wealthy, the talented, and the powerful as the oppressed",^[163] while The Nation alleged similarities between the "moral syntax of Randianism" and fascism.^[170]

Academic reaction[link]

During Rand's lifetime her work received little attention from academic scholars.^[4] When the first academic book about Rand's philosophy appeared in 1971, its author declared writing about Rand "a treacherous undertaking" that could lead to "guilt by association" for taking her seriously.^[171] A few articles about Rand's ideas appeared in academic journals prior to her death in 1982, many of them in The Personalist.^[172] One of these was "On the Randian Argument" by respected libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick, who argued that her meta-ethical argument is unsound and fails to solve the is–ought problem posed by David Hume.^[173] Some responses to Nozick by other academic philosophers were also published in The Personalist arguing that Nozick misstated Rand's case.^[172] Academic consideration of Rand as a literary figure during her life was even more limited. Gladstein was unable to find any scholarly articles about Rand's novels when she began researching her in 1973, and only three such articles appeared during the rest of the 1970s.^[174]

Since Rand's death, interest in her work has gradually increased.^[175] Historian Jennifer Burns has identified "three overlapping waves" of scholarly interest in Rand, the most recent of which is "an explosion of scholarship" since the year 2000.^[176] However, few universities currently include Rand or Objectivism as a philosophical specialty or research area, with many literature and philosophy departments dismissing her as a pop culture phenomenon rather than a subject for serious study.^[177]

Academics Mimi Gladstein, Chris Sciabarra, Allan Gotthelf, Edwin A. Locke and Tara Smith have taught her work in academic institutions. Sciabarra co-edits the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, a nonpartisan peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the study of Rand's philosophical and literary work.^[178] In 1987 Gotthelf helped found the Ayn Rand Society, and has been active in sponsoring seminars about Rand and her ideas.^[179] Smith has written several academic books and papers on Rand's ideas, including Ayn Rand's Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist, a volume on Rand's ethical theory published by Cambridge University Press. Rand's ideas have also been made subjects of study at Clemson and Duke universities.^[180] Scholars of English and American literature have largely ignored her work,^[181] although attention to her literary work has increased since the 1990s.^[182]

Some academic philosophers have criticized Rand for what they consider her lack of rigor and limited understanding of philosophical subject matter.^[4][95] The Philosophical Lexicon, a satirical web site maintained by philosophers Daniel Dennett and Asbjørn Steglich-Petersen, defines a 'rand' as: "An angry tirade occasioned by mistaking philosophical disagreement for a personal attack and/or evidence of unspeakable moral corruption."^[183] Chris Matthew Sciabarra has called into question the motives of some of Rand's critics because of the unusual hostility of their criticisms.^[184] Sciabarra writes, "The left was infuriated by her anti-communist, pro-capitalist politics, whereas the right was disgusted with her atheism and civil libertarianism."^[4]

Rand scholars Douglas Den Uyl and Douglas B. Rasmussen, while stressing the importance and originality of her thought, describe her style as "literary, hyperbolic and emotional."^[185] Philosopher Jack Wheeler says that despite "the incessant bombast and continuous venting of Randian rage," Rand's ethics are "a most immense achievement, the study of which is vastly more fruitful than any other in contemporary thought."^[186] In the Literary Encyclopedia entry for Rand written in 2001, John Lewis declared that "Rand wrote the most intellectually challenging fiction of her generation".^[187] In a 1999 interview in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Rand scholar Chris Matthew Sciabarra commented, "I know they laugh at Rand," while forecasting a growth of interest in her work in the academic community.^[188]

Objectivist movement[link]

In 1985, Rand's heir Leonard Peikoff established the Ayn Rand Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading Rand's ideas and promoting her works. In 1990, philosopher David Kelley founded the Institute for Objectivist Studies, now known as The Atlas Society.^[189] In 2001 historian John McCaskey organized the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship, which provides grants for scholarly work on Objectivism in academia.^[190] The charitable foundation of BB&T Corporation has also given grants for teaching Rand's ideas or works. The University of Texas at Austin, the University of Pittsburgh, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are among the schools that have received grants. In some cases these grants have been controversial due to their requiring research or teaching related to Rand.^[191]

Selected works[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Ayn Rand

References[link]