This collection of Ayn Rand's previously unpublished short fiction and plays charts her artistic and intellectual growth. It shows her development, in a critical decade, from a twenty-one year old Russian immigrant struggling with English to a sophisticated writer of complex philosophical themes and a dazzling prose style. Chosen by Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand's longtime associate and literary executor, these eleven secections range from beginner's exercises to excerpts from early versions of We the Living and The Fountainhead. Each of these apprentice pieces represents a significant advance in Ayn Rand's evolution as an artist and philosopher.