Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Panic of 2008 was bad for the economy, good for advocates of big government and great for Ayn Rand, philosopher, novelist and high priestess of individualism, who died in 1982.

Sales of Rand’s novels soared last year as life began to imitate her art -- specifically the fictionalized world of “Atlas Shrugged.” In Rand’s final novel, published in 1957, a government desperate to fix a collapsing economy confiscates the wealth of the most productive members of society. The producers go on strike, in her fiction at least, refusing to work for the sake of anyone else.

Two timely, well-researched biographies should complement the renewed interest in Rand. Jennifer Burns’s “Goddess of the Market” focuses on Rand’s ideas while Anne C. Heller’s “Ayn Rand and the World She Made” is a thorough recounting of her life and the forces that shaped her philosophy, known as Objectivism.

Almost too thorough. The first few chapters of Heller’s book are filled with minute parallels between Rand’s early years and her life and work. For example, Rand’s first boyfriend resembled a character from a book she read at age 9. She then went on to fictionalize her real-life love in “We the Living.”

This may be of interest to Rand scholars, but as for the rest of us, who cares? Nevertheless, reading either of these biographies will acquaint readers, both casual and obsessed, with fascinating details of Rand’s life and ideas.

Born Alisa Rosenbaum in 1905 in St. Peterburg, Russia, to Jewish parents, Rand had a privileged upbringing. Her father, Zinovy, was a successful pharmacist; her mother, Anna, a social climber. Rand watched as the Bolsheviks seized her father’s pharmacy in 1918. Zinovy refused to work for the Communists, which was the clear inspiration for “Atlas.”

Rational Self-Interest

Rand came to the U.S. when she was 21, with many of her ideas fully formed. She had become an atheist at age 13, had only contempt for the collectivist credo of Communism, was fascinated by Nietzsche’s Superman, and was drawn to America through watching silent movies. She believed capitalism was the only moral system, with individuals acting in their own self- interest in the pursuit of happiness.

Rand made her way to Hollywood, where she worked as a screenwriter for such luminaries as Cecil B. DeMille and Hal Wallis. There she met and married Frank O’Connor, a handsome aspiring actor, who seems to have been the opposite of her idealized male heroes. Rand was the major breadwinner throughout their 50-year marriage, with O’Connor dabbling in acting, painting and, following the sale of “The Fountainhead” to Warner Bros. for $50,000 in 1943, becoming lord of the manor.

Heir Apparent

Rand’s novels were never critical successes, denying her the intellectual recognition she so desperately sought. She was inundated with fan mail, though, and surrounded herself with like-minded young men.

One of these was Nathan Blumenthal, 25 years her junior and a college student when they met. He became her protege, eventually changing his name to Nathaniel Branden so as to embed her name in his.

Branden and his wife, Barbara, became Rand and O’Connor’s best friends when they all moved to New York in the early 1950s. The younger couple was part of the inner circle, known as the Collective, that gathered at Rand’s New York apartment on Saturday nights. Alan Greenspan was also a member in good standing.

In addition to designating Branden her intellectual heir, Rand had a 14-year affair with him -- with the consent of their spouses. They even used her marital bed for their twice-a-week trysts. Sexual triangles weren’t confined to her novels, it seems.

Speed Writing

Rand wrote day and night with the help of amphetamines to meet the deadline for “Atlas,” her 1,100-page magnum opus. She achieved commercial success, became wealthy and was a huge hit on the college speaking circuit, yet she grew depressed.

Any question or challenge from acolytes would incite her, leading to expulsion and the severing of the relationship for life.

“She would never forgive, never forget,” Burns writes.

It’s not hard to understand why Rand has enjoyed a revival in the past two years. As the U.S. government encroached on the private sector, the Internet was filled with stories of people “Going Galt,” a reference to John Galt, the hero of “Atlas,” who was the first to go on strike.

Darling of Conservatives

Rand became the darling of conservatives, which is a surprise considering their distaste for her atheism.

William F. Buckley Jr.’s National Review panned “Atlas Shrugged” when it was published in 1957. The review was by reformed Communist spy Whittaker Chambers, who compared her godless world to fascism.

All was forgiven once liberals took control of the White House and Congress, it seems. Sales of English print editions of “Atlas Shrugged” hit a record 205,000 in 2008, and publishers have shipped more than 300,000 copies this year, according to the Ayn Rand Institute.

If Rand could speak to us directly today, rather than through her work, what would she say?

The first thing she’d tell us would be to stop blaming capitalism, whose perceived flaws and abuses are nothing more than government regulation and favoritism.

“Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right” is published by Oxford University Press (369 pages, $27.95); “Ayn Rand and the World She Made” is published by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (567 pages, $35).

(Caroline Baum, author of “Just What I Said,” is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Caroline Baum in New York at cabaum@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 20, 2009 00:01 EDT