The Ayn Rand Collective

The Collective was a group of men and women who were close confidants, students, and proponents of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism during the 50's and 60's.

At its height, the Collective consisted of:
*Nathaniel Branden
*Barbara Branden
*Alan Greenspan
*Allan Blumenthal
*Leonard Peikoff
*Harry Kalberman
*Elayne Kalberman
*Joan Mitchell
*Mary Ann Rukavina

The group (whose name was chosen ironically considering Objectivism's staunch commitment to individualism) originally started out as informal gathering of friends who met with Rand on weekends at her apartment in New York City to discuss philosophy. As the years went on, the Collective would proceed to play a larger, more formal role, helping edit "Atlas Shrugged" and promoting Rand's philosophy through the Nathaniel Branden Institute. Many Collective members gave lectures at the NBI in cities across the United States, while others wrote articles for its sister newsletters "The Objectivist Newsletter" (1962-65) and "The Objectivist" (1966-71).

In 1968 after a complex series of events resulting from the breakdown of a romantic affair between Rand and Nathaniel Branden, Rand expelled Branden from the Collective, followed by his ex-wife Barbara a short time later. In the subsequent years, the Collective slowly broke apart, with the remaining members either leaving or being expelled.

Leonard Peikoff eventually became the leading Collective survivor still in Rand's favor. For several decades (but not recently) Peikoff called himself Rand's "intellectual heir" -- a title once explicitly given by Rand to Branden. Following Rand's death in 1982 Peikoff founded the Ayn Rand Institute to promote Objectivist philosophy.

Alan Greenspan made mention of the Collective in his book titled "", published September 17, 2007:

Greenspan also comments about his conversations with Ayn Rand:

External links

* [http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html "The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult" by Murray Rothbard] Written in 1972, this was the first piece of Rand revisionism from the libertarian standpoint. The author criticizes what he sees as a cult-like mentality within the Collective.

References

*cite book | last=Greenspan | first=Alan |title=The Age of Turbulence | publisher=Penguin Press | year=2007 | id=ISBN 1-5942-0131-5Greenspan, A., The Age of Turbulence, 2007