Nathaniel Branden wrote Ayn Rand a fan letter when he was a teenager in Canada in the 1940s. He wanted to tell her how much he admired “The Fountainhead,” her novel about a brilliant architect’s proud resistance to what he perceived as the world’s inclination toward collectivism and mediocrity.
20世纪40年代，十几岁的加拿大人纳撒尼尔·布兰登(Nathaniel Branden)给安·兰德(Ayn Rand)写了一封崇拜信，想告诉她自己有多么热爱她的《源泉》(The Fountainhead)，这本小说讲述一个杰出的建筑师意识到这个世界正在滑向集体主义与平庸，于是骄傲地与之对抗。

Ms. Rand did not respond, but Mr. Branden did not give up.
兰德没有回复，但布兰登没有放弃。
A few years later, while attending college in California, he wrote to her again. This time she did respond, and then some.
几年后，已经在加利福尼亚上大学的他再次给她写信。这一次她回复了，两人开始通信。
In relatively short order, they became philosophical soul mates, unlikely lovers and business associates. He was 25 years younger than she and, like her, married to someone else. That hardly mattered. Both believed in “rational selfishness” and unlimited capitalism, theories Ms. Rand embraced in “The Fountainhead” (1943) and her later blockbuster, “Atlas Shrugged,” which was published in 1957 and originally dedicated to both her husband, Frank O’Connor, and Mr. Branden.
两人很快成了哲学上的灵魂伴侣、不可思议的恋人与生意伙伴。他比她年轻25岁，两人分别同其他人结了婚。但这不是问题。两人都相信兰德在《源泉》和她后来风靡一时的《阿特拉斯耸耸肩》(Atlas Shrugged)中全心信奉的“理性的自私”与不受限制的资本主义。《阿特拉斯耸耸肩》于1957年出版，最初是题献给她的丈夫弗兰克·奥康纳(Frank O’Connor)和布兰登这两个人的。
Mr. Branden, who was 84 when he died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles County, would go on to change his name at Ms. Rand’s suggestion (it had been Nathan Blumenthal) and to become perhaps her most ardent disciple. In 1958 he started the Nathaniel Branden Institute, where he helped repackage her ideas — Objectivism, she called her philosophy — into lectures, recordings, books and articles.
布兰登于周三在洛杉矶郡家中去世，享年84岁。认识兰德后，他成了其最热情的门徒，还按她的建议，把自己的名字由内森·布卢门撒尔(Nathan Blumenthal)改为纳撒尼尔·布兰登。1958年，他创立了纳撒尼尔·布兰登学院，重新把她的思想（她把自己的哲学称之为“客观主义”）包装为讲座、录音、书籍和文章。
For the next decade, theirs was a distinctive and largely productive collaboration — at Ms. Rand’s insistence, both of their spouses knew of their extramarital relationship, though few outside their inner circle did — and it raised both her profile and his. Founded in New York, the Nathaniel Branden Institute grew to have branches in dozens of cities. Among its speakers was Alan Greenspan, the future chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
接下来的十年里，两人的合作极为独特，而且非常高产，从而对两人的形象都有提升。在兰德坚持之下，两人的伴侣都知晓了这段婚外恋，不过这段关系在他们的小圈子之外罕有人知。纳撒尼尔·布兰登学院在几十个城市内设立了分校。后来当上美国联邦储备委员会主席的艾伦·格林斯潘(Alan Greenspan)也曾是学院的演讲者之一。
But by the late 1960s, Mr. Branden’s relationships with Ms. Rand and with his wife, Barbara, had deteriorated. It did not help that he had begun a relationship that year with a fashion model, 15 years his junior, Patrecia Scott, who had attended his lectures (and whom he later married).
但是到了20世纪60年代末，布兰登与兰德和妻子芭芭拉(Barbara)之间的关系每况愈下。同时他又和来听他讲座的时装模特帕特里西亚·斯科特(Patrecia Scott)之间开始了一段恋情，这自然更加于事无补。斯科特比他小15岁，两人后来结婚了。
In the summer of 1968, Ms. Rand announced in an article for The Objectivist magazine that their collaboration was over, claiming that both of the Brandens had taken financial advantage of her. The Brandens publicly denied the charge.
1968年夏，兰德在为《客观主义者》(The Objectivist)杂志撰写的文章中宣布两人之间的合作告终，并称布兰登夫妇在财务上占她便宜。布兰登夫妇公开否认了这一指责。
The split also caused a divide among Ms. Rand’s followers. Mr. Branden had become a draw himself, and he soon began promoting a revised version of their early ideas, shifting the emphasis from self-interest to self-esteem. He moved to Southern California, where he started a new organization, the Institute of Biocentric Psychology, and wrote a book, “The Psychology of Self-Esteem” (1969).
