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More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com280EPILOGUE: AYN RAND IN AMERICAN MEMORYThe news that Rand and Nathaniel Branden had been lovers stunnedthe broader Objectivist community. Many of Rand’s fans had unquestioninglytaken her side and had been content to let lie the mystery ofNathan’s depredations. Upon learning the truth, one defender of Randrecounted a deep sense of betrayal: “and all those years I had thoughtFrank was a model for Francisco. My blood literally ran cold at the extentof Rand’s deceit.” 2 To those who had known Rand intimately or seen herattack questioners at an NBI lecture, the revelations of her personal failingswere less shocking. But to the outside world Rand emerged a deeplyunsavory figure, manipulative, controlling, self-deceived, and wildlyemotional despite her professed rationality. This impression was furtherreinforced when Barbara Branden’s memoir was transformed into anHBO television movie starring Helen Mirren and Eric Stolz. Completewith scenes of a mink-clad Ayn making furtive love to Nathan in herfoyer, the movie destroyed the vaunted image of Rand as an intellectualparagon who lived by rationality alone.Barbara Branden’s memoir also precipitated another great schismacross Objectivist ranks. After Rand’s death a small but active orthodoxObjectivist community had emerged, led by Leonard Peikoff, whoinherited Rand’s estate and whom she publicly proclaimed her “intellectualheir.” In 1985 Peikoff institutionalized the orthodox approach bycreating the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), a nonprofit dedicated to spreadingObjectivism. Peikoff and the other philosophy students who hadclustered around Rand in her final years combined their Objectiviststudies with work in academic philosophy departments, giving themthe grasp of contemporary philosophical discourse that Rand had sosorely lacked. This network bore fruit in 1988 with the publication ofDavid Kelley’s The Evidence of the Senses. One of Objectivism’s risingyoung stars, Kelley had a doctorate in philosophy from Princeton, wherehe studied under the eminent pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty.Opening with a tribute to Ayn Rand, Kelley’s book presented a philosophicallyrigorous defense of her approach. Educated in a top-rankedphilosophy department and by a mentor who stood in opposition to allRand taught, Kelley was the first Objectivist philosopher to grapple seriouslywith opposing points of view rather than dispensing with them inthe loaded language that Rand typically employed. As such his volumeopened a new range of possibilities for Rand’s presence within contemporaryphilosophy. 3