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The Virtue of Selfishness is a book on Ethics and Moral Philosophy by Ayn Rand. It puts across the opinion of the author about serious issues related to ethics, government rule, and many others. Summary Of The Book This is basically a collection of essays and papers by Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden. This book is a reflection of the objectivist philosophy that the author believed in. The book talks about, among other things, recognition and acceptance of egoism as a sensible code of ethics. It also gives a view about the demolition of unselfish concern for others. Later on, it discusses about the characteristics of an acceptable government. The author was involved in a misunderstanding with the publisher of the book regarding the matter of the story. But she was adamant and as a result, went for a new publisher and published it. Most of the matter put forth in this book initially got printed in the objectivist newsletter. Only the information related to The Objectivist Ethics was not involved in it. Instead, it was a paper delivered by the author at the University of Wisconsin during a conference. About Ayn Rand Ayn Rand was a Russian-American writer, novelist, and philosopher. Apart from this book, she has authored many other bestselling novels some of which include The Fountainhead, Night of January 16th, and The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution. She was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in the year 1905. She lacked the enthusiasm in attending school. She confessed to have started writing screenplays since being eight years old. She even started writing novels when she was ten. While attending high school she became a self-proclaimed atheist and that she attached importance to reason above everything else. After completing high school in the Crimea at the age of sixteen, Rand came back to Saint Petersburg and took admission at Petrograd State University. There she was educated in the department of social pedagogy, studying history. She also studied for a year at the State Technicum for Screen Arts in Leningrad. Afterwards, Rand evolved and advocated her Objectivist philosophy by the medium of her non-fiction creations and by imparting lectures to students at universities like Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, and MIT. She received the accolade of an honorary doctorate from Lewis & Clark College in 1963. Rand suffered heart failure and passed away in the year 1982 in New York City.