The Early Ayn Rand

"The Early Ayn Rand" is a collection of unpublished early short stories, plays, and excerpts from "We the Living" and "The Fountainhead", written by Ayn Rand and published after her death in 1984.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 It adds the unpublished short story "The Night King" and "The Simplest Thing in the World" (from "The Romantic Manifesto").

This book is volume three of the "Ayn Rand Library" series edited by Leonard Peikoff. In the introduction, Peikoff states that the book reveals Ayn Rand's progress as a writer as is evident from the crude style of her first short story "The Husband I Bought", which she wrote in 1926 and the marvelous genius of her play "Think Twice", which she wrote in her later years.