Objectivist Round-up, August 2026

1. The Ayn Rand Institute Press just published a new booklet, I Chose to be An American: Ayn Rand’s Immigration Story. A few points:

a. The book references Barbara Branden’s interviews with Rand in 1960 and 1961 and makes the curious statement, “Factual details drawn from these interviews depend upon the accuracy of Rand’s later recollection. While many such details are likely reliable (especially basic family and biographical facts), memory is fallible.” Rand was 55 to 56 years old when she gave these interviews and in good health. I wonder why the authors think her recollections on the facts of her life are only “likely reliable”? And are Rand’s recollections on things other than “basic family and biographical facts” (whatever those are) unreliable? Shoshana Milgram Knapp (Rand’s future biographer) once wrote that Rand might have been wrong in saying that one of her philosophy professors was Nicholas Lossky, so this is likely what the authors are referencing. Chris Sciabarra has a response to Knapp in the second edition of Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical.

b. The authors report that Rand adopted her name “Ayn Rand” in America after she arrived in 1925. “Rand’s sister Natasha refers to her as ‘Lil Rand’ in a letter dated February 26, 1926. Over a month later, Rand’s sister Nora addresses her as ‘Ayn Rand’ in a letter dated April 11, 1926. This is the first time the name appears in their documented correspondence.” Unfortunately, no information is provided as to why she adopted this name. Rand once said that her name was a shortened version of her Russian name (Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum), but during the PARC Wars, a couple native speakers said that’s not possible.

Objectivist Round-up, mid July 2026 Update

1. Harry Binswanger recently said that he realized by 1969 that Alan Greenspan was departing from Objectivism. As Greg Nyquist noted, Rand didn’t seem to think so because she attended his swearing in ceremony in 1975 as President Ford’s Chairman of Board of Economic Advisors. Based on what Binswanger wrote, it appears that Binswanger’s big issue with Greenspan is that he wrote a supportive blurb for Barbara Branden’s 1986 biography of Rand, The Passion of Ayn Rand. As long-time readers of the blog know, Branden’s biography was labeled one long “arbitrary assertion” by Leonard Peikoff and Peter Schwartz. According to David Kelley, Peikoff said Branden’s claim that Rand and Nathaniel Branden had an affair was an arbitrary assertion. In any event, 1986 is forty years ago. Rand’s affair with Branden and certain unfortunate sides to her personality (her temper and grandiosity) would have come out eventually. I think at the end of the day, Branden did Objectivism a favor. Would forty years of continued dissimulation by the Ayn Rand Institute about Rand’s life done the movement any good? (ARI writers will still occasionally “trash” the Branden biography and subsequent ones, but mostly by challenging their interpretation of Rand’s ideas and not their description of Rand’s life and personality.)

Objectivist Round-up, mid-July 2026

1. As readers know, Carl Barney and Craig Biddle have been in litigation for a while now. Barney has gone on an internet offensive recently asserting that Biddle stole $9 million from him.

Craig originally drafted an Advisement Agreement that he, Sarah [Biddle], Lenny Esmond (our joint accountant at the time), and I signed. The Agreement required OSI to maintain these funds in a segregated investment account. Use of the funds required my approval; without my approval the “funds may not be used”.

On January 26, 2024, Craig confirmed: “The funds are held in trust by OSI, not grants to OSI”—emphasis added.

In the same exchange, Craig wrote: “They are held in trust and may be used only with Carl’s and Lenny’s permission.”

In January 2026, having become concerned with the Biddles’ behavior, I directed OSI to transfer the trust funds and demanded an accounting. Craig refused. On January 12, 2026, using money from the trust, Craig filed suit to seize the $9 million.

In any event, the episode has caused Barney to rethink his view of human nature.

For much of my life, I believed that people were fundamentally good. I was inclined to trust. I wanted to see the best in others. In many cases, that openness served me well, but that belief carried a cost.

Two long-term and personal relationships ended in profound betrayal. People I trusted personally and financially proved themselves dishonest. Those experiences forced me to reexamine my longstanding assumption. 

I assume Barney is referring to Biddle and Yaron Brook.