RoR: Forum

I'm surprised there weren't any comments about The Passion of Ayn Rand. I am finally reading it and it is a wonderful book so far. It is a wonderful biography and Barbara certainly holds Ayn Rand in very high regard. It offers an insider's view of the woman behind objectivism and her world. I don't understand why some thought this was an attack on Ayn Rand. You can't be an objectivist and sugar coat the truth. I look forward to seeing other comments and views on this very important biography.

Thanks Barbara for a wonderful book.

Kat

Post 1

Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - 8:26pm

I read it slightly after moving into my current apartment with Amy, all I'd read before this was Rand's own work and Peikoff's supplements, I read a few veiled references to the Brandens (mainly the infamous tagline "Nathanial Branden is no longer associated with me, my philosophy Objectivism, or the Objectivist newsletter). This book cleared a lot of things up for me, I came away with a better understanding of some people I greatly admired, and more specifically the mentality of a woman who created something great (and why there may have been some flaws).

It was tender, tragic, but ultimately sympathetic.

---Landon

Post 2

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 5:53am

I have already written in several places how important this book was to me.

It was one of the strongest wake-up calls to look at reality with my own eyes and forget about all else, especially preconceptions, on first perception that I have ever received in life. Barbara broke the "Goddess Ayn Rand" image in my mind and replaced her with the authentic real-life heroine.

Finally I was able to view Ayn Rand as a person who struggled with the world and with her own inner conflicts - just like the rest of humanity, including me. She was not a robot with that part of her brain where emotions conflict and collide lobotomized. She repressed unwanted emotions and paid an extremely high price for it - as I once did.

I learned that having an inner conflict, even when it results in baffling behavior, is not a moral shortcoming. Backing off from pain is not either, although it can be disastrous. Ignoring an inner conflict and constantly making dishonest excuses for it on purpose is.

The most important thing for readers to remember is that this book is a mixture of biography and autobiography. As Barbara obviously was not permitted access to much material now held by the Ayn Rand Institute (and with Ayn Rand when she was still alive during part of the preparation period), I think Barbara did a superb job of research.

One point is rarely mentioned in reviews and comments on this book. There is a silly little theory that Barbara's biography is somehow insulting to Ayn Rand's memory. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone who reads this with an open mind can't help but notice the pure love that Barbara had and continues to hold for or Ayn Rand, even during the hard times. This constantly jumps out from in-between the lines throughout the entire book.

Even with the subjective limitations that are inherent to all autobiographies, The Passion of Ayn Rand is and will continue to be one of the most important books in Objectivist literature outside of Rand's own writings.

Michael

Post 3

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 6:35am

Michael,

I do think the "Passion of Ayn Rand" was an important book in that it broke the truth of the affair when the ARI orthodoxy was denying it. However, I don't view this book as being sympathetic to Ayn Rand. One of the reasons is emphasis. There is page after page detailing the affair and repression within Objectivism, but scant mention of Rand's development of the philosophy in the 1960's. You can read this book and know nothing about Rand's seminal delivery of the "Objectivist Ethics" at the University of Wisconsin in 1961. Indeed there is very little in the book mentioning the material developed in the Virtue of Selfishness, Capitalism the Unknown Ideal, The Romantic Manifesto, and The Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology. I don't view and I doubt most Objectivists view these contributions as being trivial.

I have met and like Barbara Branden and think she is a courageous woman. However, I think this book should be taken for what it is: an excellent account of Rand's early history, Barbara's take on the events leading up to the culmunation of Atlas Shrugged and Barbara's take on the affair.

The tragic portrayal in Barbara's book makes Rand look like a Shakespearean character with fatal flaws bent on self-destruction. I think this view should be balanced with an accounting of what Rand accomplished in the 1960's-1970's.

Jim

Post 4

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 7:34am

Jim,

Chris Sciabarra has said elsewhere that The Passion of Ayn Rand is not a complete biography. The issue you've raised is a key reason. There is still no comprehensive treatment of Rand's intellectual development, past her days in Russia.

