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The Art of Nonfiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers

ayn rand peter schwartz robert mayhew

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This title has been removed from sale by Penguin Group, USA.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2001

This edition

Format
208 pages, Paperback
Published
February 1, 2001 by Penguin Publishing Group
ISBN
9780452282315
ASIN
0452282314
Language
English

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About the author

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ayn rand

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Polemical novels, such as The Fountainhead (1943), of primarily known Russian-American writer Ayn Rand, originally Alisa Rosenbaum, espouse the doctrines of objectivism and political libertarianism.

Fiction of this better author and philosopher developed a system that she named. Educated, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early initially duds and two Broadway plays, Rand achieved fame. In 1957, she published Atlas Shrugged, her best-selling work.

Rand advocated reason and rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism as opposed to altruism. She condemned the immoral initiation of force and supported laissez-faire capitalism, which she defined as the system, based on recognizing individual rights, including private property. Often associated with the modern movement in the United States, Rand opposed and viewed anarchism. In art, she promoted romantic realism. She sharply criticized most philosophers and their traditions with few exceptions.

Books of Rand sold more than 37 million copies. From literary critics, her fiction received mixed reviews with more negative reviews for her later work. Afterward, she turned to nonfiction to promote her philosophy, published her own periodicals, and released several collections of essays until her death in 1982.

After her death, her ideas interested academics, but philosophers generally ignored or rejected her and argued that her approach and work lack methodological rigor. She influenced some right conservatives. The movement circulates her ideas to the public and in academic settings.

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Rating(3.8 / 5.0, 61 votes)
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61 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
TheStupidWolf
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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There's a wide belief or assumption that one can't apply "pure reason" to art, creativity, morality, the mind... But then here comes Ayn Rand, just laying it all out to whoever might be listening.

Contrast "The Art of Nonfiction" with Steven Pressfield's famous "The War of Art"--an engaging and encouraging book on writing, discipline, and motivation--but when Pressfield talks about inspiration he must resort to "angels" and the mystical muse. It's read it with a straight face and considered a valiant attempt to explain the unexplainable, as we don't know any better.

Thankfully someone knows better. Ayn Rand understood the absolute value and utility of reason to illuminate reality, and as a result she was able to see what others could not.
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MaxXZoe
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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A ton of excellent advice, especially in the first half of the book. Will need to read this a couple more times before I can hope to glean all the gems buried in here.
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Paperluwu
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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比 The Art of Fiction 差一點，也或許是我先讀了那一本的緣故。不過依然得到了很多啓發，比如如何找到一個恰當的標題。同時也強化了「抽象與具體」之間轉換的重要性，事實上我之前一直在無意識地這麼做，這件事被她點透，成爲一個明文的行動指導，實在太好了。
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Saternates
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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Whether you agree with her or not, Ayn Rand is a master of the written word. Both The Art of Fiction and The Art of Nonfiction are excellent resources for any writer of both genres.
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ryu2k2
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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After reading this book, I would like to meet Ayn Rand for coffee where she could convince me that I am already capable of everything without ever letting me forget that I am also a complete moron.

After reading this book, I would be first to register for her writing class and would find a way to live with wetting myself out of fear during her lectures.

After reading this book, I can’t wait to read everything else written by Ayn Rand.

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MyraStivlen
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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A lot of very solid advice, but particularly targeted to article-writing and other very specific forms that might limit the value to a general audience. That said, I learned quite a bit.
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daobear
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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While I was never a fan of Rand’s philosophy I was always impressed with the quality of her writing so when I bumped into this book I was curious enough to pick it. While it wasn’t the most riveting read, it did have a refreshingly pragmatic take on writing: it is dependent on effort not on inspiration. Rand advises to build a “scaffold” for one’s writing so as to better determine from the outset the work that is needed to complete the project. Although I found her list of “don’ts” not quite as useful the book in its entire does seem like a useful reference to aspiring writers.
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Isolatedpsycho
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 16,2025
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I found this little gem for only USD2.95, so it is certainly well worth my money and time. Not many books deal with the "philosophy" behind non-fiction and I appreciate Rand's honesty and transparency, although this could be unintentional as her series of lectures was probably never intended to be committed to book form. Her writing / lecture is clear and detailed and although some readers have called her out for being repetitive, I actually found the repetition helpful because it leaves little doubt as to what she means. The book is well-structured (credit goes to Robert Mayhew who had to arrange her lecture notes) and it's hard to disagree with the philosophy she espouses. The fact that she talks about the "art" of writing non-fiction also means that a lot of her points may extend to other forms of art (e.g. painting, photography, etc.) so the book is not necessarily exclusive to non-fiction writers or readers. Some have called her arrogant - e.g. she compares what is considered good writing (articles written by her) and what is bad (articles written by others) - but it is always fun to read Rand when she is not gentle with criticism, as long as one remembers that these are cherry-picked examples and probably self-serving.

Is the book flawless? My answer is no. Whilst I agree for the most part with her philosophy, I am not always convinced. For instance, she says a reviewer must never tell the author what he should have done. But she goes on to say that "it is permissible to say that the author has stated such and such, but he has not touched on these aspects." Maybe I am alone in thinking such distinction artificial but I struggle to see what is or isn't permissible. Her writing sometimes contradicts her philosophy (e.g. she says write simply, but her writing can be quite convoluted - just look at Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged and you'll know what I mean) and her philosophy is sometimes easier said than done (e.g. how exactly does one forget writing rules and allow the subconscious to run free to generate style?). Nonetheless, all things considered, there are plenty of nuggets of wisdom to take away and I think it is a good companion piece to Zinsser and Strunk.
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