The author of the novel 'We the Living' is Ayn Rand, a four-letter word that is the answer to the crossword puzzle. Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is best known for her two best-selling novels, 'The Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged', and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism. 'We the Living' was her first novel, published in 1936, and it is set in Soviet Russia and tells the story of a young woman's struggle against the totalitarian state.