Robert Campbell

Post 5

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 8:25am

Robert C,

I'm glad to see you back posting at SOLO. The best window I get into Rand in the 1960's is when Adam Reed posts about her being influenced by Robert Efron. It is clear from this and her workshops in the backmatter of ITOE that she continued to engage people in the late 1960's and 1970's in a way that does not indicate all-encompassing depression or social isolation.

Jim

Post 6

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 12:20pm

James,

In all honesty, I strongly disagree with your opinion of Passion not being sympathetic to Ayn Rand. Maybe what it is not is sympathetic in the aspects you would like to see highlighted, like intellectual development or whatever.

I got an overwhelming impression of a very great and courageous woman from that book, maybe warts and all, but definitely very great and courageous.

Was it your impression that Ayn Rand was portrayed as more ordinary or maybe having an evil side to her?

Michael

Post 7

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 1:08pm

The biography genre has different "types" and they are all connected with length. The first type is basically an annotated timeline (which is all ARIers have ever issued). The second type is a thorough biography. The third is a full, multi-volume deal. Most major figures have multiple *multi-volume* biographies written about them.

The content of Passion is perfect for the type of biography it is -- a full, one-volume treatment of the life of Ayn Rand. The complete intellectual development of Ayn Rand, minus the details of her personal life, requires another book entirely.

No sane person would expect Ayn Rand to warrant only one biography. ARIers, frozen in idolatry, have contributed nothing to Rand's biographical legacy other than her own words.

Bottom line: don't criticize a book for what it *isn't* -- when it does such a good job of being what it is. Recently there was a hysterical 200-post orgy of a thread in which people inanely bitched about how studies of Ayn Rand's personal life don't give us the key to inner peace. Now the importance of the life of the person who championed a philosophy for living on earth is so self-evidently obvious that it doesn't even warrant one reminder. But these whiners could still be wise enough to respect context when judging the works of others.

Alec

(Edited by Alec Mouhibian
on 7/24, 1:09pm)

Post 8

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 3:22pm

I was highly skeptical about this book as it lurked unread on my bookshelf for 8 years. Through mischievous channels I had been led to believe it was attack on Ayn Rand. I was completely wrong.

Barbara Branden and Nathaniel Branden are two different people. It's a travesty that Barbara is lumped together in the attacks on her ex-husband of almost 40 years ago. If Barbara were simply to change her last name she would save herself an awful lot of grief.

James, I agree that there is plenty of room for a biography on Rand's work in the 60's and 70's. I can see where you would have preferred a more detailed and objective account of those years from Barbara's book. I can also see that it would have been impossible at that time for her to cover those years that way. Maybe she could it today if she were so inclined.

If anyone out there thinks The Passion is a gnashing of teeth at Ayn Rand you are wrong. Read the damn book and decide for yourself.

Post 9

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 3:44pm

Alec, I must disagree with your comment that "ARIers, frozen in idolatry, have contributed nothing to Rand's biographical legacy other than her own words." ARI-affiliated writers have produced a number of valuable biographical works, including Jeff Britting's Ayn Rand, Robert Mayhew's Ayn Rand and Song of Russia, the Charles and Mary Ann Sures' Facets of Ayn Rand, and the historical essays from Essays on Ayn Rand's We the Living and Essays on Ayn Rand's Anthem. None of these are full-length biographies the way Passion is, but that hardly makes them worthless or simply an "annotated timeline." Briefer works focused on particular aspects of a person's life can be highly valuable and in many cases are more thoroughly researched and documented than more comprehensive biographies.

Lest you think this is said purely in defense of ARI or those affiliated with it, let me note that the same reasoning applies to the value of the research Chris Matthew Sciabarra has done on Rand's early life and education. His writings on these subjects do not constitute anything close to a full-length biography, but they nonetheless have considerable value.

--
Richard Lawrence
Webmaster, The Objectivism Reference Center

Post 10

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 3:55pm

Michael,

I think we probably disagree on what's metaphysically important about Ayn Rand's life and I probably disagree with Barbara Branden on that too. Disagreement is OK.

