Erika Holzer was an American novelist and essayist who was a close associate of Ayn Rand. Her novel Eye for an Eye was the basis for a major motion picture of the same name. She also co-authored two nonfiction books with her husband, professor of law Henry Mark "Hank" Holzer.

Alice O'Connor, better known by her pen name Ayn Rand, was a Russian-born American author and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful and two Broadway plays, Rand achieved fame with her 1943 novel The Fountainhead. In 1957, she published her best-selling work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays.