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The Prodigy: A Biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy

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I'm doing research on child prodigies for my newest book. The whole area of intellegence has always intrigued me, so this is painless research. More than that, this book, and the man it's about, William Sidis, is fascinating. And heartbreaking.

According to this book, William Sidis' IQ was estimated at 300. He was simply brilliant, going through gradeschool in three months and high school in 6 weeks. He took the entrance exam to Harvard at age nine and passed, but wasn't allowed entrance until age 11. And because of his gift he was hounded & ridiculed by the media from a young age until he basically went underground as an adult, hiding his genuis. It's very sad and will make you ashamed of what we sometimes do to one another. In this case, a great intellect and all his possible achievements were lost.

A fascinating, fascinating book.

William James Sidis (1898-1944) was born to a psychologist with some unorthodox ideas about child rearing, attended Harvard at an absurdly young age, burned out at 14, and spent most of the rest of his life working menial jobs and living in poverty. Dubbed a ``failed prodigy'' by the popular press, he lived out his years as an eccentric and a recluse.

Wallace's book, the only biography of this most enigmatic of prodigies, gives us a balanced look at Sidis' up-bringing and a somewhat revisionist look at his later life. Sidis apparently was hard at work on manuscripts of various sorts even during his later years; this book is to my knowledge the only one that gives an account of that later work, which dealt with American Indians.

There is no better source of information on Sidis and his tortured life. This biography is not an authoritative academic biography, and it does not claim to be. Rather, it is a fascinating popular account of an amazing and dramatic life.

_The Prodigy_ (1986, E. P. Dutton) by Amy Wallace is a biography of one of America's greatest child prodigies William James Sidis. This book traces the life of Sidis from his earliest infancy in which his amazing intellectual powers were revealed to his experience at Harvard and eventually his decline and later life. William James Sidis (1898 - 1944) was an American child prodigy who early on revealed uncanny mathematical and linguistic abilities. Sidis was the son of Boris Sidis and Sarah Mandelbaum, two Russian Jewish immigrants. Sidis was to reveal uncanny abilities at an early age and the influence of his psychiatrist father Boris Sidis was to play an important role in his development. Sidis revealed uncanny abilities in mathematics, linguistics, and other areas at a very early age and was thus to achieve widespread notoriety as a child prodigy. Sidis attended Harvard University where he taught advanced math courses and was widely regarded as supremely intelligent. Later Sidis was to teach at Rice University but in later life was to drop out of the educational establishment. Sidis became involved in politics and was to become an influential libertarian, socialist, and pacifist. Sidis also was to write several prominent books and articles including theories regarding cosmology, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and black holes, American Indian history, and an obscure work on the collection of street car transfers. While Sidis later life was to prove disappointing in terms of his early abilities, he remained a notorious figure and was frequently hounded by women and in the press. The life of Sidis raises issues concerning how prodigies are treated by mainstream society and the role of gifted education. The failure of Sidis asks important questions regarding the failure of many prodigies, although the author maintains that Sidis' life was not a failure by his own standards but rather it became necessary for him to "go underground". The author estimates the I.Q. of Sidis at between 250 and 300 based on his mathematical abilities.

The book includes the following chapters -

The Little Father - explains the early life of Boris Sidis, the father of William James Sidis, and a Ukrainian immigrant to America. Boris Sidis was to attend Harvard where he achieved notoriety in the fields of psychiatry and psychology and was influential in the circle around Josiah Royce, William James, and other famous thinkers. Sarah Mandelbaum was born in Russia and immigrated to America where she met Boris Sidis and was tutored by him. She was to go on to become a medical doctor, though she was never to use her M.D. degree. She became the mother of William James Sidis.

April Fool - describes the birth of William James "Billy" Sidis on April 1, 1898 noting his early uncanny genius and abilities. The author notes the early accomplishments of the infant Sidis in speaking and reading as well as his early education under his father psychiatrist Boris Sidis.

The Little Professor - explains Sidis schooling and his excellent performance in subjects such as mathematics, astronomy, languages, anatomy, map and calendar making, and grammar at the very early age of eight. Notes Sidis uncanny abilities in particular in mathematics and languages and his renown as a "little professor".

Sidis an Avatar? - explains Sidis attendance at Harvard University along with two other prodigies the mathematician Nobert Weiner and the statesman Adolf Berle. Notes the problematic relationships Sidis had at Harvard due to his young age. Explains Sidis astounding performance in a lecture he gave on four-dimensional mathematics. Compares Sidis to other prodigies such as Gauss and John Stuart Mill and notes their accomplishments.

