Objectivist periodicals
Encyclopedia
Objectivist periodicals are a variety of journals, magazines and newsletters with an editorial perspective explicitly based on Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....

's philosophy of Objectivism
Objectivism (Ayn Rand)
Objectivism is a philosophy created by the Russian-American philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand . Objectivism holds that reality exists independent of consciousness, that human beings have direct contact with reality through sense perception, that one can attain objective knowledge from perception...

. Several early Objectivist periodicals were edited by Rand. She later endorsed two periodicals edited by associates, and a number of others have been founded since her death.

Periodicals edited by Ayn Rand

From 1961 to 1976, Rand was publisher and editor (sometimes co-editor) for three different periodicals: The Objectivist Newsletter, The Objectivist, and The Ayn Rand Letter. In addition to editing, Rand wrote many articles for these publications.

The Objectivist Newsletter

The first Objectivist periodical was The Objectivist Newsletter, a four-page newsletter that began publishing in January 1962. The newsletter was co-published by Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....

 and Nathaniel Branden
Nathaniel Branden
Nathaniel Branden, né Nathan Blumenthal , is a psychotherapist and writer best known today for his work in the psychology of self-esteem from a humanistic perspective...

 and grew out of the previous success of the Nathaniel Branden Institute
Nathaniel Branden Institute
The Nathaniel Branden Institute was an organization founded by Nathaniel Branden in 1958 to promote Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. The institute was responsible for the many Objectivist lectures and presentations across the United States of America...

 (NBI), which Branden had founded in 1958 (originally as Nathaniel Branden Lectures) to promote Objectivism. By late 1961, NBI had accumulated a mailing list of over 10,000 people, which was used to announce the newsletter.

A number of different writers contributed articles to The Objectivist Newsletter, including Martin Anderson
Martin Anderson (economist)
Martin Anderson is an economist, policy analyst, author and was one of President Ronald Reagan's leading advisors.-Biography:Born in Lowell, Massachusetts, August 5, 1936 He received his A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1957, his M.S...

, Barbara Branden
Barbara Branden
Barbara Branden is an American Objectivist writer, editor, and lecturer, known for her relationship and subsequent break with philosopher Ayn Rand.-Life:...

, Edith Efron
Edith Efron
Edith Efron was American journalist and author.Graduating from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she studied under journalist John Chamberlain, her career began as a writer for the New York Times Magazine. In 1947, she married a Haitian businessman, with whom she had a...

, Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan is an American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private advisor and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC...

, Robert Hessen
Robert Hessen
Robert Hessen, Ph.D., is an American economic and business historian, a widely published author, a professor in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, and a senior research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Among the books he has written or edited are Steel Titan: The Life...

, and Leonard Peikoff
Leonard Peikoff
Leonard S. Peikoff is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is an author, a leading advocate of Objectivism and the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute. A former professor of philosophy, he was designated by the novelist Ayn Rand as heir to her estate...

. However, the majority of the articles were written by either Ayn Rand or Nathaniel Branden.

In 1965, Rand and Branden decided to change the format of the publication. In October 1965, they announced that The Objectivist Newsletter would become The Objectivist. This was purely a change of name and format, with business operations, including subscriptions, continuing unchanged.

The Objectivist

In January 1966, the The Objectivist replaced The Objectivist Newsletter, with Rand and Branden continuing as co-editors. The renamed publication used a sixteen-page magazine format in place of the previous newsletter format. The number of subscribers continued to climb, reaching 21,000 by the end of 1966. Contributors during this period included economists
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

 Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan
Alan Greenspan is an American economist who served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private advisor and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC...

 and George Reisman
George Reisman
George Gerald Reisman is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Pepperdine University and author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics . He is also the author of an earlier book, The Government Against the Economy , which was praised by F.A...

, historian Robert Hessen
Robert Hessen
Robert Hessen, Ph.D., is an American economic and business historian, a widely published author, a professor in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, and a senior research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Among the books he has written or edited are Steel Titan: The Life...

, neurophysiologist
Neurophysiology
Neurophysiology is a part of physiology. Neurophysiology is the study of nervous system function...

 Robert Efron, novelists Erika Holzer
Erika Holzer
Erika Holzer is an American novelist and essayist who was a member of Ayn Rand's inner circle. Her novel Eye for an Eye was the basis for a major motion picture of the same name...

 and Kay Nolte Smith
Kay Nolte Smith
Kay Nolte Smith was an American writer. She was for a time friendly with the philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand, who was her leading literary and philosophical influence....

, and philosopher Leonard Peikoff
Leonard Peikoff
Leonard S. Peikoff is a Canadian-American philosopher. He is an author, a leading advocate of Objectivism and the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute. A former professor of philosophy, he was designated by the novelist Ayn Rand as heir to her estate...

.

In August 1968, Rand broke off her relationships with both Nathaniel and Barbara Branden. Nathaniel Branden resigned from The Objectivist and signed over his half of the magazine to her. In the May 1968 issue, which appeared at this time because the magazine was then behind schedule, Rand issued a public statement denouncing the Brandens and disassociating herself from them. From this point forward, Rand acted as the sole editor for the magazine, bringing in Peikoff as an associate editor.

