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Anthem (novella)
Encyclopedia
Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella
by Ayn Rand
, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in England. It takes place at some unspecified future date when mankind has entered another dark age characterized by irrationality, collectivism
, and socialistic
thinking and economics
. Technological advancement is now carefully planned (when it is allowed to occur at all) and the concept of individuality
has been eliminated (for example, the use of word "Ego" is punishable by death
).
. He is named the "The Unconquered" by Liberty 5-3000, and also named himself Prometheus.
Liberty 5-3000 is the love interest of Equality 7-2521. She is described as being "brave and single-minded. Her eyes are dark and project a hard, glowing, and fearless quality. She knows no guilt" (Gladstein, 1995, p. 52). She is named the "The Golden One" and Gaea by Equality.
s ("we", "our", "they") to refer to himself and others tells a tale of complete socialization and governmental control. The idea of the World Council was to eliminate all individualist ideas. It was so stressed, that people were burned at the stake for saying an Unspeakable Word ("I", "Me", "Myself", and "Ego"). He recounts his early life. He was raised, like all children in the world of Anthem, away from his parents in the Home of the Infants, then transferred to the Home of the Students, where he began his schooling. Later, he realized that he was born with a "curse": He is eager to think and question, and unwilling to give up himself for others, which violates the principles upon which Anthems society is founded. He excelled in math and science, and dreamed of becoming a Scholar. However, a Council of Vocations assigned all people to their jobs, and he was assigned to the Home of the Street Sweepers.
Equality accepts his profession willingly in order to repent for his transgression (his desire to learn). He works with International
4-8818 and Union
5-3992. International is exceptionally tall, a great artist (which is his transgression, as only people chosen to be artists may draw), and Equality's only friend (having a friend also being a crime because, in Anthems society, one is not supposed to prefer one of one's brothers over the rest). Union, "they of the half-brain," suffers from some sort of neurological seizures.
However, Equality remains curious. One day, he finds the entrance to a subway tunnel in his assigned work area and explores it, despite International 4-8818's protests that an action unauthorized by a Council is forbidden. Equality realizes that the tunnel is left over from the Unmentionable Times, before the creation of Anthems society, and is curious about it. During the daily three hour-long play, he leaves the rest of the community at the theater and enters the tunnel and undertakes scientific experiments.
Working outside the City one day, by a field, Equality meets and falls in love with a woman, Liberty 5-3000, whom he names "The Golden One." Liberty 5-3000 names Equality "The Unconquered".
Continuing his scientific work, Equality rediscovers electricity
(which he, until the book nears its conclusion, calls the "power of the sky") and the light bulb. He makes a decision to take his inventions to the World Council of Scholars when they arrive in his town in a few days' time, so that they will recognize his talent and allow him to work with them, as well as to make what he sees as a valuable contribution to his fellow men. However, one night he loses track of time in the underground tunnel and his absence from the Home of the Street Sweepers is noticed. When he refuses to say where he has been, he is arrested and sent to the Palace of Corrective Detention, from which he easily escapes after being tortured.
The day after his escape, he walks in on the World Council of Scholars and presents his work to them. Horrified, they reject it because it was not authorized by a Council and threatens to upset the equilibrium of their world. When they try to destroy his invention, he takes it and flees into the Uncharted Forest which lies outside the City.
Upon entering the Uncharted Forest, Equality begins to realize that he is free, that he no longer must wake up every morning with his brothers to sweep the streets. Since it was illegal for men of the City to enter or even think of the Forest, he was not pursued once he crossed its threshold. He can "rise, or run, or leap, or fall down again." Now that he sees this, he is not stricken with the sense that he will die at the fangs of the beasts of the forest as a result of his transgressions. He develops a new understanding of the world and his place in it.
On his second day of living in the forest, Equality stumbles upon the Golden One, Liberty 5-3000, who has followed him from the City. They embrace, struggling to express their feelings for each other as they do not know how to verbally express themselves as individuals. They find and enter a house from the Unmentionable Times in the mountains, perfectly preserved for hundreds of years by thick overgrowth, and decide to live in it.
While reading books from the house's library, Equality and Liberty discover that the Unspeakable Word, the one that carries the penalty of death
, is "I", given through the power of "ego". Recognizing its sacred value and the individuality it expresses, they give themselves new names from the books: Equality becomes "Prometheus
" and Liberty becomes "Gaea
". As the book closes, Prometheus talks about the past, wonders how men could give up their individuality, and charts a future in which they will regain it.
