Leonard Peikoff

[emb021]

Somethings been bugging me about Leonard Peikoff.

I have to say I find it a bit, well, strange that all is pictures over at ARI (especially in their bookstore) are of Peikoff smiling/laughing/grinning. None are what I call 'serious' pictures.

I recall in PAR of a late conversation between AR & BB that AR complained to BB that NB was 'smiling too much' on an tv interview. Most of the tv interviews of AR, she is very serious. Almost too much so.

So I have to wonder if the pictures you see of Peikoff are some kind of careful attempt to make him seem nice and friendly. When what little I've read of him is he can be a real *ss.

On a related note. I found it a bit strange as I've been skiming thru my recently obtained hardback collections of the Objectivist & AR Letter, that Peikoff's Ominous Parallels was really written (or started) way back in the late 60s/early 70s. The AR Letter kept saying it would be coming soon from a particular publisher. But the book never came out until 1982 (I assume after AR passed away???).

I had also recently read Rothbard's article on the 'Ayn Rand Cult', and one thing he points out is that all of her followers never published any books while part of the 'cult', only afterwards. NB & BB only published after being expelled ("Who is Ayn Rand" being an exception). And now you have Peikoff not getting his first book out until after Rand passed away. While don't totally agree with Rothbard's assesment, I found that very strange.

[Jonathan]

Somethings been bugging me about Leonard Peikoff.

I have to say I find it a bit, well, strange that all is pictures over at ARI (especially in their bookstore) are of Peikoff smiling/laughing/grinning. None are what I call 'serious' pictures.

I recall in PAR of a late conversation between AR & BB that AR complained to BB that NB was 'smiling too much' on an tv interview. Most of the tv interviews of AR, she is very serious. Almost too much so.

So I have to wonder if the pictures you see of Peikoff are some kind of careful attempt to make him seem nice and friendly. When what little I've read of him is he can be a real *ss.

He didn't smile so much when he played the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:

J

[Chris Grieb]

Michael; Good old Leonard and the Ominous Parallel. In the spring of 1968 Peikoff gave a course on Nazism and Contemporary America. The course was aggressively advertised and the hope was the course would enable Objectivism to break into the culture. It was also reported that Leonard had a large group of research assistants. In 1968-69 after the break it was reported that the book was forthcoming. the book's forthcoming was the longest labor in history over 13 years. One report had Peikoff looking at every word in the book in the OED. The one publisher who was supposed to publish it went out of business. There are stories that Ayn Rand told Peikoff to do over. I attended Peikoff's tap-ed course if anyone else did you notice any new material. The book did not led to Objectivism break into the culture.

[BAMF]

Somethings been bugging me about Leonard Peikoff.

I have to say I find it a bit, well, strange that all is pictures over at ARI (especially in their bookstore) are of Peikoff smiling/laughing/grinning. None are what I call 'serious' pictures.

I recall in PAR of a late conversation between AR & BB that AR complained to BB that NB was 'smiling too much' on an tv interview. Most of the tv interviews of AR, she is very serious. Almost too much so.

So I have to wonder if the pictures you see of Peikoff are some kind of careful attempt to make him seem nice and friendly. When what little I've read of him is he can be a real *ss.

He didn't smile so much when he played the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:

J

Damn Jonathan, I just had to tell you that I hurt myself laughing at that. My laugh o' the day.

[Jonathan]

[Ellen Stuttle]

Somethings been bugging me about Leonard Peikoff.

I have to say I find it a bit, well, strange that all is pictures over at ARI (especially in their bookstore) are of Peikoff smiling/laughing/grinning. None are what I call 'serious' pictures.

I recall in PAR of a late conversation between AR & BB that AR complained to BB that NB was 'smiling too much' on an tv interview. Most of the tv interviews of AR, she is very serious. Almost too much so.

So I have to wonder if the pictures you see of Peikoff are some kind of careful attempt to make him seem nice and friendly. When what little I've read of him is he can be a real *ss.

I think the conversation you're recalling was the one between AR and Devers Branden which is published in My Years with Ayn Rand, not the one with Barbara when Barbara saw Ayn in 1981. The same year Devers got into the apartment building and managed to be invited into the apartment when Ayn returned from shopping or wherever she'd gone. Devers reported Ayn's having said that NB was "smiling too much" in a TV interview.

As to Leonard's smiling in a nice, friendly way, I haven't seen Leonard since the late '70s, couldn't tell you anything about his way of acting toward people in the last thirty years. However, those times when I was in exchanges with him, he acted in a friendly smiling way. The occasions were: three or four lunches at Brooklyn Poly, where Larry (my husband, though we weren't married then) was working at the computer center; a philosophy seminar for Poly students which Larry and I were permitted to take; an occasion when Susan Ludel, Leonard's wife at the time, played patient in mock-therapy during a course Allan Blumenthal was giving; various Objectivism-auspiced courses, either given by Leonard himself or the music one given by Allan; other incidental events, e.g., at the Ford Hall Forum.

