Barbara Branden, Robert Hessen and the 1998 Rand Auction


Michael Stuart Kelly

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Marc -- Oops! You list Bob Poole as the man who taught Rand to dance in the 60.s You've somehow mixed up two Bobs: Robert Poole, founder of Reason Magazine and member of the board of TOS/AS, and Robert Berole, NBI student, manager of NBI Book Service, dance instructor to Rand -- and boyfriend of yours truly for seven years.

I'm glad my files are in such good order. But why, then, can I never find anything?

Barbara

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Thank you Barbara,and I also apologize to anyone as there will no doubt be a few more errors . Hopefully with the outstanding members on this board the final list can be perfect.

Thanks,

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Marc,

Fantastic collection! What a bonanza for historical research. I'm so glad someone with your sense of responsibility for the material acquired it.

A correction to a listing in your post #44. You wrote:

"with Roger Lee (psychologist and friend of N. Branden’s in the 1960s)"

That would be either J. Roger Lee, a philosopher who, although he knows Nathaniel, wasn't ever a particularly close friend of Nathaniel's;

or an error for Roger Callahan, of whom the description is accurate.

Regards,

Ellen

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Edited by Ellen Stuttle
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ARI announced a few years ago that Rand's sister Nora had died without talking to any biographers and that the heirs (if that's the word) hadn't saved any documents.

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Marc,

This is absolutely marvelous. I am extremely grateful that you are sharing all this with us. I salivate. I simply salivate.

I can't resist a comment on another issue. There are some people who have claimed in LOUD VOICES that Barbara was not well documented in writing The Passion of Ayn Rand and that she made up the parts about Rand that are critical of her. Some of these people claim that they are solid Objectivists who are devoted to the truth. I can just see the sweat forming on their brows as they start to realize that, with information like you are providing here, their little intellectual scam is coming to an end.

(That "brow" remark is an allusion to a silly little passage about Nathaniel Branden in a very unimportant book.)

Michael

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ARI announced a few years ago that Rand's sister Nora had died without talking to any biographers and that the heirs (if that's the word) hadn't saved any documents.
I don't know for sure, but apparently they did. The information they gave suggested that they were in touch with Nora or her family.

Pete,

Do you have a source for this? Where was this announcement made?

Michael

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Nora by any reckoning was a very sad case.

I doubt the accuracy of that assessment. What's your source for it? Rand was disappointed in Nora's not being as sympatico to her views about life as she'd expected, and in Nora's not wanting to pick up and move to the United States. Someplace -- where was it? a note by Leonard Peikoff in The Ayn Rand Letter? -- there's a comment in print about its being sickeningly disappointing to Rand that Nora would say no to the offer to help her come here. But I've always thought this was unrealistic. Nora was well on in years by then; she had a life and friends in Russia. Did she even speak English? And I wouldn't imagine that Ayn would have seemed to Nora necessarily the pleasantest of persons to have as helper/protector in becoming acclimatized to a strange country.

Ellen

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Someplace -- where was it? a note by Leonard Peikoff in The Ayn Rand Letter? -- there's a comment in print about its being sickeningly disappointing to Rand that Nora would say no to the offer to help her come here.

Ellen,

On the CDROM, which includes the full text of The Ayn Rand Letter, there is only mention of "Nora" in The Letters of Ayn Rand. I even ran a separate one on "Drobyshev" and it was even more limited and "Eleanora" yielded nothing.

The story of Nora's visit to Rand is given in PAR, pp. 372-377.

Michael

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Someplace -- where was it? a note by Leonard Peikoff in The Ayn Rand Letter? -- there's a comment in print about its being sickeningly disappointing to Rand that Nora would say no to the offer to help her come here.

Ellen,

On the CDROM, which includes the full text of The Ayn Rand Letter, there is only mention of "Nora" in The Letters of Ayn Rand. I even ran a separate one on "Drobyshev" and it was even more limited and "Eleanora" yielded nothing.

The story of Nora's visit to Rand is given in PAR, pp. 372-377.

Michael

There was something which appeared at the time written by Leonard Peikoff. Maybe it was a personal letter sent to AR Letter subscribers explaining a delay in publication. I remember reading it sitting at the kitchen table at my apartment in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and thinking that I could sympathize with Nora's probable side of the situation, which of course wasn't told.

I'll look when I get a chance to see if maybe that item is with my AR Letters, but not tonight.

Ellen

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I wrote:

"I'll look when I get a chance to see if maybe that item is with my AR Letters, but not tonight."

OK, I looked. Damn curiosity anyway. I don't know if it really killed the kittycat (one fine day), but I can imagine its killing me.

I didn't find the announcement I recall. There are numerous footnotes on the Letters during 1973 saying that the letter appears later than the date. At some point in one of her Letters she made mention of having taken a Russian "acquaintance," I think she said, to Macy's or a similar large department store. Search on "Macy's" or "department store" during 1973 and see if you come up with anything. I know that I knew about the sister's visit long before Barbara's biography appeared. I even talked about it to Allan Blumenthal when I recontacted him after he split with AR.