The last word of the book, "EGO", is inscribed by Prometheus on a rock and hung over his front door.
renaming her two main characters Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000. Equality is renamed Prometheus
, an allusion to the Titan
who stole fire from Zeus
and gave it to mankind. Liberty is renamed Gaea, an allusion to the titan of the earth and mother of the Gods
:
In Chapter 3, Equality 7-2521 performs experiments similar to Luigi Galvani
and Alessandro Volta
's work with electrical current:
, initially conceived Anthem as a play. After migrating to the United States, Rand didn't think of writing Anthem there, but reconsidered after reading a short story in the Saturday Evening Post set in the future:
It is widely believed that the story in question was By the Waters of Babylon
by Stephen Vincent Benét
, which was published as "The Place of the Gods" in the July 31, 1937 edition of "The Saturday Evening Post
".
Ayn Rand's working title was Ego. Leonard Peikoff
explains the meaning behind this title: "[Rand] is (implicitly) upholding the central principles of her philosophy and of her heroes: reason, values, volition, individualism." Thinking that the original title was too blunt, unemotional, and would give away too much of the theme, Rand changed the title to Anthem. "The present novel, in Miss Rand's mind, was from the outset an ode to man's ego. It was not difficult, therefore, to change the working title: to move from 'ego' to 'ode' or 'anthem', leaving the object celebrated by the ode to be discovered by the reader."
There are similarities between Anthem and the 1921 novel, We
by Yevgeny Zamyatin
, another author who had lived in communist Russia. These include:
There are also a number of differences between the two stories. For example, the society of We is in no scientific or technological decay, featuring X-rays, airplanes, microphones, and so on. In contrast, the people of Anthem believe that the world is flat and the sun revolves around it, and that bleeding people is a decent form of medicine. The similarities have led to speculation about whether Rand's story was directly influenced by Zamyatin's. However, there is little evidence that Rand was influenced by or even read Zamyatin's work, and she never mentioned it in discussions of her life in Russia.
in America and Cassell
in England. Both had handled her previous novel, We the Living
. According to Leonard Peikoff, "Cassell accepted it immediately... Macmillan turned it down; their comment was: the author does not understand socialism." Another American publisher also turned it down, and Rand's agent was unable to sell it as a magazine serial. Cassell published it in England under the title Ego.
After the success of Rand's novel The Fountainhead
, a revised edition of Anthem was published in the US in 1946 by Pamphleteers, Inc., a small libertarian
-oriented publishing house owned by Rand's friends Leonard Read
and William C. Mullendore. The original English edition (Cassell 1938) entered the public domain in the United States in 1966, due to the failure to renew its copyright after 28 years as then required by US law
. A 50th Anniversary Edition was published in 1995, including an appendix which reproduces the entire original British edition with Rand's handwritten editorial changes.
Reviewing the 1953 American edition for a genre audience, Boucher
and McComas
were unsympathetic. Noting that "Rand implies that a sinister conspiracy of purveyors of brotherhood has prevented its American publication until now," they ironically concluded "One can only regret that the conspiracy finally broke down."
In 2011, Anthem was adapted into a graphic novel
by Charles Santino, with artwork by Joe Staton
.
, including full-length albums. According to Enzo Stuarti
, Pat Boone
composed the music and his friend Frank Lovejoy
wrote the lyrics of the song "Prelude", featured in the album Stuarti Arrives at Carnegie Hall. The song begins with a line right out of Anthem. In another point of the song it reads: "...I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my land, and my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom." In Anthem, it reads: "...I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my land, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom." A memo to Rand dated May 4, 1964, mentions the unauthorized adaptation, but there is no indication that she took any legal action.
The artwork of Arch Enemy's album Anthems of Rebellion
, as well as the thematic and lyrical content of the songs, draws heavily on the world portrayed by Rand. Anthem is also credited by Neil Peart for influencing Rush
's "2112
" which mirrors the plot, structure, and theme of Anthem. The band also released a song called "Anthem", and their Canadian record label (co-founded by Rush manager Ray Danniels) is Anthem Records
.
The Libertarian Futurist Society awarded Anthem the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award
in 1987.
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
by Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in England. It takes place at some unspecified future date when mankind has entered another dark age characterized by irrationality, collectivism
Collectivism
Collectivism is any philosophic, political, economic, mystical or social outlook that emphasizes the interdependence of every human in some collective group and the priority of group goals over individual goals. Collectivists usually focus on community, society, or nation...
, and socialistic
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
thinking and economics
Socialist economics
Socialist economics are the economic theories and practices of hypothetical and existing socialist economic systems.A socialist economy is based on public ownership or independent cooperative ownership of the means of production, wherein production is carried out to directly produce use-value,...