Leonard always seemed friendly and approachable. This isn't to counteract that he "can be a real *ss" in a number of respects. I'm just indicating that I never saw him going around with a dour or even grimly serious sort of expression. He has a large smile, and back then he was notably youthful in appearance. I remember the first time I ever saw him. It was the opening lecture of a course on logic he was giving after the Split. I'd gone with a friend who'd attended NBI events for years. My friend said to me, "Soon a boy will go to the podium and putter around a bit. He won't be an assistant readying the equipment. He'll be Leonard Peikoff." Indeed when Leonard appeared I thought he looked hardly older than I was (I was 26).

On a related note. I found it a bit strange as I've been skiming thru my recently obtained hardback collections of the Objectivist & AR Letter, that Peikoff's Ominous Parallels was really written (or started) way back in the late 60s/early 70s. The AR Letter kept saying it would be coming soon from a particular publisher. But the book never came out until 1982 (I assume after AR passed away???).

The book was delayed for years in completion because Ayn kept wanting re-working of it. However, I think it was finished before she died. Her signed Introduction is dated "November 1980." I expect the delay after that was because of practical issues, for instance, delays in the publishing process (which in any case, back in those years at least, typically took at least 6 months). I'm not sure when in 1982 bound books appeared, what's the official publication month. Ayn Rand died on March 6, 1982.

Ellen

___

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Ellen,

The following is from Selective timeline and links of the Kelley-Peikoff schism.

• 1982 (March 6) – Ayn Rand died.
  
• 1982 (May) – The Ominous Parallels by Leonard Peikoff was published. An advance review was published in the April edition of The Objectivist Forum.
  

Michael

[Chris Grieb]

Does anyone know what the sales have been? I have heard that Leonard refused to do another revision and that Ayn Rand finally agreed to do the introduction.

[Neil Parille]

Here are some books by Objectivists that seek to extend Rand's thought (rather than simply elaborate on it, such as books by Tara Smith) --

1. Kelley, Evidence of the Senses;

2. Binswanger, Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts;

3. Peikoff, The Ominous Parallels.

Can anyone think of any more?

[emb021]

Here are some books by Objectivists that seek to extend Rand's thought (rather than simply elaborate on it, such as books by Tara Smith) --

1. Kelley, Evidence of the Senses;

2. Binswanger, Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts;

3. Peikoff, The Ominous Parallels.

Can anyone think of any more?

Oh, no no no! There is no extending Rand's thought, don't you know! Objectivism is perfect as is.

(sorry, couldn't help it )

While I have yet to get them, wouldn't 2 other works by Kelley be part of this: Unrugged Individualism and A Life of One's Own. As well as Kelley's Art of Reasoning.

Would Reisman's Capitalism be considered?

[emb021]

Devers & Rand. Yes, that's the source for the comment by Rand that 'NB was smiling too much'. I read the item on Branden's website. I don't yet have MYWAR.

Let me try to re-iterate my question regarding the Peikoff pics.

On the ARI site (and especially in the AR Bookstore), most of the pictures of the authors are posed shots. Peikoff's are all candidate shots of him laughing/smiling.

Do these pictures represent a true image of Peikoff, or were they choosen to give the impression of LP being a really nice and friendly guy (giving, if you will, a 'friendly face' to O'ism) when he's really not?

[Robert Jones]

Somethings been bugging me about Leonard Peikoff.

I have to say I find it a bit, well, strange that all is pictures over at ARI (especially in their bookstore) are of Peikoff smiling/laughing/grinning. None are what I call 'serious' pictures.

I recall in PAR of a late conversation between AR & BB that AR complained to BB that NB was 'smiling too much' on an tv interview. Most of the tv interviews of AR, she is very serious. Almost too much so.

So I have to wonder if the pictures you see of Peikoff are some kind of careful attempt to make him seem nice and friendly. When what little I've read of him is he can be a real *ss.

He didn't smile so much when he played the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang:

J

However, he DID smile a lot in his role as Ernie (left) on the 1960s TV show "My Three Sons":

Edited March 28, 2007 by Robert Jones

[Chris Grieb]

Robert; Very good! You maybe on to something. I must say that the pictures they use in the ARI material make Leonard very unserious. Interestingly the same charge was made about Nathaniel Branden with his first photos for Psychology of Self Esteem by followers of Rand I knew.

[Robert Jones]

Robert; Very good! You maybe on to something. I must say that the pictures they use in the ARI material make Leonard very unserious. Interestingly the same charge was made about Nathaniel Branden with his first photos for Psychology of Self Esteem by followers of Rand I knew.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Remember when he had that talk radio program in the 1990s, and he tried to look JUST LIKE Howard Stern, long hair, jeri curls and all? I can't find that photo on the web, but he looked so goofy with the radio headphones. Here is the closest one I could find to Lenny Peikoff as Joey Ramone:

[Chris Grieb]

When I heard Peikoff in New York in the 60ths I must say he was a smiling fellow. One thing Peikoff has never had is facial hair. Ayn Rand did approve.