Neil Parille Review Latest Rand Biography

Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success by Alexandra Popoff is the first 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, Objectivists associated with Rand’s heir Leonard Peikoff were encouraged to dismiss this book out of hand.  Peikoff went so far as to denounce 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 upbringing.  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 as well.  (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 too 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 of before cable television and the 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 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.