. Technological advancement is now carefully planned (when it is allowed to occur at all) and the concept of individuality
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
has been eliminated (for example, the use of word "Ego" is punishable by death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
).
Characters
Equality 7-2521 is described as "six feet tall, 21 year old male". According to The New Ayn Rand Companion, Equality 7-2521 experiments with electricity to become a literal and figurative bringer of light, similar to PrometheusPrometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
. He is named the "The Unconquered" by Liberty 5-3000, and also named himself Prometheus.
Liberty 5-3000 is the love interest of Equality 7-2521. She is described as being "brave and single-minded. Her eyes are dark and project a hard, glowing, and fearless quality. She knows no guilt" (Gladstein, 1995, p. 52). She is named the "The Golden One" and Gaea by Equality.
Plot summary
Equality 7-2521, writing in a tunnel under the earth, explains his background, the society around him, and his emigration. His exclusive use of plural pronounPronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s ("we", "our", "they") to refer to himself and others tells a tale of complete socialization and governmental control. The idea of the World Council was to eliminate all individualist ideas. It was so stressed, that people were burned at the stake for saying an Unspeakable Word ("I", "Me", "Myself", and "Ego"). He recounts his early life. He was raised, like all children in the world of Anthem, away from his parents in the Home of the Infants, then transferred to the Home of the Students, where he began his schooling. Later, he realized that he was born with a "curse": He is eager to think and question, and unwilling to give up himself for others, which violates the principles upon which Anthems society is founded. He excelled in math and science, and dreamed of becoming a Scholar. However, a Council of Vocations assigned all people to their jobs, and he was assigned to the Home of the Street Sweepers.
Equality accepts his profession willingly in order to repent for his transgression (his desire to learn). He works with International
Internationalism (politics)
Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all...
4-8818 and Union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
5-3992. International is exceptionally tall, a great artist (which is his transgression, as only people chosen to be artists may draw), and Equality's only friend (having a friend also being a crime because, in Anthems society, one is not supposed to prefer one of one's brothers over the rest). Union, "they of the half-brain," suffers from some sort of neurological seizures.
However, Equality remains curious. One day, he finds the entrance to a subway tunnel in his assigned work area and explores it, despite International 4-8818's protests that an action unauthorized by a Council is forbidden. Equality realizes that the tunnel is left over from the Unmentionable Times, before the creation of Anthems society, and is curious about it. During the daily three hour-long play, he leaves the rest of the community at the theater and enters the tunnel and undertakes scientific experiments.
Working outside the City one day, by a field, Equality meets and falls in love with a woman, Liberty 5-3000, whom he names "The Golden One." Liberty 5-3000 names Equality "The Unconquered".
Continuing his scientific work, Equality rediscovers electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
(which he, until the book nears its conclusion, calls the "power of the sky") and the light bulb. He makes a decision to take his inventions to the World Council of Scholars when they arrive in his town in a few days' time, so that they will recognize his talent and allow him to work with them, as well as to make what he sees as a valuable contribution to his fellow men. However, one night he loses track of time in the underground tunnel and his absence from the Home of the Street Sweepers is noticed. When he refuses to say where he has been, he is arrested and sent to the Palace of Corrective Detention, from which he easily escapes after being tortured.
The day after his escape, he walks in on the World Council of Scholars and presents his work to them. Horrified, they reject it because it was not authorized by a Council and threatens to upset the equilibrium of their world. When they try to destroy his invention, he takes it and flees into the Uncharted Forest which lies outside the City.
Upon entering the Uncharted Forest, Equality begins to realize that he is free, that he no longer must wake up every morning with his brothers to sweep the streets. Since it was illegal for men of the City to enter or even think of the Forest, he was not pursued once he crossed its threshold. He can "rise, or run, or leap, or fall down again." Now that he sees this, he is not stricken with the sense that he will die at the fangs of the beasts of the forest as a result of his transgressions. He develops a new understanding of the world and his place in it.
On his second day of living in the forest, Equality stumbles upon the Golden One, Liberty 5-3000, who has followed him from the City. They embrace, struggling to express their feelings for each other as they do not know how to verbally express themselves as individuals. They find and enter a house from the Unmentionable Times in the mountains, perfectly preserved for hundreds of years by thick overgrowth, and decide to live in it.
While reading books from the house's library, Equality and Liberty discover that the Unspeakable Word, the one that carries the penalty of death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
, is "I", given through the power of "ego". Recognizing its sacred value and the individuality it expresses, they give themselves new names from the books: Equality becomes "Prometheus
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
" and Liberty becomes "Gaea
Gaia (mythology)
Gaia was the primordial Earth-goddess in ancient Greek religion. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods and Titans were descended from her union with Uranus , the sea-gods from her union with Pontus , the Giants from her mating with Tartarus and mortal creatures were sprung or born...
