Neil Parille Reviews New Rand Bio

[Neil Parille]

Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success by Alexandra Popoff is the first new biography of Ayn Rand since the 2009 biographies of Rand by Anne Heller (Ayn Rand and the World She Made) and Jennifer Burns (Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right).

As readers of the Ayn Rand Contra Human Nature Blog know, the first biography of Rand was Barbara Branden’s biography The Passion of Ayn Rand, which was published in 1986.  Branden’s biography was largely commendatory; however, she first revealed that Rand and Nathaniel Branden had an affair and alleged that this affair led to Rand’s husband Frank O’Connor’s excess consumption of alcohol (which is well documented for his sad, final years but less well documented in the 50s and 60s).  Because Barbara Branden had a falling out with Rand in 1968, it was inevitable that Objectivists associated with Rand’s heir Leonard Peikoff to dismiss this book.  Peikoff denounced the book (while saying he would never read it) as an “arbitrary assertion.”  This culminated in Peikoff’s friend James Valliant’s 2005 dishonest hit piece, The Passion of Ayn Rand’s Critics, which purported to show that Branden’s biography (and Nathaniel’s memoirs) were lies from beginning to end.

However, the 2009 biographies largely confirmed the accuracy of the Branden accounts.  Significantly, Jennifer Burns was given almost complete access to the Ayn Rand Institute’s archives.  Her biography (and Heller’s, who did not have access to the Archives) largely confirmed the accuracy of Branden’s biography while making occasional corrections to the record (for example, Rand didn’t get her name from a Remington-Rand typewriter).  In fact, both Burns and Heller showed that Rand’s mental health was compromised by decades of amphetamine usage (which, incidentally Branden denied).

For at least the last twenty years, ARI associated scholar Shoshana Milgram Knapp has been working on an authorized biography of Rand.  While I’ve heard conflicting things behind the scenes, Yaron Brook said recently that the biography was finished a couple years ago but for reasons he didn’t specify, said there has been a delay in publication.

Now comes Popoff with this biography.  She says she admires the Burns and Heller books but her take on Rand is different: she wants to discuss Rand in the context of her Eastern European Jewish upbring.  Surprisingly, Popoff was given complete access to the Archives with the permission of Leonard Peikoff.  One wonders if the ARI has given up on the idea that when the authorized biography of Rand comes out that it will refute the Branden accounts to a significant extent.  In fact, Popoff references personal communications with Harry Binswanger.  Binswanger has denounced not just the Branden books but the Heller and Burns biographies.  (While it’s not surprising that Popoff didn’t mention Valliant’s book, I think she should have mentioned that Rand’s true believers dispute the Branden accounts.)

Getting to the merits of the book, I think it is a significant addition to the biographical works on Rand.  While it’s been a while since I read the Burns and Heller biographies, it looks as if Popoff has made good use of Archival material and in particular the correspondence between Rand and her family in Russia to fill in some gaps.  Rand’s exchanges with her family in the Soviet Union were more extensive than I recall.  There were, however, long periods where Rand did not write them.  Popoff implies that Rand abandoned them at times.  However, she notes how Rand helped some members of her extended family come to the United States.

As far as the “Jewish angle” goes, I think Popoff goes a little to far.  I never got the impression reading The Fountainhead that Howard Roark was modeled on the “New Jew” who could build a life in Palestine. She says Rand “surrounded herself with Jews,” referencing the Collective, all of whose members were of Eastern European descent.  Given the prominence of Jewish culture in New York at the time, I don’t find this all that surprising.  The one professional philosopher who struck up a friendship with Rand was John Hospers (who was of Dutch Calvinist descent).  Popoff’s discussion of their relationship is one of the most interesting parts of the book.  Rand’s husband was from a large Irish family in Ohio.

As Popoff notes, for many secular Jews, Rand’s Jewishness only became an issue in the context of anti-Semitism.  Rand did contribute money to Israel and considered it the only moral and rational country in the Middle East.  Popoff could have mentioned some of the over-the-top things Rand said about Arabs, for example claiming that they were mostly nomads living in caves.  Popoff concedes that there are also things about Rand that are decidedly non-Jewish, such as her glorification of money, which would only play into anti-Jewish stereotypes.

