Biography

Had a longtime habit of running to meetings and lectures, even while dressed in a suit.

Is portrayed by Eric Stoltz in The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999).

After failing his freshman year of high-school, his parents allowed him to enroll in an adult school with an accelerated program, and he was able to graduate two years early. He then worked in the family business (jewelry) for a year before going to college.

When Branden split with mentor (and lover) Ayn Rand in the late 1960s, she reportedly asked him what he'd ever developed or created on his own, and what he'd be able to do without her endorsement. Branden had tried to integrate his groundbreaking work on self-esteem into Rand's Objectivist philosophy, but Rand hadn't given it much consideration. Branden was thus free to build a new career in self-esteem studies, without Rand's help, and did just that.

While he never had children of his own, third wife Devers had a daughter, and when her daughter had a son, Branden delighted in the experience of being a grandfather.