". As the book closes, Prometheus talks about the past, wonders how men could give up their individuality, and charts a future in which they will regain it.
The last word of the book, "EGO", is inscribed by Prometheus on a rock and hung over his front door.
Allusions
In Chapter 12, Rand alludes to Greek mythologyGreek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
renaming her two main characters Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000. Equality is renamed Prometheus
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
, an allusion to the Titan
Titan (mythology)
In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities, descendants of Gaia and Uranus, that ruled during the legendary Golden Age....
who stole fire from Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
and gave it to mankind. Liberty is renamed Gaea, an allusion to the titan of the earth and mother of the Gods
Gaia (mythology)
Gaia was the primordial Earth-goddess in ancient Greek religion. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods and Titans were descended from her union with Uranus , the sea-gods from her union with Pontus , the Giants from her mating with Tartarus and mortal creatures were sprung or born...
:
In Chapter 3, Equality 7-2521 performs experiments similar to Luigi Galvani
Luigi Galvani
Luigi Aloisio Galvani was an Italian physician and physicist who lived and died in Bologna. In 1791, he discovered that the muscles of dead frogs legs twitched when struck by a spark...
and Alessandro Volta
Alessandro Volta
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Gerolamo Umberto Volta was a Lombard physicist known especially for the invention of the battery in 1800.-Early life and works:...
's work with electrical current:
Development
Rand, as a teenager living in Soviet RussiaRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
, initially conceived Anthem as a play. After migrating to the United States, Rand didn't think of writing Anthem there, but reconsidered after reading a short story in the Saturday Evening Post set in the future:
It is widely believed that the story in question was By the Waters of Babylon
By the Waters of Babylon
"By the Waters of Babylon" is a post-apocalyptic short story by Stephen Vincent Benét first published July 31, 1937, in The Saturday Evening Post as "The Place of the Gods"...
by Stephen Vincent Benét
Stephen Vincent Benét
Stephen Vincent Benét was an American author, poet, short story writer, and novelist. Benét is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body , for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and for two short stories, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and "By...
, which was published as "The Place of the Gods" in the July 31, 1937 edition of "The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
".
Ayn Rand's working title was Ego. Leonard Peikoff
Leonard Peikoff
Leonard S. Peikoff is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is an author, a leading advocate of Objectivism and the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute. A former professor of philosophy, he was designated by the novelist Ayn Rand as heir to her estate...
explains the meaning behind this title: "[Rand] is (implicitly) upholding the central principles of her philosophy and of her heroes: reason, values, volition, individualism." Thinking that the original title was too blunt, unemotional, and would give away too much of the theme, Rand changed the title to Anthem. "The present novel, in Miss Rand's mind, was from the outset an ode to man's ego. It was not difficult, therefore, to change the working title: to move from 'ego' to 'ode' or 'anthem', leaving the object celebrated by the ode to be discovered by the reader."
There are similarities between Anthem and the 1921 novel, We
We (novel)
We is a dystopian novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin completed in 1921. It was written in response to the author's personal experiences during the Russian revolution of 1905, the Russian revolution of 1917, his life in the Newcastle suburb of Jesmond, and his work in the Tyne shipyards during the First...
by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin was a Russian author of science fiction and political satire. Despite having been a prominent Old Bolshevik, Zamyatin was deeply disturbed by the policies pursued by the CPSU following the October Revolution...
, another author who had lived in communist Russia. These include:
- A novel taking the form of a secret diary or journal.
- People having numbers instead of names.
- Children are separated from their parents and brought up by the State
- Individualism has been disposed of in favor of collective will.
- A male who discovers individuality through his relationship with a female character.
- A forest as a 'free' place outside the dystopian city.
- The main character is a man
- This character discovers a link to the past, when men were free, in a tunnel under the Earth.
There are also a number of differences between the two stories. For example, the society of We is in no scientific or technological decay, featuring X-rays, airplanes, microphones, and so on. In contrast, the people of Anthem believe that the world is flat and the sun revolves around it, and that bleeding people is a decent form of medicine. The similarities have led to speculation about whether Rand's story was directly influenced by Zamyatin's. However, there is little evidence that Rand was influenced by or even read Zamyatin's work, and she never mentioned it in discussions of her life in Russia.