Utopian Dreams - explains the fact that the press was to hound the child prodigy Sidis and when he became sick maintained that he had suffered a breakdown. This hounding of Sidis was to occur for the rest of his life. Considers Sidis' grades at Harvard as well as his early political writings concerning a utopia which he referred to as "Hesperia" and the role of the Constitution in Sidis' political theories. Notes the fact that Sidis was opposed to art and swore never to marry at an early age.

Portsmouth - considers Boris Sidis' researches into Abnormal Psychology and the Sidis Psychopathic Institute. Notes the role of the Sidis family in Portsmouth, New Hampshire as well as the relationship of the family to William James and other important Harvard professors and personalities.

The Perfect Life - explains the problematic relationship of Sidis to women and his vow never to marry. Notes some of the comments made by Sidis on Harvard's anti-Semitism, unconscious intelligence (his dabblings in his father's field of psychology), education, eugenics, and the family.

Rice - explains the experiences of Sidis at Rice and various proposals made there for marriage. Notes Sidis accomplishments but also his difficulties at Rice and notes his early involvement in radicalism and socialism.

Too Radical for the Radicals - explains how Sidis was ridiculed in the press and his relationships with women were brought to public attention; notes Sidis continuing involvement in radical politics at the time of the Russian Revolution. Notes the role of socialism in the political understanding of Sidis and his identification as a radical by the authorities.

May Day - explains Sidis' first job at MIT and his involvement in the May Day riots and his support for Russian radialism. Explains Sidis difficulties with the authorities, his atheism, and support for the Soviet system.

Rebellion, Romance, and Reversibility - explains Sidis' rebellion against his family, his romances, his involvement with radicalism and the American Communist Party, and his writings on cosmology. In particular, Sidis was to write on cosmology in his book _The Animate and the Inanimate_ (1925) which considers theories of the Big Bang and the "Great Collision", noted the role of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and "Fermi's paradox", and explained various issues surrounding black holes. This book was highly praised by Sidis' Harvard classmates Buckminster Fuller and Norbert Wiener.

In Search of Solitude - explains Sidis search for solitude from the prying eyes of the press explaining why he left academic life and his taking up as a clerk running a comptometer, his rebellion against his father, his relationship with Martha Foley, and relates his own experiences to those of another child prodigy John Stuart Mill.

The Peridromophile - explains how Sidis took up the eccentric hobby of collecting street car transfers ultimately writing an obscure book on the topic entitled _Notes on the Collection of Transfers_ (1926). Sidis was to form _The Peridromophile_, a magazine devoted to this hobby and further engaged in radical politics.

The Double Life - explains Sidis further dedication to this hobby and his double life as an operator of the comptometer. Sidis was to attempt to avoid the press who hounded him repeatedly because of his earlier life as a child prodigy.

The Tribes and the States - notes Sidis' involvement with the American Indians and his writings in _The Tribes and the States_ which attempted to discuss American prehistory. Here, Sidis tried to show the influence of the American Indians on the American Founders and their understanding of liberty (which differed from Sidis' earlier political musings about "Hesperia"). Sidis also was to comment on issues of equality, liberty, money, and democracy in these volumes and to support the American Indian involvement in early American history.

Friends and Relatives - notes the role of some of Sidis' friends and relatives and their discussion and relationships including discussion of the ideas in _The Animate and the Inanimate_. This also explains Sidis attempt to lead a quiet life at his job free from the press.

Invasion of Privacy - notes the role of the press in once again invading the privacy of Sidis when his life and job were revealed to the public and his life came under assault from the press who hounded him.

The Pacifist and the Transfer Wars - explains Sidis' support for pacifism during the Second World War and some of the conflicts that developed as a result of this pacifism and support for radical politics.

"America's Greatest Brain" - explains what happened to Sidis after Boris' death and his troubled relationship with Sarah his mother. Notes how new difficulties arose for Sidis in light of his pacifism during the First and Second World Wars which was considered radically un-American. Notes how the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover was to investigate Sidis' "Peridromophilists" and consider them a radical organization. Explains the reaction of Sidis' friends to the press and their attempts to set the record straight about Sidis.

A Superior Spirit - describes Sidis death and the reaction of his various friends and relatives and their support for his memory. Notes the role of "child prodigies" and "child geniuses" in the history of the United States and the reaction of individuals such as Norbert Wiener to that notion. Explains how the treatment of child prodigies and the gifted resulted in unhappiness for Sidis.