Ellen

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OK, I looked. Damn curiosity anyway. I don't know if it really killed the kittycat (one fine day), but I can imagine its killing me.

I didn't find the announcement I recall. There are numerous footnotes on the Letters during 1973 saying that the letter appears later than the date.

I did exactly the same, as I remembered that announcement as well, and neither could I find it (I looked even twice to be sure). So it was probably in a separate letter, which I've probably kept somewhere (but the probability of finding it within a few days are astronomically small). It was by Peikoff, and it was some kind of apology for the delay in the delivery of the ARL, it was due to some kind of "unusual emergency". There was a short description Rand's sister visiting her, and finally voluntarily returning to the Soviet Union. The statement ended with something like "you know what that implies" or "what the philosophical implications are", as far as I can remember.

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Ellen and Dragonfly,

Dayaamm!

I received all copies of The Ayn Rand Letter as a subscriber and I don't recall that note. Nora's visit was in 1973 (and this was the year I went to Brazil). The Letter was always behind by then. Maybe I just skimmed the note if it was included in the envelope separately because I was so used to the delays that a note about them didn't seem important. Now my curiosity is aroused.

Michael

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Peter: "While we're on the subject of tapes, does anyone know if Rand's interviews with the Columbia University radio station are still around?"

I haven't seen them mentioned anywhere for a very long time, nor have I seen them offered for sale. I have a few of them, but I don't know what happened to the rest. It's likely, of course, that they are in the ARI archives. It may be -- and this is only a guess -- that ARI does not offer them for sale because often Rand appeared with someone -- Nathaniel, Barbara, John Hospers, etc. -- who later was excommunicated.

They're in at least a few private archives, as well. I have a set of them on tape. They were copied for me by an NBI attendee who taped them himself from the radio station in 1962. They're fascinating and have genuine spontaneity. I've only listened to a couple of them in full, but the rest are sitting ready for future car trips.

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Michael; I recall the note. I don't have it. I believe it came with The Ayn Rand Letter envelope but no letter but the note from Peikoff. The sad thing that according to Passion Nora and his husband were told no action would be taken against relatives if they stayed in the US. I repeat it is a sad story.

Edited by Chris Grieb
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Michael's truly useful and detailed recap included, reporting from the Wayback Machine site:

2.05. Letters from Supporters

This document is entitled “Selected Letters from OLDFOP Supporters” and none of the letters are dated. Several short letters to Barbara offering support and expressing indignation are presented from Jim Peron, Paul M. Eisen, Joan Mitchell Blumenthal, Moira Russell, Wendy McElroy and Carol B. Low. One such letter to Robert Hessen from Steve Reed is given.

That last was, indeed, from me, on 3 October 1998. Robert and Barbara had fortitude in spades, and I was delighted to see them working to bring such a defeat to His Unholiness. A last-minute one, as it turned out!

Nobody on Peikoff's legal team could inform him of the difference between physical manuscripts and the copyright on the words therein, it seems. Either that, or he felt that sheer intimidation could get him what he wanted anyway. Neither possibility speaks well for his "real world" judgment ... as if any more signs of such a deficiency were needed, then or now.

Edited by Greybird
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The statement ended with something like "you know what that implies" or "what the philosophical implications are", as far as I can remember.

I have a pretty good memory for all things verbal, and my recollection is that it said "... with everything that [or "this"] implies"--i.e., the return to Russia. I have all my ARL's in storage but I'm sure I could find it.

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Sorry if this is off topic.

In reading thru the materials of the 98 Auction (wasn't clear where all this material went. Do hope copies of materials were atleast given to ARI and TOC), I notice that Henry Holzer was the attorney that represented Barbara et al when LP tried to sue them over the auction. I was surprised by this, as he sided with AR during the split, and he had noted that he assist AR with the denuciation that ran in ''The Objectivist".

Did Mr Holzer make amends for this? I would have been curious if he ever retracted what was written in that denunciation or the like.

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An interview with Henry Holzer was played by Duncan Scott at the last Summer Seminar where Mr. Holzer admitted he was not proud of all his behavior in the NBI days and afterward.

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In reading thru the materials of the 98 Auction (wasn't clear where all this material went. Do hope copies of materials were atleast given to ARI and TOC)...

Michael,

Go to here and scroll down to "2.10." You will see that in the settlement with Peikoff's threatened lawsuit, he was allowed to make a copy of all of Rand's papers being auctioned. From what I know, these copies were turned over to the ARI's Ayn Rand archives.

Barbara also kept copies, as did Robert Hessen, and scholars may consult these copies by simply getting in contact with them. Go here and scroll down to the excerpt of Barbara's 1998 interview conducted by Karen Reedstrom for Full Context and you will see that she made quite sure that photocopies are valid for archival purposes before she decided to auction off the originals.

As far as I know, TAS does not have a copy.

Michael

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