The Early Ayn Rand

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The Early Ayn Rand is an anthology of four unpublished early short stories, three plays, and excerpts from We the Living and The Fountainhead, written by Ayn Rand and published after her death in 1984. The collection was compiled and edited by the heir of Rand's estate, Leonard Peikoff, and, although they were never meant to be published, show Rand's development as a writer before she became famous.

A revised and expanded edition was published in 2005. It adds the unpublished short story "The Night King" and "The Simplest Thing in the World" (from The Romantic Manifesto).

The play Think Twice could be Ayn Rand's only murder mystery, as is implicated by quote in the editor's preface to the play. Peikoff writes, "She could not, she went on, ever write a series of mysteries, because everyone would know who the murderers were."

This book is volume three of the "Ayn Rand Library" series edited by Leonard Peikoff. In the introduction, Peikoff writes he "decided to publish this material because I believe that admirers of Miss Rand will be interested to learn by what steps she developed her literary abilities. They can now see the steps themselves."

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