Going Through Old Files

The split between Nathaniel Branden and Ayn Rand in of 1968 brought the end of the first organized objectivist movement.  The organization offering taped lectures, the book selling company, and other ventures shut down immediately.  He moved to California and started a new career. She continued the magazine and then a newsletter for a  few years, writing  mainly about current events.  

She denounced him in harsh  terms in a notice in the magazine, labeling him as a  scoundrel and a traitor to her and her philosophy. He responded in print, admitting mistakes but disputing several of her accusations and more than hinting that an intimate personal conflict was the main cause of  what had  happened. Years later in books written by Branden and his ex-wife Barbara, it came out that Rand and Branden had had an off and on sexual relationship for over a dozen years and that the split was caused by Rand’s learning about Branden’s concurrent involvement  with an attractive young woman. 

 I had not thought about any of this for a good while, but a few days ago I came across some articles about the split while going  through some old files.  I was struck again, even allowing for uncertainty about the full details and for plenty of exaggeration and special pleading all around, by how strange,  sad and discrediting to almost all concerned the entire business was. That was nothing new. What was new for me was noticing how truly strangely the public part of the separation was managed, considering they were both supposed to be reasonable and mature adults.

Most reasonable and mature adults would have handled it with something like a statement from her announcing that due to various personal and professional disagreements they had ended their association and a notice from him that he was closing his business to pursue other opportunities across the country. At most  the person in her position might have added a disclaimer that she no longer considered him as any sort of spokesman for her. That would have better served the interests of both parties and also been honest and sufficiently informative. What happened instead was something more like an angry breakup between two overwrought teenagers and itself sad and discrediting all around.