The revised edition was published by Pamphleteers Inc, a small publishing house owned by her friends Leonard Read and William Mullendore. In 1946, motivated by the success of her novel The Fountainhead, Rand revisited Anthem and published a revised edition targeted at American readers. Rand had initially titled the novella “Ego” but later changed the title to Anthem because “Ego” easily gave away the central theme of the book. But while Cassell published the manuscript, Macmillan rejected it, saying that the novella showed that Rand did not have a true understanding of Socialism. Rand simultaneously submitted the manuscripts of Anthem to two publishers who had worked on her first novel We the Living-– Macmillan Publishers in the USA, and Cassell Publishers in England. She had planned to release Anthem as a serial or magazine story but was advised by her agent to publish it as a book instead. Antagonist: The totalitarian authorities of the City.Īyn Rand wrote Anthem in 1937 while taking a break from the research and writing of her next novel The Fountainhead.Climax: Equality 7-2521 escapes the city after the World Council of Scholars threatens to punish him for making a discovery.Setting: A dystopian city in an unspecified future date when humanity has destroyed all innovations and reverted back to the dark ages in a totalitarian dictatorship.Genre: Science-Fiction Dystopian Novella.Publication year: First Published 1938, Revised Edition Published 1946.In this dystopian city emerges a rebellious young man called Equality 7-2521 who rediscovers the inventions of the lost era and risks his life to escape from the city. Anthem depicts a dystopia of the complete elimination of individualism where the state controls the citizens in all aspects of their being and even the word “I” is eliminated from the language.

Anthem book ayn rand