Ayn Rand and the World She Made - Anne C. Heller [256]
read and spoke English, French, and German: Robert Mayhew, ed., Essays on Ayn Rand’s “We the Living” (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2004), p. 58.
taught Rand and Natasha to read and write in French: “Ayn Rand’s Life.”
an aspiring member of the St. Petersburg intelligentsia: EOWTL, p. 58.
Rand read and was strongly influenced by: TPOAR, p. 11.
focused on her refusal to play with other children: “Ayn Rand’s Life.”
never wanted children: “Ayn Rand’s Life.”
broke the leg of a doll that Rand was fond of: “Ayn Rand’s Life.”
had given everything to an orphanage: “Ayn Rand’s Life.”
developed a keen sense that anything she liked had to be hers: “Ayn Rand’s Life.”
the perverse and complicated character of Dominique: Some of AR’s memories of her childhood thoughts and attitudes may have been colored by her later reading of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Beyond Good and Evil. Passages she underlined as a young adult in her copies of these books, now owned by the ARI, echo both her characterization of Dominique Francon and her recollections of her childhood. For example, from Beyond Good and Evil (Modern Library edition, 1917, pp. 47–48), she marked the following: “‘Good’ is no longer good when one’s neighbor takes it into his mouth” (Robert Mayhew, ed., Essays on Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” [Lanham, Md., Lexington Books, 2007], p. 25).
construct a universe of moral principles: According to JMB, an artist, “Fitting in became something Ayn didn’t do, because she couldn’t.” Dr. Blumenthal, a psychiatrist, added, “So she became a superior human being. … If you can’t do small talk, you create a philosophical system which makes small talk stupid, or immoral.” This theme is explored in later chapters. Author interview with Joan and Dr. Allan Blumenthal, who knew AR intimately from 1951 until 1977, March 23, 2004.
a certain kind of turn-of-the-century music: Yaron Brook, “Ayn Rand’s Musical Biography,” a speech given at the AR Centenary Conference, New York, April 23, 2005.
one of the first in St. Petersburg: “Ayn Rand in Russia.”
She would pick out songs: “Ayn Rand in Russia.”
buying Rand a chest of drawers: Jeff Britting, “An Illustrated Life,” speech given at the Ayn Rand Centenary Conference, New York, April 23, 2005.
known to the family as Z.Z.: “Ayn Rand in Russia.”
“thick hair, powerful body”: Ayn Rand, We the Living (New York: Signet, 1995), p. 34.
for the most part, silent: “Ayn Rand in Russia.”
proud of his accomplishments as a self-made businessman: “Ayn Rand in Russia.”
An avid reader of Russian literature: EOWTL, p. 56.
wanted to be a writer, too: “Ayn Rand’s Home Atmosphere.”
from the University of Warsaw in 1899: Directories of the universities of Derpt (Yuriev), Vilno, and Warsaw, for the academic years 1887–99.
popular with the Jewish residents: Author correspondence with Blitz research service.
an opening in that department for a Jew: TPOAR, p. 4.
begin his course of study until age twenty-seven: Or age twenty-nine, depending on whether you go by the record of his marriage (St. Petersburg Choral Synagogue, synagogue register of marriages of merchants, Central State Historic Archive of St. Petersburg, file 386, fond 422, inventory 3) or the ARI’s records.
helped all but one of his eight brothers and sisters: TPOAR, p. 4.
how his parents earned their living: I could not discover the birthplace or professions of Zinovy Rosenbaum’s parents, but these may be known to the archivists at the ARI, which controls access to AR’s papers and declined to make them available to me. Information about Zinovy’s uncle and cousins comes from the Russian Medical List and the St. Petersburg Merchant Administration Directory for the years 1905–1916.
later a strict atheist: “Ayn Rand’s Life.”
believed in God: “Ayn Rand’s Life.”
experimenting with the idea of God: “Ayn Rand’s Life;” “An Illustrated Life.”
her parents tried to protect her: Forbidding her to read newspapers, for example (TPOAR, p. 16).
an impassioned defense of gifted, productive Jews: Jeffrey Walker, Go Ask Alyssa, an unpublished