Ayn Rand and the World She Made - Anne C. Heller [267]
an abbreviation of her Russian surname: The ARI Newsletter, Impact, June 2000; John Kobler, “The Curious Cult of Ayn Rand,” The Saturday Evening Post, November 11, 1961, p. 100.
a number of followers believed: Impact, May 1997.
the self-made soul: AS, p. 937.
a habitué of lectures: The acquaintance was Betsy Speicher, a writer who was a student at Objectivist lectures in the 1960s. She told AR that her father had called her “Ayin—two syllables,” meaning “‘bright eyes’ in Jewish,” Speicher informed me. “I asked [AR] if her father ever called her that, and she smiled and nodded. I took that to be a yes.” Author correspondence with Betsy Speicher, August 17, 2004.
a letter from Anna Rosenbaum: “Ayn Rand in Russia.” “Notchka” is a Russian diminutive signaling affection.
a perfect … endearment for a little girl with bright, bold, hypnotizing eyes: As referenced in a 1934 letter to AR from Anna Rosenbaum; “Ayn Rand in Russia.”
derivation of the surname “Rand”: Some aficionados speculate that Rand is a reference to the goldmining district of South Africa or to the Rand McNally railroad timetables used in Russia and around the world.
she did not reveal her birth name to American acquaintances: The exceptions were her husband, FO, his brother Nick Carter, and possibly another brother, Joe O’Connor.
“She didn’t want anyone to know”: Taped interview with MS, conducted by BB, January 20, 1983. Millicent Patton, a friend of the O’Connors’ in the 1930s, independently recalled in 1982, “I never heard Mimi’s last name” (taped interview, conducted by BB, December 5, 1982).
“They all changed their names”: Author interview with Susan Belton, October 24, 2006.
knew her real name when she died: TPOAR, p. 72.
first book she purchased in America: Jeff Walker, taped unpublished interview with John Ridpath, an associate professor at York University in Toronto and a member of the board of ARI, 1991. Ridpath claims to own this book. AR also purchased English translations of Beyond Good and Evil and The Anti-Christ, all in 1917 Modern Library editions (EOTF, p. 24).
Russian-Jewish “greenhorns”: Author interview with FB, March 18, 2004. “We brought over anybody who wanted to come. She wasn’t the only one.”
rating of four out of five in her journal: Russian Writings on Hollywood, p. 190.
She had been invited to stay: Author interview with Susan Belton, October 24, 2006.
after some difficulty about the family schedule: Author interview with FB, March 18, 2004; taped interview with Minna Goldberg, FB, and MS, conducted by BB, February 20, 1983.
parents slept in the front bedroom: “Ayn Rand’s Family and Friends.”
Harry Portnoy: Eva Portnoy, née Kaplan, seems to have been the sister of Anna Rosenbaum’s father, Berko Kaplan.
occupied a back alcove: Taped interview with Minna Goldberg, JB, and MS, conducted by BB, February 20, 1983.
referred to as “conquering Hollywood”: Author interview with FB, March 18, 2004.
She wrote these in Russian: AR, p. 32. However, in 1983 Minna Goldberg told BB that AR wrote in halting English and that a cousin put her writing in “better English” (taped interview with Minna Goldberg, FB, and MS, conducted by BB, Chicago, February 20, 1983). As to who translated or polished these early scenarios, Sarah Lipton’s grandson, Roger Salamon, recalled that his mother, Beatrice Collier, did (100 Voices, Roger Salamon, p. 260).
she let the hot water run: 100 Voices, Harvey Portnoy, p. 28. Typhoid and cholera were common illnesses in St. Petersburg after the revolution. AR would be “phobic” about germs (as Minna Goldberg put it in a taped interview with BB in 1983) until she died.
“I’m Sitting on Top of the World”: Author interview with