In the Rand Archive, Part 6: On the Brandens, Continued

Jennifer Burns is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia.

In the Rand Archive, Part 6: On the Brandens, Continued

Sunday, 21 February 2010 14:30

In my last posting, I discussed a few minor inaccuracies I discovered in Barbara Branden’s memoir The Passion of Ayn Rand. Did I find any inaccuracies in Nathaniel Branden’s memoir Judgement Day: My Years with Ayn Rand (later revised and republished as My Years with Ayn Rand)?

This question in itself is a difficult one to answer, as a memoir is by its nature subjective and personal. I did discover material that corroborated several aspects of Branden’s narrative – changes in his personality after he met Rand, the circumstances surrounding his move from Los Angeles to New York, his early relationship with Barbara. The paper trail largely vanishes when all three moved to New York. However, there is plenty of material in the archive documenting the repressive atmosphere that developed at New York NBI during the 1960s. New York NBI is also described in great detail by a number of published and unpublished sources that are not held in the Archive. Again, Branden’s memoir covers all this territory and he is quite frank in describing his role.

I did not discover any evidence that suggested his memoir was deliberately fabricated or untrue. Working in the archive did, however, help me recapture the perspective of Rand. By his own testimony, Nathaniel Branden acted poorly towards Rand, but because the story is told from his point of view in his two memoirs, it can be easy to lose sight of this truth.

But what of the affair and the aftermath? Did I see Rand’s notes on the ending of the affair? Are these available to researchers?

I did see some of Rand’s notes she kept as the affair with Branden unraveled. Rand’s writing was normally done on loose sheets of paper, so to my recollection there is not an isolated notebook where all this material is kept. I skimmed enough of this material to confirm Rand’s emotional devastation during this time. But I did not do a thorough investigation of this material, for several reasons. One was that I simply didn’t have the stomach to read the aftermath of another person’s love affair gone bad. Moreover, a detailed and lengthy accounting of Rand’s reaction to the affair did not fit with my own intellectual interests and the plan of my book. I saw enough to confirm that Rand was devastated by the end of the affair, that she struggled to understand it within the frame of Objectivism, and that she felt deeply betrayed and hurt by Branden.

Finally, given that my agreement with the archive stipulated that I refrain from writing a “full” biography, I suspected -- rightly it turns out -- that the Estate of Ayn Rand would not allow me to publish this material. Though I did not include material from these diary entries in my final manuscript, I did include quotations from similar material. These were the two items that the Estate requested I remove from the manuscript before granting me permission to publish everything else:

1. Notes between Rand and Nathaniel Branden on Objectivist psychological theories as applied to the Collective. This material corroborated Branden’s discussion of Objectivist psychology and the atmosphere at NBI. The Archive explained that permission was denied because these notes referred explicitly to still living persons. Interested parties can see edited versions of this material on pages 670-673 of The Journals of Ayn Rand.

2. Notes written by Rand in 1968 about Frank O’Connor and their marriage. I particularly regretted that I was not able to publish this material, for they were a fascinating window into Rand’s changing attitudes about Frank and her rediscovery of his virtues as her relationship with Nathaniel Branden crumbled. Some of their essence can be found in Rand’s introduction to the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary edition of The Fountainhead, published around the same time.

In summary, I do not believe there is a “smoking gun” in the archive that will transform our understanding of the Rand-Branden affair. Working in the archive can help recover Rand’s perspective on these events, as can be seen in the account of James Valliant, who uses archival material to build a prosecutorial brief against the Brandens in The Passion of Ayn Rand’s Critics.

The opening of the archive means that the Branden memoirs no longer have to serve as the main source of information about Rand and her life. Instead, they can be appreciated for what they are: gripping first-hand accounts of two individuals who shared Rand’s life at the height of her public career.

Comments (13)

|2010-02-23 16:44:17 A.J. Kallungi - Ayn Rand is a dichotomy

Professor Burns, Greetings from Kernville,Ca.Let me quickly relay to you the enjoyment I have had in reading your book. I have long been intrigued by Ayn Rand and your research has opened my eyes to many things.I often wondered why I enjoyed The Fountainhead so much and found Atlas Shrugged simply unreadable.Simply stated The Fountainhead is about rugged individualism and for all it's pretenses Atlas Shrugged is just mean.Also much of Rand can be summed up by watching The Passion of Ayn Rand, when Barbara and Nathan split she meets a Sax player and as all lovers are want to do she shares of herself and this ,of course, would include A.Rand's books. His response? Those are nice stories but life's not like that.[There's a lot to be said for brevity] I am 2/3rd's thru the book and am so appreciative.Thank You. Will be in touch. With warmest regards A.J.

|2010-02-23 18:53:45 Dave Perley - intelectual vs sensational, academic vs tabloid j

Jennifer (Dr. Burns)
My interest in you was peaked when I heard you interviewed on CBC by Michael Enrite and interest was the connection of personal perception versus policy, politics that entrench themselves in print and political systems. I want to read Atlas Shrugged because I was raised in that era and my political views (so called "Conservative" and "religious" view Christian)were shaped, which I have always tried to approach in a rational way. Although "intellectual" and "academic" approach sounds rather intimidating to me your approach to Ayn Rand and "right wing conservatism" what ever that is, is so refreshing. Corporate political systems and economic systems can not function without taking into account individualism. Regarding the obsession of the side issue of personal and sex life of Ayn it should not detract from her contribution however that seems to affect the bottom line. We all know Tiger Wood's has really affected the po...

|2010-02-23 20:22:52 A.J. - Integrity

In regards to Rand's personal life it is only relevant to that,well her whole concept of"unfettered capitalism"hangs on the premise that certain men are men of integrity and would not be swayed by emotion. So the argument, of say, a company that knew it's gas tanks would explode if rear-ended would certainly recall these little rolling bombs and would never be deterred by the fact that it would cost more than the actual loss in litigation.Any woman who would have sex outside of marriage is human.People are human.With all the human foibles and frailties which brings us to the argument and brings "unfettered capitalism" to it's knee's.People don't always do the right thing and to assert otherwise is to deny human nature.

|2010-03-04 06:37:37 No Name in Canada - We have all been screwed because of the relationsh

U sounded so good on the CBC!

fter this installment stuff... I've given up.

I feel like this is an Oprah Book Club thing.

Anyways we have all been screwed because of the relationship between the Archive and the Estate and smart Ppl like us!

Best regards!

|2010-03-15 17:28:23 john marzan - I saw you on the O'Reilly Factor

you look like Kristen Stewart's older sis. hehe.

|2010-04-15 03:21:31 Neil Parille - Typewriter Story

Prof. Burns,

As you may know, a rather heated discussion is taking place on solopassion concerning whether Rand told the Reminton Rand typewriter story or had a role in passing it on.

http://www.solopassion.com/node/7293

You stated that Rand had a role in this story. I'm wondering if you would provide a statement that I could post on SOLO. For example, is there archival evidence that other people heard this story from Rand (in addition to the Brandens)? Did Rand create the story or pass it on after hearing it? Although Fern Brown must have been mistaken, do you find it likely that she had a "retrojected" memory of something Rand or someone else told her?

Thanks.

Thanks,
Neil Parille

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