In 1971, Rand decided on another format change, going back to a newsletter style publication, in the hope that this would allow her to reach a larger audience. The final issue of The Objectivist was published in September 1971.

The Ayn Rand Letter

In October 1971, Rand began publishing The Ayn Rand Letter. This new publication was produced in the style of a typewritten letter and was published fortnightly. Rand's initial hopes for reaching a wider audience with the newsletter format were not fulfilled. The Letter actually lost subscribers compared to The Objectivist, largely because of the Letters higher subscription price. The newsletter was usually four or six pages long with a single major article per issue, plus occasional announcements and the continuing "Objectivist Calendar" entries. Rand wrote most of the articles herself, in addition to acting as editor and publisher. Leonard Peikoff served as a contributing editor and wrote the articles for six of the newsletter's eighty-one issues.

Beginning in 1973, outside circumstances began to cause delays in production. In March 1973, Rand discovered that a sister she believed to have died was in fact still alive and in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. Rand worked hard to arrange a visit to the United States for her sister. When her sister finally arrived, their reunion turned into fighting over political and philosophical differences. As Hessen described it, "This incident, stretching across eight months, took a heavy toll on her writing and publication schedule, which allocated no time for unexpected interruptions." Several issues of the Letter published during this period bore a postscript: "This Letter was written later than the date that appears on its heading."

Rand attempted to bring the Letter back on schedule, but further delays occurred when she was diagnosed with lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

. Each issue continued to bear the date when it should have appeared on the original fortnightly schedule, with the "written later" postscript. By the middle of 1975, issues were appearing eight months behind schedule, with the issue dated August 26, 1974 actually being written in May 1975. In that issue, Peikoff announced that the Letter would become a monthly publication, rather than fortnightly. Rand was unable to sustain this schedule either, and announced at the end of 1975 that the newsletter would cease publication. The final issue appeared in February 1976. It was the last periodical that Rand edited, although she did serve as an adviser to The Objectivist Forum when that magazine began in 1980.

Article reprints

The articles from Rand's three periodicals did not appear only in their respective pages. They were frequently reprinted as pamphlets. Initially these were sold by the NBI Book Service, an affiliate of the Nathaniel Branden Institute
Nathaniel Branden Institute
The Nathaniel Branden Institute was an organization founded by Nathaniel Branden in 1958 to promote Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. The institute was responsible for the many Objectivist lectures and presentations across the United States of America...

. When NBI and its affiliates were closed in 1968, a new Objectivist Book Service began selling the reprints. The Objectivist Book Service later sold reprints from The Ayn Rand Letter until shortly after that publication was discontinued.

In addition to pamphlets, many articles from these periodicals also appeared in books. Articles from The Objectivist Newsletter by Rand and Nathaniel Branden made up most of the content for The Virtue of Selfishness
The Virtue of Selfishness
The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism is a 1964 collection of essays and papers by Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden. Most of the essays originally appeared in The Objectivist Newsletter, except for "The Objectivist Ethics", which was a paper Rand delivered at the University of Wisconsin...

. Rand's next book, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal is a collection of essays, mostly by Ayn Rand, with additional essays by her associates Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan and Robert Hessen. The book focuses on the moral nature of laissez-faire capitalism and private property...

, included articles from her and Branden, plus Greenspan and Hessen. Reprints of Rand's articles also appeared in The Romantic Manifesto
The Romantic Manifesto
The Romantic Manifesto: A Philosophy of Literature is a non-fiction work by Ayn Rand, a collection of essays regarding the nature of art. It was first published in 1969, with a second, revised edition published in 1975.-Publishing history:...

, The New Left (later revised as Return of the Primitive), Philosophy: Who Needs It
Philosophy: Who Needs It
Philosophy: Who Needs It is a posthumous collection of essays by Ayn Rand, published in 1982, that deal with the subject of philosophy in general. Rand had begun work on the collection prior to her death, with final editing by Leonard Peikoff. Therefore, it could be considered her last work...

, and The Voice of Reason
The Voice of Reason
The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought is a collection of essays by Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff, and Peter Schwartz, and edited by Leonard Peikoff...

. The content of Rand's Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology
Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, published in 1979, is Ayn Rand's essentialised summation of the Objectivist theory of concepts and solution to the problem of universals...

 was serialized in The Objectivist, and the published book also includes an article by Leonard Peikoff reprinted from that same magazine. Peikoff's articles for The Ayn Rand Letter were material later incorporated into his book The Ominous Parallels.

In 1969, a brief dispute arose between Rand and Nathaniel Branden, over the use of some of his articles from The Objectivist. The copyrights for the articles had been registered in the name of the magazine. When Branden signed over his interest in the company to Rand, he believed they had an understanding that he could re-use the material in his articles for his planned book, The Psychology of Self-Esteem. Rand threatened to withhold her consent to use the material, but took no action when Branden's publisher decided to go forward anyway.