Alec,

How was what I wrote whining? I simply opined that the portrayal of Ayn Rand in Barbara's book is unbalanced and indicated why. You think I ignored context. Fine, we disagree.

Jim

Post 11

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 4:19pm

Alec,

There is a Rand biography forthcoming from an ARI-affiliated scholar that promises to be more than an annotated timeline.

Shoshana Milgram is at work on a biography. I anticipate it will shed more light on the development of Rand's fiction writing than on, say, the origins of her theory of concepts, but my expectations for it are positive.

Robert Campbell

Post 12

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 4:30pm

Richard, courses on Ayn Rand's novels would not be classified as a "biographical" contribution, in the way that Sciabarra's exploration of Rand's Russian roots would. And I may be wrong, but isn't Sures no longer ARI-affiliated? As for Britting's book, it is an annotated picture-book and nothing more. It is the typical ARI attempt at a biography. I'm not denouncing narrowly-focused works, but no further comprehensive books on Ayn Rand will ever come from ARI so long as it remains in its current mindset. I'll grant you "Song of Russia" since I don't know enough about it to say otherwise, but that's as just about narrow as it gets.

James, I wasn't necessarily thinking of you as a whiner, I was thinking of the culprits of that inane past thread. I don't remember if you were one of them, but you're mention of how we need a study of Rand's intellectual development reminded me of them -- not because I disagree, but because it should not be leveled as criticism of Passion.

Alec

P.S. Robert: We crossed posts. I'll withhold judgment on the forthcoming biographies, but I'll have to see it to believe it.

(Edited by Alec Mouhibian
on 7/24, 9:43pm)

Post 13

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 4:43pm

Lance,

I fully agree that people should read Barbara's book and make up their own minds. That should go without saying. Even those who dislike Barbara's book should meet her in person if possible. I regard her as a thoroughly wonderful human being.

Jim

Post 14

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 4:57pm

When I first discovered Objectivism, it was through the little pamphlet inserts in the novels. I discovered the non fiction and the Piekovian side of the story before I knew about the Branden side. My first reaction was "Wow, I should stay away from these Brandens...".

But since I don't listen well to authority, of course I read the Branden books ;) and I am glad I did.

Post 15

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 5:37pm

Anne Heller is also coming out with a Rand biography. I met her at the TOC conference in Vancouver last year.

-Bill

Post 16

Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 6:59pm

Alec, I didn't say anything about "courses on Ayn Rand's novels." In regard to the books Essays on Ayn Rand's We the Living and Essays on Ayn Rand's Anthem, I specifically referred to the essays with biographical content, rather than those about the books' literary or philosophical aspects. For example, the former contains essays on such subjects as the people in Rand's own life who served as inspiration for characters in the novel and the difficulties Rand had with getting it published.

Charles Sures died some years ago, but as far as I know Mary Ann Sures is still supportive of ARI. She was scheduled to appear at ARI-sponsored events as recently as a few months ago. Regardless of her current views, she was certainly supportive of ARI when the book was written, because it was published by the ARI Press. As to Britting's book, I would never tout it as a full-length biography, but calling it an "annotated picture-book" is uncharitable at the least.

Your predictions about future books will have to await the test of time. Shoshana Milgram has already been making presentations based on research from her (supposedly)forthcoming biography of Rand.

--
Richard Lawrence
Webmaster, Objectivism Reference Center

Post 17

Monday, July 25, 2005 - 2:36am

Does anyone have any idea when these biographies will be published? Does Heller have access to material at the ARI?

Post 18

Monday, July 25, 2005 - 6:24am

Neil,

Heller's biography is due out in 2007. (I don't know the estimated publication date for Milgram's).

I rather doubt that Heller will be allowed access to material controlled by ARI or the Estate of Ayn Rand, but perhaps someone can correct me on that.

Robert Campbell

Post 19

Monday, September 26, 2005 - 3:44pm