Barbara Branden

Born in Winnipeg, Barbara Weidman met Nathaniel Branden because of their mutual interest in Ayn Rand's works. They became personal friends of Rand in 1950,{{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Branden |title=The Passion of Ayn Rand |url=https://archive.org/details/passionofaynrand00bran |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=1986 |page=[https://archive.org/details/passionofaynrand00bran/page/233 233]|isbn=978-0385191715 }} and when they married in 1953, Rand and her husband, Frank O'Connor, served as the matron of honor and best man.{{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Branden |title=The Passion of Ayn Rand |url=https://archive.org/details/passionofaynrand00bran |url-access=registration |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=1986 |page=[https://archive.org/details/passionofaynrand00bran/page/253 253]|isbn=978-0385191715 }}{{cite news |last=Yardley |first=William |title=Nathaniel Branden, a Partner in Love And Business With Ayn Rand, Dies at 84 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/us/nathaniel-branden-ayn-rands-collaborator-and-paramour-dies-at-84.html?ref=obituaries |access-date=December 12, 2014 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 12, 2014}} She earned her M.A. in philosophy, and authored a thesis on free will, under the direction of Sidney Hook at New York University.{{cite web |title=About Barbara Branden |url=http://www.barbarabranden.com/about.html}} Nathaniel and Barbara Branden became founding members of an Objectivist movement that sought to advance Rand's ideas.{{cite book |title=Ayn Rand |last=Britting |first=Jeff |author-link=Jeff Britting |location=New York |publisher=Overlook Duckworth |year=2004 |isbn=1585674060 |oclc=56413971 |series=Overlook Illustrated Lives |page=[https://archive.org/details/aynrand00jeff/page/88 88] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/aynrand00jeff/page/88 }}

In 1954, Nathaniel Branden began a secret romantic affair with Rand with the reluctant permission of both spouses. This relationship continued for three years.{{cite journal |first=Karen |last=Reedstrom |title=Interview with Barbara Branden |journal=Full Context |volume=5 |issue=2 |date=October 1992 |url=http://barbarabranden.com/interview4.html}}{{cite web |last=Lamb |first=Brian |title=Nathaniel Branden: Author, 'Judgment Day: My Years With Ayn Rand' |date=July 2, 1989 |url=http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/8219-1/Nathaniel+Branden.aspx |access-date=December 25, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214202135/http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/8219-1/Nathaniel+Branden.aspx |archive-date=February 14, 2012 }} While their respective spouses, Barbara Branden and Frank O'Connor, had knowledge of the affair and nominally accepted it, Branden later said it led to "years of pain" and "enormous harm", describing it as a "sacrifice".{{cite journal |first=Karen |last=Minto |title=Interview with Barbara Branden |journal=Full Context |volume=11 |issue=1 |date=September–October 1998 |url=http://barbarabranden.com/interview2.html}}

Barbara and Nathaniel Branden co-wrote Who Is Ayn Rand? in 1962. Barbara Branden's essay in the book was the first biography of Rand. When it was written, Rand considered Barbara Branden to be one of the most important proponents of Objectivism.

She served as the executive director of the Nathaniel Branden Institute, and gave a series of lectures on "Principles of Efficient Thinking."

In 1968, when Rand terminated her association with Nathaniel Branden after she discovered that he had become involved with actress Patrecia Scott more than four years earlier, she likewise disassociated herself from Barbara Branden for keeping this fact from her. The details of these events remain controversial.

In 1986, Barbara Branden published another biography of Rand, The Passion of Ayn Rand. The book, written after Rand's death in 1982, caused a rift among Rand's followers because it not only stated that Rand and Nathaniel Branden had been lovers, but that Rand had broken with them when she learned of his affair with Scott.{{cite news |last=Vitello |first=Paul |title=Barbara Branden, Biographer of Ayn Rand, Dies at 84 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/26/books/barbara-branden-biographer-of-ayn-rand-dies-at-84.html |access-date=December 12, 2014 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=December 25, 2013}} Rand had previously claimed that the friendship broke up over other matters, but letters in her estate confirmed Barbara Branden's version of the cause. The book was made into an Emmy Award-winning motion picture in 1999 starring Helen Mirren as Rand, Eric Stoltz as Branden and Julie Delpy playing Barbara.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140447/ The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999)]. IMDb. Retrieved March 2, 2007.

She contributed the lead essay "Ayn Rand: The Reluctant Feminist" to the anthology Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand, wherein she argued that the way Rand lived her life made it a feminist manifesto, even as Rand had disagreements with feminism.{{cite web |url=http://www.barbarabranden.com/fiar.html |title=Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand |publisher=BarbaraBranden.com |access-date=November 9, 2017}} Barbara Branden was estranged from her cousin Leonard Peikoff, Rand's chosen intellectual and legal heir after Rand's break with Nathaniel Branden.

Barbara Branden died of a lung infection in Los Angeles on December 11, 2013. Branden had no children.

;Books

• {{cite book |title=Who is Ayn Rand? |last1=Branden |first1=Barbara |first2=Nathaniel |last2=Branden |orig-year=1962 |year=1964 |location=New York |publisher=Paperback Library |oclc=2848682 |name-list-style=amp}}
• {{cite book |title=The Passion of Ayn Rand |year=1986 |isbn=0385191715 |location=Garden City, NY |publisher=Doubleday |last=Branden |first=Barbara}}
• {{cite book |title=Think as if Your Life Depends on It: Principles of Efficient Thinking and Other Lectures |last=Branden |first=Barbara |publisher=CreateSpace |year=2017 |isbn=978-1548486679}}

;Lecture course

• Branden, Barbara (2007). Principles of Efficient Thinking (10 lectures). Reissued on 19 CDs.

• Atlas Shrugged

{{reflist}}

• {{official website|http://www.barbarabranden.com/}}

{{Authority control}}

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Category:1929 births

Category:2013 deaths

Category:20th-century Canadian women writers

Category:Canadian feminists

Category:Canadian libertarians

Category:Former Objectivists

Category:Individualist feminists

Category:Writers from Winnipeg

Category:Canadian women biographers

Category:20th-century Canadian biographers

Category:Canadian women non-fiction writers