Anne Heller - Ayn Rand and the World She Made

and a fiery, farsighted speech:“The Wreckage of the Consensus,” April and May 1967, reprinted in The Objectivist , April 1967, pp. 241–45, 257–64.

352 Marital counseling having ended: TPOARC , RPJ, July 4, 1968, p. 327. In notes to herself, AR recalled that it was NB who asked for the “psychotherapy” she provided; TPOARC , RPJ, July 4, 1968, p. 327. BB recalled that the sessions were an example of AR’s increasingly compulsive tendency to “psychologize;” “It’s a Dirty Job, But …”

placed their active relationship on hold: TPOARC , RPJ, July 4, 1968, p. 327.

He rationalized, improvised: TPOAR , p. 338.

he knew “years ago”: TPOARC , RPJ, November 27, 1967, p. 243.

“I feel real fear”: TPOARC , RPJ, November 27, 1967, p. 241.

Also, although he said he wanted: TPOARC , RPJ, February 14, 1968, p. 287.

“business, theatrical business”: TPOARC , RPJ, November 27, 1967, p. 242.

“in a man of Branden’s rationality”: TPOARC , RPJ, November 27, 1967, p. 241.

she had been unable to “project”: TPOARC , RPJ, November 27, 1967, p. 243.

“or, rather, admired”: TPOARC , RPJ, November 27, 1967, p. 240; “I do not fully believe that hypothesis,” she wrote regarding NB’s possible narcissism.

“Here is a man who”: TPOARC , RPJ, November 27, 1967, p. 244.

“on the same level as Kant and

Hegel”: The Ayn Rand Cult , p. 151.

“vanity, flattery-seeking”: TPOARC , RPJ, January 25, 1968, p. 256.

To “break with him entirely”: TPOARC , RPJ, November 27, 1967, p. 244.

By the late 1960s, her media appearances:OHP, Hank and Erika Holzer, February 9, 2006.

“You won’t attack me?”:The net-worktapes of AR’s appearances on The Tonight Show (August 11, October 26, and December 13, 1967) were reportedly destroyed in a fire. I watched a homemade videotape, courtesy of Kerry O’Quinn, an acquaintance of AR in the 1960s and 1970s.

all but twelve of them positive: TPOAR , p. 325.

“more openly, romantically expressive”: TPOARC , RPJ, July 4, 1968, pp. 330–31.

His eyes were lifeless: TPOARC , RPJ, July 4, 1968, p. 331.

danced too often with Patrecia: MYWAR , pp. 324–25.

“sex problem”: TPOARC , RPJ, July 4, 1968, p. 331.

a “subconscious, total renunciation”: TPOARC , RPJ, January 30, 1968, p. 278.

might help to thaw: TPOARC , RPJ, July 4, 1968, p. 335.

very secret, very private, and very

spiritual romance: TPOARC , RPJ, July 4, 1968, p. 335.

she seems briefly to have considered: TPOARC , RPJ, February 14, 1968, p. 335.

“I would be the only remnant”: TPOARC , RPJ, March 30, 1968, p. 297.

“You have no right to casual friendships”: MYWAR , p. 331.

“I will not be Cyrano”: TPOARC , RPJ, February 14, 1968, p. 291.

He had surgery: TPOAR , p. 334.

returned to his classes:Author correspondence with Stephanie Cassidy, archivist of the Art Students League, April 22, 2007.

“I wish you hadn’t said it”:Author interview with JMB and Dr. Allan Blumenthal, March 23, 2004.

357 a young sculptor named Don Ventura:This section is based on author interviews with Ventura, March 19, 2004, and April 28, 2004.

he thought her accent was cute:AR never liked her Russian accent. When JMB once asked her why she didn’t try to correct it, Rand replied that it wasn’t in her to imitate anyone, as people who came to New York with accents had to do; this shows a certain self-consciousness and pride that AR had not exhibited when learning English in the 1920s (author interview with JMB and Dr. Allan Blumenthal, March 23, 2004).

surviving witnesses couldn’t agree:For example, the Brandens and Al Ramrus.

the magazine published a notice: The Objectivist , June 1967, p. 288.

Afterward, in a familiar pattern, Rand spoke disparagingly:“An Interview with Nathaniel Branden,” p. 12.

the woman’s eighteen-year-old son, Leonard:Author interview with Leonard Bogat, January 22, 2007.

“a horrible woman”:Author interview with Leonard Bogat, February 1, 2007.

“had been seeking an identity”:Author interviews with Don Ventura, March 19, 2004, and April 28, 2004.

O’Connor ceased painting:“Portrait of an Artist,” p. 1.

O’Connor stopped taking classes:This occurred in May 1966, according to Stephanie Cassidy (author interview, 2007).

“she insisted that Frank be present”:Author interview with BB, September 15, 2005.

“That man [Nathaniel] is no damn good!”: TPOAR , pp. 338–39.

He flew into violent rages: MYWAR , p. 329.

“I want to leave her”:Author interview with BB, September 15, 2005.

expanded his popular … lecture:“The Objectivist Calendar,” The Objectivist , March 1967, p. 239.

he was rehearsing the role:“The Liberty Interview: Nathaniel Branden Speaks,” p. 56.

visited psychedelic nightclubs:Author interview with Iris Bell, March 8, 2004.

“Branden was off in a corner”:Author interview with Al Ramrus, February 22, 2007.

“He was having a slow-motion”:Author interview with Iris Bell, March 8, 2004.

Yet he did not cut back: TPOARC , RPJ, March 20, 1968, p. 296.

lurched between impossible choices: TPOAR , p. 338.

“[I used to race] from my office”: TPOAR , p. 338.

“not [Nathaniel] the person”:BB during unpublished taped interview with Barbara Weiss, September 25, 1983.

Again, she urged him to confess: TPOAR , p. 336.

built small followings:Of one of these disciples, NB’s nephew, Jonathan Hirschfeld, recalled, “[This person] presided over her little universe in the same way that NB presided over his and AR presided over hers, which meant that [she] was handing out points and making people feel uncertain of themselves and insecure. It wasn’t comfortable. It wasn’t adventuresome. It wasn’t curious. It was filled with an assumption about the negativity of the world, about the decadence of the world, about the corruption of the world” (author interview with Jonathan Hirschfeld, August 25, 2006).

Prescription drugs, including tranquilizers:Author interviews with Roger J. Callahan, November 4, 2003, and Don Ventura, April 28, 2004.

“disgusting”:AR said this in a question-and-answer period after a speech called “The Moratorium on Brains,” at Ford Hall Forum on November 14, 1971. As a matter of policy, she opposed state intervention in sexual matters and favored the repeal of sodomy laws then on the books in most states (Chris M. Sciabarra, Ayn Rand, Homosexuality, and Human Liberation [Stow, Ohio: Leap Publishing, 2003], p. 8). She was also personally naive. Once, JMB remarked to LP that Rudolf Nureyev, whom she had just seen perform, was gay. LP told AR, and AR came to see JMB. “‘Did you say this?’ she said. ‘Certainly,’ I said. ‘He is a known homosexual and I can see it every time I watch him.’ Her whole demeanor changed, because it was a subject she didn’t know anything about, and she said to me, ‘I can hardly believe it! He’s so well endowed’ “(author interview with JMB and Dr. Allan Blumenthal, September 2, 2004).