jbgotmar

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FROM NOVELIST TO PHILOSOPHER, 1944–1957
Like Barbara, Ayn had registered a shift. The next day she summoned
Nathan to her apartment, where she waited alone. It was a scene out of
the best romantic fi ction. After some delay, Rand became urgent and
direct. She and Nathan had fallen in love, yes? Nathan, overwhelmed,
fl attered, excited, confused, responded in kind. They kissed hesitantly.
There would be no turning back.
But this was still the founder of Objectivism, believing in rationality
above all else. They must be honest with their spouses, Rand decided.
She called them all to a meeting at her apartment. As Barbara and Frank
listened incredulously, Rand’s hypnotic voice fi lled the room and stilled
their protests. The spell she had cast was too strong to break now. At
meeting’s end she and Nathan had secured what they requested: a few
hours alone each week. Their relationship would be strictly platonic,
they assured their spouses. Privacy would allow them to explore the
intellectual and emotional connection they could no longer pretend did
not exist.
When the inevitable happened, Rand was again honest with both
Barbara and Frank. She and Nathan wished now to be lovers, she
explained. But it would naturally be a short affair. She had no wish to
hold back Nathan, twenty-fi ve years her junior. Her explanation came
clothed in the rational philosophy she had taught them all. By giving
their feelings full expression, Nathan and Ayn were simply acknowledging
the nature of reality.
For all her iconoclasm, Rand had a streak of cultural conventionality
deep within. Afraid of what the outside world would say, she insisted the
affair be kept a secret. Her work and her reputation would be smeared
if anyone found out, she told the others. Uncomfortable with the idea
of literally disrupting her marriage bed, Nathan proposed that they
rent a small apartment in her building, ostensibly an offi ce, that could
be used for their meetings. Rand refused. On the surface everything
would continue as usual. Even members of the Collective could have no
inkling of the new arrangements between the Branden and O’Connor
households.
The offi cially sanctioned yet secret affair sent all four parties spinning
into perilous emotional territory. For all the passion they shared, relations
between Nathan and Ayn were not smooth. Ayn was an insecure,
jealous lover, constantly pushing Nathan to express his feelings. Not a
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