Neil Peart gives acknowledgement to the genius of Ayn Rand in the liner notes to the album 2112. Here is a brief biography of this influential writer. Ayn Rand was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 2, 1905. At age six she taught herself to read. At the age of nine, she decided to make fiction writing her career. During her high school years, she was eyewitness to both the Kerensky Revolution, which she supported, and–in 1917–the Bolshevik Revolution, which she denounced from the outset. In late 1925 she obtained permission to leave Russia for a visit to relatives in the US. She was determined never to return. She …