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Objectivist movement


The Objectivist movement seeks to study and advance the philosophy of Objectivism. It was founded by novelist, screenwriter, and philosopher Ayn Rand. The movement began informally in the 1950s and consisted of students who were brought together by their mutual interest in Rand's novel, The Fountainhead. The group, ironically named "the Collective" due to their actual advocacy of individualism, in part consisted of Nathaniel Branden, Barbara Branden, Alan Greenspan, and Leonard Peikoff. Nathaniel Branden, a young Canadian student who had been greatly inspired by Rand's work, became a close confidant and encouraged Rand to expand her philosophy into a formal movement. From this informal beginning in Rand's living room, the movement expanded into a collection of think tanks, academic organizations, magazines, and journals.

"The Collective" was Rand's private name for a group of close confidants, students, and proponents of Rand and Objectivism during the 1950s and 1960s. The founding members of the group were Nathaniel Branden, Barbara Branden, Leonard Peikoff, Alan Greenspan, Joan Kennedy Taylor, Allan Blumenthal, Harry Kalberman, Elayne Kalberman, Joan Mitchell, and Mary Ann Sures (formerly Rukavina). This group was the nucleus of a growing movement of Rand admirers whose name was chosen as a joke based on Objectivism's staunch commitment to individualism. It had originally started out as an informal gathering of friends (many of them related to one another) who met with Rand on weekends at her apartment on East 36th Street in New York City to discuss philosophy. Barbara Branden said the group met "because of a common interest in ideas." Greenspan recalled being drawn to Rand because of a shared belief in "the importance of mathematics and intellectual rigor." The group met at Rand's apartment at least once a week, and would often discuss and debate into the early morning hours. About these discussions, Greenspan said, "Talking to Ayn Rand was like starting a game of chess thinking I was good, and suddenly finding myself in checkmate." Eventually, Rand also allowed them to begin reading the manuscript of Atlas Shrugged as she completed it. As the years went on, the Collective would proceed to play a larger, more formal role, promoting Rand's philosophy through the Nathaniel Branden Institute (NBI). Some Collective members gave lectures at the NBI in cities across the United States and wrote articles for its newsletters, Objectivist periodicals#The Objectivist NewsletterThe Objectivist Newsletter (1962–1965) and The Objectivist (1966–1971).


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