One of the best parts of the book is the description of Rand’s influence in the 1960s.  Rand was a frequent guest on television appearing with interviewers such as Mike Wallace.  People would come from all over the nation to listen to her speeches.  The Nathaniel Branden Institute had distributors for taped series throughout the country.  This was a substantial presence in an age of relatively few “media outlets” (for those who can remember the world pre-cable television and pre-internet).  Ironically, even with the existence of the well-funded Ayn Rand Institute, one could argue that Objectivism’s influence hit its peak in the 60s and has been on a slow decline since then. 

Rand’s public persona was contradictory, and one might say she was out of touch with reality.  Rand would proclaim herself the most brilliant intellectual of her era and say her ideas had not been refuted.  Yet before she appeared for a television interview, the interviewer had to provide her the questions, read the questions verbatim, and could not refer to any critics or engage in follow up debate.  The movement that grew up around her might, with only slight exaggeration, be a called a cult.  She claimed to welcome debate but eventually you had to agree with her or leave the movement.

I don’t find much to criticize in Popoff’s biography.  Her judgments are consistent with Rand’s previous biographers and other accounts.  However, there are some significant claims that aren’t documented, such as that by age seventy-one, Frank was slipping into amnesia and heavy drinking, Rand overused amphetamines, and that members of the John Birch Society were almost all anti-Semitic.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Neil,

That was an excellent review.

I am going to get this book and you just gave a good introduction. It kinda whets the appetite. 

 

I have a couple of small items where I disagree, but they are not relevant to the book or even your review (which I mostly agree with).

To mention one, I disagree that Rand's influence peaked in the 60's. Her personal public exposure peaked then, but not her influence.

I claim her influence is much stronger today than before. But I look through the lens of the impact her fiction conveying her strong ideas has had, not the formal think tanks (ARI and TAS), although I think their contribution is valid. Many memes are out in the culture. Go to any freedom-leaning rally and notice how many tee-shirts you see asking "Who is John Galt?"

The anti-Kamala backlash right now is focused mainly on communism as opposed to capitalism--instead of communism as opposed to fascism and the like in former days. And I often hear bashes of collectivism, especially in the Trump-supporting crowd.

I could go on with so many other things that are, in full or in part, a result of Rand's influence in the culture, but this is about your review and the new bio.

As to the book itself, it looks interesting. For my taste, I find it too academic to view Rand through the lens of her Jewish background. Chris Sciabarra once edited a book called Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand. I read a few of the essays, but I was not enthused by such a narrow non-fundamental lens. I suspect I will have a similar reaction when I read Poppov's bio.

Once again, your review is good.

I want to say stellar, but I don't want to give you a fat head.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Chris Sciabarra wrote another excellent review of Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success, by Alexandra Popoff.

Ayn Rand: The Jewish Radical?

Ayn Rand: The Jewish Radical? – Notablog

NOTABLOG.NET

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Review of Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success, by Alexandra Popoff. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2024, 264 pp, notes, index Back in 2002, Jeff Walker, author of The Ayn Rand Cult (1999), sent me an unfinished manuscript tentatively titled The Jewish/Nietzschean Worldview of Ayn Rand. Sadly, it was never...

 

Michael

[Mark]

On 8/17/2024 at 12:24 PM, Neil Parille said:

... there are some significant claims that aren’t documented, such as that by age seventy-one, Frank was slipping into amnesia and heavy drinking, Rand overused amphetamines, and that members of the John Birch Society were almost all anti-Semitic.

The John Birch Society was never even slightly anti-Semitic.  The contrary claim brings to mind the (rationally, as Jewish culture is not above criticism) anti-Semitic saying:  "Anti-Semitism is anything Jews don’t like."

The bizarre claim that Rand modeled the hero of The Fountainhead on the "New Jew," whatever that is, well, Neil  deserves the Iron Cross or something for reading such garbage.  I'm reminded of the following said by a very accomplished person: "If there is a crank within 50 miles he will find his way to my door."