Ayn Rand and the World She Made - Anne C. Heller [311]
based on Rand’s fallacy of the stolen concept: An example of “the stolen concept” frequently cited by Rand is the attempt to negate reason by means of reason (Introduction to Objectivist Ethics [New York: New American Library, 1989], p. 81).
“Prior to our break with him”: MYWAR, p. 231.
Rand’s habit of self-promotion: Unpublished letter from Helmut Schoeck to James Wiggins, August 13, 1958; letter from LVM to MR, July 22, 1958. Both courtesy of Justin Raimondo.
discovered what it felt like to be someone: Unpublished letter from George Reisman to Ralph Raico, July 25, 1958, courtesy of Justin Raimondo.
He remained loyal to organized Objectivism: MR later wrote extensively about the rise and fall of the AR movement. A few years before he died, he published “My Break with Nathaniel Branden and the Rand Cult,” which gives a blow-by-blow account of his version of events. Earlier, in an essay called “The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult” (1972; reprinted by the Center for Libertarian Studies, 1990), he analyzed AR’s appeal.
later described his single therapeutic session: The Ayn Rand Cult, pp. 145–46; author interview with Robert Hessen, October 17, 2007.
watched Branden pace the room like a panther: “I’d rather have gone into therapy with Stalin,” Hessen told Duncan Scott of the OHP; author interview with Robert Hessen, November 2, 2007.
301 went to work as Rand’s part-time personal secretary: “The Genesis of a Great Gift,” Robert Hessen’s introduction to the auction catalog “The Papers of Ayn Rand,” Bonhams and Butterfield, November 18, 1998.
She purged him, too: OHP, Robert Hessen, November 10, 2004.
she established the atmosphere: Author interview with Shelly Reuben, November 19, 2007.
“She was very controversial”: OHP, Robert Hessen, November 10, 2004.
to declare their agreement: John Lobler, “The Curious Cult of Ayn Rand,” p. 101. A 1964 NBI brochure stated that the lectures are addressed exclusively to those who have read TF, AS, and FTNI, are in agreement with the essentials of the philosophy presented in these books, and seek an amplification (NBI brochure, 1964).
“I went to a [lecture] once”: Unpublished taped interview with Bertha Krantz, conducted by BB, September 30, 1983.
gave up her job as a junior editor: Earlier, Barbara had worked for Archibald Ogden at RKO in New York.
“If one considers that Ayn was God”: “Ayn Rand and Her Movement,” p. 8.
“the most beautiful woman in the world”: Author interview with Don Ventura, March 19, 2004.
“I learned repression”: TPOAR, pp. 243, 304–305.
“the greatest human being”: MYWAR, p. 226.
struck her as well meaning: BBTBI.
“I saw her change”: Author interview with JKT, May 21, 2004.
“I thought that my fans disappointed and depressed me”: http://www.solopassion.com/node/1257.
At first, no one noticed: MYWAR, p. 209.
arrived by the hundreds every week: About two hundred; OHP, Robert Hessen, November 10, 2004.
stopped giving lectures on college campuses: AR seems to have made no college appearances between mid-1958 and 1960; “Ayn Rand as a Public Speaker.”
“I cannot fight lice”: MYWAR, p. 211.
spent hours playing solitaire: “The Liberty Interview: Barbara Branden,” p. 51.
“John Galt wouldn’t feel this”: “An Interview with Barbara Branden,” p. 8.
“I would hate for him to see me like this”: MYWAR, p. 213. In private notes from 1968, excerpted in Valliant’s TPOARC, AR writes that during this period she experienced “self-protective withdrawal—and I realized that this is a state without any use for one’s mind or rational faculty.”
carrying a jar of Dexedrine: Dr. Allan Blumenthal recalled that AR took Dexedrine, an amphetamine, in the 1950s and 1960s. BB has mentioned that she took Dexamyl (TPOAR, p. 173), a combination of Dexedrine and amobarbital, a barbiturate.
“Oh, these are for Ayn”: Author interview with Roger J. Callahan, November 4, 2003. There were other rumors over the years. For example, in February 1969, a person close to AR and the Brandens wrote