Publication history
Initially, Rand planned on publishing Anthem as a magazine story or serial, but her agent encouraged her to publish it as a book. She submitted it simultaneously to Macmillan PublishersMacmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
in America and Cassell
Orion Publishing Group
Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It is owned by Hachette Livre. In 1998 Orion bought Cassell.-History:Full history of the group can be found on Orion Publishing Group is owned by -Imprints:...
in England. Both had handled her previous novel, We the Living
We the Living
We the Living is the first novel published by the Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand. It was also Rand's first statement against communism. First published in 1936, it is a story of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Rand observes in the foreword to this book that We the Living was the closest she...
. According to Leonard Peikoff, "Cassell accepted it immediately... Macmillan turned it down; their comment was: the author does not understand socialism." Another American publisher also turned it down, and Rand's agent was unable to sell it as a magazine serial. Cassell published it in England under the title Ego.
After the success of Rand's novel The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Ayn Rand. It was Rand's first major literary success and brought her fame and financial success. More than 6.5 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide....
, a revised edition of Anthem was published in the US in 1946 by Pamphleteers, Inc., a small libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
-oriented publishing house owned by Rand's friends Leonard Read
Leonard Read
Leonard E. Read was an American economist and the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, which was the first modern free market think tank in the United States....
and William C. Mullendore. The original English edition (Cassell 1938) entered the public domain in the United States in 1966, due to the failure to renew its copyright after 28 years as then required by US law
Law of the United States
The law of the United States consists of many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the United States Constitution, the foundation of the federal government of the United States...
. A 50th Anniversary Edition was published in 1995, including an appendix which reproduces the entire original British edition with Rand's handwritten editorial changes.
Reviewing the 1953 American edition for a genre audience, Boucher
Anthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
and McComas
J. Francis McComas
Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....
were unsympathetic. Noting that "Rand implies that a sinister conspiracy of purveyors of brotherhood has prevented its American publication until now," they ironically concluded "One can only regret that the conspiracy finally broke down."
In 2011, Anthem was adapted into a graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
by Charles Santino, with artwork by Joe Staton
Joe Staton
Joe Staton is an American illustrator and writer of comic books.-Career:Staton started his work with Charlton Comics in 1971 and gained notability as the artist of the super-hero book E-Man...
.
Influence
The work has inspired many musical piecesMusical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
, including full-length albums. According to Enzo Stuarti
Enzo Stuarti
Enzo Stuarti was an Italian American tenor and musical theater performer. After a performing on Broadway under the stage names Larry Laurence and Larry Stuart, he changed his name again and began a recording career in which he released several successful albums...
, Pat Boone
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
composed the music and his friend Frank Lovejoy
Frank Lovejoy
Frank Lovejoy was an American actor in radio, film, and television. He was born Frank Lovejoy Jr. in Bronx, New York, but grew up in New Jersey. His father, Frank Lovejoy Sr., was a furniture salesman from Maine...
wrote the lyrics of the song "Prelude", featured in the album Stuarti Arrives at Carnegie Hall. The song begins with a line right out of Anthem. In another point of the song it reads: "...I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my land, and my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom." In Anthem, it reads: "...I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my land, my freedom. And the greatest of these is freedom." A memo to Rand dated May 4, 1964, mentions the unauthorized adaptation, but there is no indication that she took any legal action.
The artwork of Arch Enemy's album Anthems of Rebellion
Anthems of Rebellion
-Release:At its time of release, Anthems of Rebellion gave Century Media its then highest first-week Soundscan sales in the United States, and later became one of the top ten best-selling albums under the record label. -Bonus disc:...
, as well as the thematic and lyrical content of the songs, draws heavily on the world portrayed by Rand. Anthem is also credited by Neil Peart for influencing Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
's "2112
2112 (song)
2112 is the sidelong title track of Canadian progressive rock band Rush's album of the same name, released in 1976. The overture and the first section, Temples of Syrinx, were released as a single and are still popular among Rush's setlists today. The "sci-fi" sounds in the beginning of the song...
" which mirrors the plot, structure, and theme of Anthem. The band also released a song called "Anthem", and their Canadian record label (co-founded by Rush manager Ray Danniels) is Anthem Records
Anthem Records
Anthem Records is an independent record label based in Toronto, Ontario. The company was formed in May 1977 by Ray Danniels and Vic Wilson with initial recording artists Rush, Max Webster, Liverpool and A Foot in Coldwater. The three members of Rush, Geddy Lee, Neil Peart and Alex Lifeson became...
.
The Libertarian Futurist Society awarded Anthem the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award
Prometheus Award
The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society, which also publishes a quarterly journal Prometheus. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist...
in 1987.
External links
- The Project Gutenberg E-text of Anthem
- Anthem – Google Books
- Page images of 1953 edition of Anthem
- Anthem audio version online with text.
- Anthem study guide, themes, quotes, teacher resources