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IT USUALLY BEGINS WITH AYN RAND 249
reconcile, as he and Rand never had, the connections between mind and
body, sexuality and intellect. 4 Barbara Branden was in California too,
but she stayed far from Nathan. Neither wanted to re-create the world
they had just escaped.
Frank, who had witnessed the cataclysmic ending of her extramarital
affair, became Rand’s primary source of comfort. As her relationship
with Nathan disintegrated, she came to newly appreciate her husband.
In May 1968 she wrote a preface to the twenty-fi fth anniversary edition
of The Fountainhead that sang his praises. “Frank was the fuel,”
she wrote, describing his support in her darkest days of writing. 5 Her
discovery of Frank’s essential virtues came just as his hold on reality
began to slip. He had been softening for years, and when life after the
break settled into a new normal it became obvious that he was growing
senile. By the early 1970s he was homebound, no longer able to visit galleries
or participate in art classes. With her fi rm belief in free will and
the power of rationality, Rand found it diffi cult to understand Frank’s
deterioration. In vain she tried to help him through his confusions with
lengthy rational explanations. When he could no longer communicate,
she asked his doctor if he could be mentally retrained so he could learn
how to speak again. His obvious need for care stirred Rand’s motherly
side, and she fussed and worried over his every move. After almost fi fty
years of marriage Rand still loved her husband, or the shell of him that
remained. 6
Rand was also cheered by the unfailing loyalty and attention of
Leonard Peikoff, one of the last remaining insiders from the years before
Atlas Shrugged. During Objectivism’s glory days Leonard had been a valued
but decidedly second-tier member of the Collective. Now, bolstered
by a new appointment as a philosophy professor at the Polytechnic
Institute of Brooklyn, he emerged as Nathan’s successor. Excerpts from
his manuscript in progress, The Ominous Parallels, a comparison of
Nazi Germany and contemporary America, fi lled the pages Nathan
had claimed in The Objectivist, and he began to offer private courses in
Objectivism. He and Rand were wary of recreating NBI, so his courses
were not offered by tape transcription, only in person. Students had
to sign a consent agreement stating that they would not associate with
Nathan or Barbara Branden. Eventually The Objectivist would advertise
a smattering of courses led by Rand’s remaining associates, including
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