Epilogue - argues that William James Sidis did not burn out or decline as was argued but simply was forced to go underground (the author quotes Ayn Rand's novel _Atlas Shrugged_ to show how frequently the man of genius was forced to go underground in the light of a totalitarian society). The author argues that Sidis had an I.Q. estimated between 250 and 300 putting him easily amongst the world's highest I.Q.s ever recorded. The author considers some of the achievements of Sidis and his early talents relating this to Boris and Sarah's child rearing methods. The author shows some of the problems for gifted education and reflects on comments made by Norbert Wiener concerning gifted education and the Quiz Kids. Explains how gifted children must be allowed to grow up in a world supportive of their talents and that does not shun their oddities.

This book offers an interesting biography of a forgotten genius William James Sidis. Sidis was a brilliant child prodigy who excelled in both mathematics and linguistics but was later to leave these fields to pursue menial labor. Sidis was involved in radical politics and had many eccentric ideas concerning politics, the American Indians, cosmology, and other topics as well as the eccentric hobby of collecting street car transfers. This book provides an interesting study of Sidis and demonstrates some of the difficulties and cruelties inflicted upon him by an intolerant society.

I no longer believe the stories of Sidis's precocity are true, much as I wish they were. He was an intelligent child, to be sure, but the important claims have little to support them. Some of the claims, such as his sister's declaration that he knew all the languages in the world, are clearly absurd. But even those which might just barely be true turn out to have only his parents as witnesses or are second- or thirdhand reports. Even the positive comments by the credible Norbert Wiener about Sidis's lecture on 4-dimensional bodies at Conant Hall are equivocal upon examination.

Ms Wallace records the reports accurately but not skeptically. She wants to believe. So did I, which is perhaps why I am a bit harsh with her.

This is the second time that I've been drawn to this unique book. Having just enough in common with Billy Sidis (membership in two high IQ societies and extreme introversion) I can recognise the "ring of truth" to this account. I know from first hand experience how this society, especially the public schools, go out of their way to haze and torture the gifted and the "different"- no matter how hard one tries to keep a low profile. Indeed, Sidis's motto, "The only perfect life is one lived in seclusion" is also my own, learned from hard experience.

As for William James Sidis himself, here was a person who lectured on 4th dimensional mathematics at Harvard at the age of 11. It was said that he probably spoke every language of mankind- and actually invented entirely new languages of his own. He wrote the first book on cosmology that ever theorised the existence of black holes. He was the first to see the correlation of the 11 year sunspot cycle on both climate and human behavior. He wrote some of the first "alternative histories" of the United States (rejecting official proganda.) He had absolute contempt for capitalism and corporations (he seems to have been incapable of telling lies or exploiting other people.) He recognised the fundamental contribution of Native Americans to mainstream American culture long before anyone else. He was absolutely convinced not only that extraterestrial intelligence existed, but that it had to exist. He wrote seriously of Atlantis while "serious" scholars scoffed at the idea. He totally rejected formal theology and religion- while having no doubt that a higher power existed...

One of the chapters of this book is entitled "Sidis an Avatar?" While William Sidis himself would have automatically and violently rejected such a claim, I personally wonder if it might have not been close to the truth....

THE PRODIGY by Amy Wallace is the only comprehensive biography of that strange, little-known genius William Sidis. It is a recorded fact that Sidis had the highest I.Q. on record - indeed, an inhumanly high I.Q. that is the highest proposed, which Wallace says has been estimated at near 300. The normal I.Q. is about 110; genius level starts at 120.

Sidis was the son of Boris Sidis, a psychologist and educator who believed parents could "manufacture" genius children if only they tortured them in the right ways. This is now famously disproved and is called "The Sidis Fallacy". The tragedy is Bill Sidis' life was ruined by his well-meaning but half-crazy parents, who shoehorned him into Harvard when he was 13. There he met another prodigy, 16-year-old mathematician Norbert Wiener.

Sidis and Wiener did not become friends, but Sidis inspired Wiener to write that teachers must take care because they literally have the power of life and death over their students. Sidis' father died young, and Sidis was so traumatized he refused to have anything further to do with his harpie of a mother. She in turn maliciously pretended that Sidis had died at age 18.

Wallace is a competent, passionate biographer - though she strays into the British biography style too much for my taste. The padding here can be tiresome, but the details and answers to some mysteries in Sidis' life are exquisite. From his early years as a Socialist to his early demise aged 45 from obesity and heart trouble, Wallace gives a glimpse of a man famous for a Supreme Court case about civil rights ...

... Sidis was a fascist to some degree, yet he had a superior grasp of left-wing politics and was a card-carrying Socialist. At times his social solutions were more reminiscent of Nazism, but he bridled when he was imprisoned for marching in a Socialist demonstration. The charge was carrying the Socialist flag. Later, Sidis simply said, "All that ... over a piece of red silk!!"

