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E PILOGUE :
AYN RAND IN AME RICAN M E MORY
When Rand died in 1982, her old enemies were quick to declare victory.
“Ayn Rand is dead. So, incidentally, is the philosophy she sought
to launch dead; it died still born,” William F. Buckley Jr. announced
in a mean-spirited obituary that once again set the letters column of
National Review abuzz. Buckley’s dismissal of Rand was overconfi dent
by any standard. Only a year before, George Gilder had recognized Rand
as an important infl uence in Wealth and Poverty, a book soon known as
the bible of the Reagan administration. Two years after her death another
of her admirers, Charles Murray, would light the conservative world
afl ame with his attack on welfare, Losing Ground. Along with A Time for
Truth, written by former Treasury Secretary William Simon and former
Collective member Edith Efron, these books suggested that Rand’s infl uence
was just beginning to be felt in policy circles. The New York Times
would even dub Rand the “novelist laureate” of the Reagan administration,
citing her infl uence on Alan Greenspan, Martin Anderson, and
several others. 1
Yet as Buckley’s obituary suggested, Rand’s reputation was captive
to the events of her lifetime. In 1986 Barbara Branden lifted the curtain
on Rand’s private affairs with the publication of her memoir cum biography,
The Passion of Ayn Rand, followed three years later by Nathaniel
Branden’s own lurid memoir, Judgment Day: My Years with Ayn Rand.
Sparing no detail, the Brandens disclosed the full story of her relationship
with Nathan and emphasized the dark side of Rand, including her
harsh treatment of the Collective, her anger and depression, and her
habitual use of amphetamines. Although both Brandens lauded Rand’s
intellectual accomplishments, the revelations about her personal life
overshadowed their assertions of her worth as a thinker.
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