The Passion of Ayn Rand

Barbara Branden was born Barbara Joan Weidman in Winnipeg, Canada, on May 14, 1929. She received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1951. She became part of Ayn Rand's inner circle in the 1950s and '60s. She helped disseminated Rand's ideas in newsletters and journals, organized her lecture tours, gave lectures, and helped establish organizations for the study of Objectivism. She wrote a biography entitled The Passion of Ayn Rand, which was adapted into a television movie in 1999. Her other works include a book of essays entitled Who Is Ayn Rand? and a quasi-memoir entitled Ayn Rand and Her Movement: An Interview with Barbara Branden, Rand's Close Colleague and Administrator of Her Movement. She died from a lung infection on December 11, 2013 at the age of 84.

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