All three of the periodicals edited by Rand were latter published in hardcover collections by Palo Alto Book Service. In 2001, all the articles by Rand and Peikoff were incorporated into the Objectivism Research CD-ROM, a searchable e-book of their writings (which was subsequently discontinued).

The Intellectual Activist

The Intellectual Activist (TIA) was founded in 1979 by Peter Schwartz
Peter Schwartz (writer)
Peter Schwartz is a writer and journalist who follows the Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand. He was the original editor for The Intellectual Activist and has contributed to books that reprint articles by Rand and other Objectivist writers, such as The Voice of Reason and Return of the Primitive:...

. It was subsequently edited by Robert Stubblefield (1991-1996) and then by Robert Tracinski. From 1985 onward, TIA was aligned with the Ayn Rand Institute
Ayn Rand Institute
The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism is a 501 nonprofit think tank in Irvine, California that promotes Ayn Rand's philosophy, called Objectivism. It was established in 1985, three years after Rand's death, by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's legal heir...

, but in 2005 Tracinski stopped working for the institute, citing internal disputes about political issues as one of his reasons.

The Objectivist Forum

The Objectivist Forum was an Objectivist bimonthly journal published from February 1980 through December 1987.

Rand helped establish it and served as its philosophic consultant until her death in 1982. Harry Binswanger
Harry Binswanger
Harry Binswanger is an American philosopher and writer. He is an Objectivist and was a long-time associate of Ayn Rand, working with her on The Ayn Rand Lexicon. His doctoral dissertation, in the philosophy of biology, presented a new theory of the goal-directedness of living action, in opposition...

 was publisher and editor; Peikoff served as consulting editor.

A hardback collection of the journal has been published.

The Objective Standard

The Objective Standard is a journal
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 on culture and politics founded by Craig Biddle and Sidney J. Gunst Jr. in 2006, which uses Objectivism as a "frame of reference in analyzing the cultural and political issues of the day." Biddle acts as the editor. The journal is published quarterly by Biddle's Glen Allen Press, and also maintains a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

 called "Principles in Practice," which includes material from The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI). Several fellows from the Ayn Rand Institute, such as Yaron Brook
Yaron Brook
Yaron Brook is an intellectual and political activist, and is the current president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, a non-profit organization in Irvine, California, whose mission is to promote the novels of Ayn Rand and her philosophy of Objectivism.-Early life in Israel:Brook...

, Andrew Bernstein
Andrew Bernstein
Andrew Bernstein is a proponent of Ayn Rand's "Objectivism", an author, and a professor of philosophy.Bernstein holds a PhD in philosophy and is the author of The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic, and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire, Capitalism Unbound: The Incontestable Case for...

, Tara Smith, Elan Journo, and Alex Epstein, have written for the journal.

Others

Other Objectivist periodicals include Full Context and Objectivity.

In 1988, Karen Reedstrom (later Minto) began publishing a newsletter for the Objectivist Club of Eastern Michigan. In 1990 the newsletter became Full Context, which billed itself as "An International Objectivist Publication." The magazine was published until October 2000. Contributors included Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Chris Matthew Sciabarra is a Brooklyn, New York-based political theorist. He is the author of three scholarly books—Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical; Marx, Hayek, and Utopia; and Total Freedom: Toward a Dialectical Libertarianism—as well several shorter works...

 and Tibor Machan, and the magazine published a number of interviews with people associated with Objectivism, including Barbara Branden
Barbara Branden
Barbara Branden is an American Objectivist writer, editor, and lecturer, known for her relationship and subsequent break with philosopher Ayn Rand.-Life:...

, Nathaniel Branden
Nathaniel Branden
Nathaniel Branden, né Nathan Blumenthal , is a psychotherapist and writer best known today for his work in the psychology of self-esteem from a humanistic perspective...

, Erika Holzer
Erika Holzer
Erika Holzer is an American novelist and essayist who was a member of Ayn Rand's inner circle. Her novel Eye for an Eye was the basis for a major motion picture of the same name...

, and David Kelley
David Kelley
David Kelley is an American philosopher, author, and advocate of Objectivism. He is founder and senior fellow of The Atlas Society. He lives in Washington, D.C..-Education and career:...

.

See also

  • Bibliography for Ayn Rand and Objectivism
    Bibliography for Ayn Rand and Objectivism
    This is a bibliography for Ayn Rand and Objectivism. Objectivism is a philosophical system initially developed in the 20th century by Rand.- Works by Ayn Rand:The lists below provide information on Ayn Rand's major works and collections...

  • Journal of Ayn Rand Studies
    Journal of Ayn Rand Studies
    The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies is an academic journal devoted to the study of the philosophy of Ayn Rand. Established in 1999, its founding editor is New York University scholar Chris Sciabarra. At present, the other two editors are Stephen D. Cox and Roderick Long...

    – an independent journal that discusses Rand and her ideas.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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