Barbara Branden requests your help - and so does Robert Hessen
October 2, 1998
Dear Reader:
Last month Barbara Branden posted an announcement on her website that a vast collection of Ayn Rand's handwritten manuscripts (and other memorabilia) will be sold at auction by Butterfield & Butterfield in Los Angeles on Wednesday, November l8.
When Leonard Peikoff, the self-described Pope of Objectivism, learned about the auction, he made no inquiry of Barbara or me as to what exactly we own or how we each had acquired what we own. Instead, he responded by having his attorney send us a threatening letter, proclaiming that he alone is the heir and owner of all manuscripts written by Ayn Rand, and giving us ten days not only to furnish him with a detailed inventory of our holdings, but also with proof of our ownership of our respective manuscript holdings. These are 29 handwritten pages from Atlas Shrugged, and nearly 5,000 handwritten pages of non-fiction, virtually all of the articles, reviews and speeches Ayn Rand wrote between l962 and l974.
Peikoff asserts that the burden of proof is on Barbara and me to prove our rights of ownership. With no explanation of why Barbara and I don't own the manuscripts that Ayn Rand gifted to us, he warns he will initiate a lawsuit to block the sale of our property. (Does he imagine that the manuscripts are forgeries, or stolen, or that Ayn Rand was legally incompetent to make gifts to me and Barbara?)
Barbara and I are appealing to you for a contribution to a Legal Defense Fund that will enable us to resist Peikoff's challenge.
The potential cost of our defense could be as much as $250,000, according to our attorney, Professor Henry Mark Holzer. We also intend to retain Manuel S. Klausner, a prominent Libertarian lawyer in Los Angeles, to work on the litigation. While I own assets in excess of that amount, my problem is lack of liquidity, so I can contribute only $25,000 initially. But your contribution -- minimum $l00, maximum $l0,000 -- need not be a GIFT.
If it were a gift, your payback would include the satisfaction of promoting justice, protecting property rights, and frustrating a bully. But I prefer that your contribution be a LOAN that I personally will repay, plus ten percent (10%) interest annually, until Peikoff's threat is removed. And it will be an INVESTMENT too, because the Defense Fund will enable us to challenge Peikoff's claim that he owns Ayn Rand's name and philosophy, and that he is the only authorized interpreter of Objectivism. Another benefit of our successful defense will be to discourage Peikoff's hypocritical attacks on Libertarians and his excommunicating of Objectivists who refuse to slavishly conform to his interpretation of what constitutes Ayn Rand's philosophy. We also intend to countersue Peikoff and any other party that joins him in his suit.
In all likelihood, Peikoff personally will have to bear the full cost of any lawsuit he initiates against us. The Ayn Rand Institute, which he controls and operates as a personal fiefdom, may not be able to defray his legal expenses because Peikoff alone, he says, owns Branden's and Hessen's manuscript holdings. Therefore the Institute, a tax-exempt, not-for-profit charity, has no legal standing in the proposed lawsuit and thus no right to squander its funds in persecuting Barbara and me.
To enable you to judge the probability that Barbara and I will prevail, I plan to send you the full text of the reply written by our attorney, Henry Mark Holzer, categorically rejecting all of Peikoff's claims and assertions. If you would like to see it, I also can send you the letter from Peikoff's lawyer, so you can evaluate Peikoff's claims.
Even if you cannot afford to make a gift or a loan to the Defense Fund, please help us by forwarding this e-mail message to others throughout the world to whom it might be of interest.
Sincerely,
Bob Hessen (Bookman3@aol.com)
The above story had a happy ending, and contributions are no longer being solicited for Barbara Branden's defense fund. Barbara Branden won her fight with Leonard Peikoff.
Unfortunately, this is typical behavior for Leonard Peikoff. He's more than happy to get his way by threatening to sue someone, even if he knows he doesn't have a legal leg to stand on. Unfortunately, our corrupt legal system permits this immoral behavior. Previously, Peikoff threatened to sue a rock band for daring to call themselves Atlas Shrugged (named after a mountain in Canada).
Apparently Leonard Peikoff thinks that anything once owned by Ayn Rand, is automatically his. Could there be any greater proof that Leonard Peikoff stands in total opposition to the principles of Objectivism? He pays lip service to them, then acts like a criminal when it suits him. Could there be any greater proof that Ayn Rand (unfortunately) picked just about the worst possible individual to be her Intellectual Heir?
What does this sort of behavior tell us about the character of Leonard Peikoff? What does this tell us about a man who ignores the rights of others, and uses the power of a corrupt legal system to intimidate others? Is this the spirit of a John Galt or Howard Roark?
It would seem to be much closer to the spirit of Tinky Holloway.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time to boycott Leonard Peikoff and all things connected with him, including the Ayn Rand Institute.
Leonard Peikoff has proven that he has no respect for property rights. He uses the law to steal. This thug should be treated accordingly.