The Passion of Ayn Rand

If you wish to continue hero worship or hatred of Ayn Rand, don't read this book. If you want a balanced view of this great Philosopher and Writer, it is a must read. I made an important decision after reading this book. I took my copies of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" and donated them to a local library. It gave me closure. It is a happy ending to the story that psychologist Nathaniel Branden was to go on professionally and evolve beyond Objectivism. He puts out an excellent tape called "The Benefits and Hazards of the Philosophy of Ayn Rand." All praise to Barbara Branden for this book. Highly recommend reading Nathaniel Branden's "The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem," his opus. Enjoy hearing the good parts of Objectivism combined with an understanding of human emotion in that book.

I had read several of Rand's works and interestingly enough began with the non-fiction ones. I saw the movie on TV and thought it failed completely in presenting her revolutionary ideas. The movie centered (of course) on the odd affair between Rand and her first disciple, Nathaniel Brandon with both his wife's and Rand's husband knowledge and acceptance. The book, though, goes into detail that the movie could not. It explains ideas and thoughts and though processess that no film could ever portray. We read about a young refugee from Soviet Russia escaping to the one country that offered unlimited freedom. There has always been disagreement over whether our attitudes are born with us or developed by life experiences. In Rand's case, it appears she was born this way, displaying an odd, rampant individualism from an early age.We see her struggles, her marriage to Frank, her first failures as an author before the one great break - THE FOUNTAINHEAD which is still, in my opinion, the best. (The portrayal of Gail is simply unsurpassable.) We meet Nathaniel and the growing group of worshipers. Unlike others, I do not entirely blame Rand for this reaction - she accepted what others offered, a very human emotion. At some point she decided that she wanted the young follower so they had an affair which degraded everyone involved. During this time she wrote THE book, ATLAS SHRUGGED, and reveled in its success. Surprisingly, despite her accent, appearance, domineering personality and rejection by the intellecutal left she became a much coveted speaker, particularly for theoretical subjects. Above all, she was a woman of ideas whose first concern was promulgating those ideas. She has been attacked because she was demanding, for an affair, for a discrepancy between her public ideas and her private life. All are true but her popularity rests on her so-called philosophy which is, in its essence, the slogan of REASON magazine..."Free markets, free minds." She espoused freedom and attacked collectivism in all its many variants - Naziism, Communism, Socialism, tribalism and religion. It was her espousal of capitalism and individualism that set her at odds with the "progressive" artistic world and, simultaneously, made her such a hit with "ordinary" people. A remarkable book for an even more remarkable life.

During the 60's and 70's, Ayn Rand lead the Objectivist philosophical movement that she founded through her writings, most notably Atlas Shrugged and the Virtue of Selfishness. Her lectures at the Ford Hall Forum in Boston were yearly sold-out events. Her philosophy of objective reason over emotion and feelings, of self-reliance and the natural rights of the able were in stark contrast to the competing liberal movements during the wild ferment of the 60's and 70's. Among her closest disciples were Nathaniel and Barbara Branden. Nathaniel, a much younger, brilliant psychologist was her choice as intellectual heir. And something more... Barbara Branden, Nathaniel's wife at the time, wrote what she later repudiated as a puff-piece biography of Rand. After many years Barbara Branden went back and wrote a fuller, more human biography with details she was able to glean from the normally reticent Rand, who edited away her past as so much irrelevant junk. Even Rand's name is a nom de guerre taken in part from her Remington-Rand typewriter. And Barbara also included the controversial and frankly sad aspects of Rand's life as well.One incident in the book points to Rand's complexity and inflexibility. She was a lifelong smoker. She would often say that statistics prove nothing; that even if statistics say that smoking could cause cancer it says nothing about if YOU will get cancer, which of course is true. Ironically, Rand contracted lung cancer, however she refused to amend her outspoken opinion on smoking even on her deathbed. This book is a rare glimpse of a complicated genius from an insider's point of view. Barbara wasn't just a bystander, she was a participant in the almost larger-than-life drama that surrounded Ayn Rand. Rand attempted to live as the characters in her novels, with sometimes disastrous results. Barbara does an admirable job of writing about Rand, without rancor but without glossing over some of the more unsavory aspects of Rand's life. At the same time, she acknowledges Rand's greatness. Not everyone is happy with Barbara Branden's version of Rand's life, but if you are at all interested in the writings and the woman, you must read this unique and valuable work.

This is an excellent, literary, balanced biography.Barbara Branden gives the reader a detailed look at the real life behind the romantic fiction of Ayn Rand, beginning with Rand's youth in Russia and her struggles as an immigrant to the US in the 1920's.Branden lauds the virtue, insight, and intellect of this powerful novelist while also providing an "insider's perspective" into Rand's personal life and illuminating its triumphs and tragedies.Anyone interested in Rand's works,whether a proponent or opponent of her philosophy, will find this biography a fascinating must-read.