It is known that Sidis suffered from mild autism, and the life of a child prodigy scarred him deeply. He could barely dress himself appropriately and had zero sense of hygiene. Even his obsession for subway transfers exploded in his face. He founded the original society of transfer collectors, wrote a book on the subject, and the society turned first on itself, then on Sidis. He never could escape the terrors that humans inflict on one another. Sidis often said, "The perfect life would be a life without people."

Read this terrific and unique biography, and find out why.

I loved this book. William James Sidis led an extraordinary life. The book also shows how the media has always wreaked havoc with innocent people's lives for profit only. They have no real desire for educating and informing the public. Their sole goal is sensationalization to sell papers et cetera. William James Sidis was indeed the world's greatest brain and I wish I had known him. Also some great Boston and other history.

This is definitely a good read.

Although I have just barely finished reading half of the book, I felt compelled to say something about it.

Sometimes it just pains my heart to see how the society, in a sense, failed the genius. It comes natural for "normal" people (people with such genes tend to have an edge in survival perspective in terms of natural selection) to deride and hurt (sometimes on purpose, sometimes unwittingly) a person who is superior in non-social matters but lacks adequate development in social matters. William James Sidis clearly fell victim in this category.

Also, this biography tells us that intelligence needs to be accompanied by wisdom to fulfill its due expectations.

Clearly W J Sidis is very intelligent (intelligent in some specific areas like maths and languages); but he does not seem to be very wise in a broader, higher sense; that is, his intelligence helps him see "trees" in a much clearer way than his fellow beings, but lack of wisdom fails him in seeing the "forest/wood", i.e. the BIG PICTURE. His own version of a constitution in a fictitious "perfect" (in his eyes) society (Hesperia), notwithstanding sophisticated in logical rules and bearing some other merits in terms of form, is naive and myopic in content.

In a way, he is very stubborn to have such notions as "The word art means very little to me" and "why will people waste so much energy on statuary, painting, drawing, etching and the like" (p. 109 of the book). Frankly, I fail to note similar traits in other accomplished prodigies like Stuart Mill, Wiener, Russell and Einstein. -- Lack of appreciation (and even contempt) for other forms of achievements in humanity will sooner or later limit a prodigy's success in one way or another because it denotes an unbalanced development among numerous dimensions of human nature.

As of the root of the Sidis "tragedy" (saying tragedy might be overstated), clearly the way his parents raised him contributed largely to the outcome. And the inappropriate amount of attention had been directed to him since his very early childhood, a fatal error in comparison to the shrewd way John Stuart Mill was brought up by his father...

I might have more to say when I finish the book.

I've read this book once and I always enjoy leafing through it. However, I am always saddened that so much that Mr. Sidis did was lost (for example his science fiction story). A group of us individuals have started compiling information on him and are in the process of getting his "The Animate and th Inanimate" online for all to peruse. One and all are invited to email to get more information. Good day. [Thanks also to the reviewer below for the recommendation for the book "Accidental Genius"]

You will become ga ga admiring the staggeringly stupendous intellect of super-precocious child prodigy William James Sidis in this excellent biography. He was an academic mega-genius whose social ineptitude in society is profoundly disturbing.

Sidis was named in honor of the famous Harvard University philosopher/psychologist William James. The last name of William James Sidis was a palindrome: it could be spelled the same forward as well as backwards. Similarly and ironically his mind was palindromic: in the realm of cerebralization and intellectual thought there may have been no greater a prodigious potential in the history of the world ( rivaling Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein, Plato, Socrates, etc. ). Tragically, the mind-boggling potential of Sidis was predominantly unfulfilled. Palindromic Sidis was a radical of socially aberrant behavior. He was a prodigy in reverse who revolted from the extravagant expectations thrust upon him. Consequently Sidis went from "great expectations" to "great expectorations". He was socially spit upon, chastised and shunned as an adult for his eccentrically bizarre behabior. He was the Ultima Thule of lost talent performing such menial jobs as being a janitor. He was a contradiction of intellectual and behavioral dyslexia. He was analogous to computer overload: akin to HAL in the classic sci-fi film "2001: A Space Odyssey": super spaced out and gone awry. When one is an extreme case of extreme cases they may very well beome a social basket case.

I can deeply empathize with William James Sidis because I have resided in the socially isolated stratosphere of extreme intellectual genius my entire life. I have been descibed as being "too brilliant for my own good". Intense social introversion and extreme hypersensitivity do not mutually commingle with the ultra-psychological stress imposed upon a genius when other individuals are too demanding, too scornful, too mocking and too unsympathetically impersonal.