这一分裂也在兰德的支持者中造成了分歧。布兰登本人也成了重要人物，很快就开始宣传两人早期观点的修订版，重点从自利转向自尊。他移居南加利福尼亚，开创了新机构：生物中心心理学学院(the Institute of Biocentric Psychology)，并于1969年出版著作《自尊心理学》(The Psychology of Self-Esteem)。
He was well established in private practice when the extent of his early relationship with Ms. Rand became public. In 1986, his first wife, Barbara, told the story in the book “The Passion of Ayn Rand.” That book also divided Ms. Rand’s followers, but Ms. Branden received generally favorable reviews for what critics said appeared to be her clear effort to be fair to Ms. Rand. The book was made into a 1999 Showtime movie starring Helen Mirren as Ms. Rand and Eric Stoltz as Mr. Branden.
与兰德的早年关系曝光之时，布兰登的个人事业已经获得相当大的成功。1986年，他的第一任妻子芭芭拉在《安·兰德的热情》(The Passion of Ayn Rand)一书中披露了他们之间的故事。这本书再次在兰德的追随者之间造成了分裂。但是芭芭拉的书获得了普遍好评，评论家都认为她显然很努力地去公平对待兰德。1999年，这本书被映时影业搬上银幕，由海伦·米伦(Helen Mirren)饰演兰德，艾瑞克·斯托罗兹(Eric Stoltz)饰演布兰登。
In 1989, Mr. Branden offered his own version of the relationship in “Judgment Day: My Years With Ayn Rand.” It was not as well received as his wife’s account.
1989年，布兰登出版了《审判日：我与安·兰德共度的岁月》(Judgment Day: My Years With Ayn Rand)，从自己的角度讲述了这段关系，不过获得的评价却不如他前妻的那本书。
Reviewing the book in The New York Times, the feminist writer Susan Brownmiller called “Judgment Day” “an embarrassing venture.”
女性主义作家苏珊·布朗米勒(Susan Brownmiller)在为《纽约时报》撰写的书评中称《审判日》是“令人尴尬的冒险”。
“Renegades from extremist movements are seldom likable in their new incarnations: their justifications ring hollow, their demands for sympathy tend to sound whiny,” Ms. Brownmiller wrote. “Mr. Branden compounds this inherent problem by replacing his Objectivist rhetoric with a massive dose of psychobabble from the California human-potential movement, in whose therapeutic vineyards he has fashioned a second, and apparently successful, career.”
“极端主义行动中的叛徒如果有了新的化身，也很难被人喜爱：他们的辩解空洞无力，他们要求同情的呼声听上去似乎只是牢骚而已，”布朗米勒写道，“为了调和这个固有的问题，布兰登把自己的客观主义修辞替换成大堆加利福尼亚人类潜能运动中的心理学呓语，在该运动的治疗场所中，他为自己重塑了事业第二春，显然还很成功。”
Nathan Blumenthal was born on April 9, 1930, in Brampton, Ontario, and grew up in Toronto. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles, before following Ms. Rand to New York, where he earned a master’s degree at New York University. He later received a doctorate from the California Graduate Institute, where he also taught.
内森·布卢门撒尔于1930年4月9日出生于安大略省的布兰普敦，在多伦多长大。他曾在洛杉矶的加利福尼亚大学就读，后追随兰德来到纽约，在纽约大学获得硕士学位。后来他在加利福尼亚研究生院获得博士学位，并在那里任教。
His wife, Laurie, also known as Leigh, whom he married in 2006, said the cause of his death was complications of Parkinson’s disease. His survivors also include a sister, Elayne Kalberman. Barbara Branden died in 2013. Among Mr. Branden’s many other books are “The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem” (1994), “Taking Responsibility” (1996) and “The Art of Living Consciously” (1997).
他于2006年再次结婚，妻子劳里(Laurie)又名利(Leigh)，她宣布他的死因是帕金森症引发的并发症。他的姊妹伊雷恩·考博曼(Elayne Kalberman)尚在人世。芭芭拉·布兰登于2013年逝世。纳撒尼尔·布兰登生前有很多著作，包括《自尊的六大支柱》(The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem,1994)、《承担责任》(Taking Responsibility, 1996)和《好奇生活的艺术》(The Art of Living Consciously, 1997)。