William James Sidis

William James Sidis (April 1 1898–July 17 1944) was an eccentric genius and child prodigy, famous in the United States of America in the early 20th century but now virtually unknown.

Related Topics:
April 1 - 1898 - July 17 - 1944 - Eccentric - Genius - Child prodigy - United States of America - 20th century

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sidis was born to Jewish Russian immigrant parents, Boris Sidis and Sarah Sidis neé Mandelbaum. Boris emigrated in 1887 to escape political prosecution for breaking the Czarist laws against teaching peasants to read, while Sarah's family fled the pogroms about 1889. William's parents were considered geniuses in their own right. Boris Sidis taught psychology at Harvard University, treated patients as a psychologist and psychiatrist, and wrote many books. Sarah was a medical doctor who had received no formal education before medical school, except for tutoring by Boris. She gave up her own medical career to assist in William's education. William was named for a friend and colleague of Boris, William James.

Related Topics:
Jew - Russia - Immigrant - Boris Sidis - 1887 - Czarist - Peasants - Pogrom - 1889 - Genius - Psychology - Harvard University - Psychologist - Psychiatrist - Medical doctor - William James

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Billy's parents believed in nurturing a precocious and fearless love of knowledge, as opposed to disciplinary punishment, an outrageous idea in the early 20th century for which they received much criticism. However, consequently young William could read at 18 months (hyperlexia), taught himself Latin at 2, Greek at 3, had written a treatise on anatomy at 4, wrote four books and knew eight languages (English, Latin, Greek, Russian, Hebrew, French, German and Vendergood, his own invention) before his eighth birthday, and had given a lecture on four dimensional bodies to an entire auditorium of mathematicians at Harvard at the age of 11. He was said to eventually become the foremost mathematician of the 20th century. His IQ was estimated at between 250 and 300 by psychometrician Abraham Sterling, and he entered Harvard at the age of 11 as a special student in a program designed to enroll gifted young individuals early. The university had refused to let him apply at age eight. He was the youngest and most prominent of this amazing group of prodigies who studied at Harvard in 1909, which included Norbert Wiener, the father of cybernetics, Richard Buckminster Fuller and composer Roger Sessions.

Related Topics:
Punishment - Hyperlexia - Latin - Greek - Anatomy - Language - English - Russian - Hebrew - French - German - IQ - Psychometrician - 1909 - Norbert Wiener - Cybernetics - Richard Buckminster Fuller - Composer - Roger Sessions

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The difficulties Sidis and other exceptionally young students encountered in dealing with the social structures of a university setting at a very young age helped to shape opinion against allowing precocious children to advance too rapidly through higher education. The debate over gifted education continues today, and Sidis remains a part of the discussion. Cast in modern standards, scholars usually classify Sidis as a profoundly gifted individual, and some critics use Sidis as the most vivid example of how gifted youth often do not achieve corresponding success (defined in conventional terms) as adults. Sidis' experience and the popular perception of him may have influenced 20th-century artistic depictions of ennui-drenched young geniuses in works like J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey and Wes Anderson's film The Royal Tenenbaums. However, these depictions would have to rely on Sidis' negative image in the press which refused to acknowledge that Sidis' intellect could be attributed to anything but sacrificial monotonous cramming—exactly what his parents argued against (his mother once noted that the papers weren't writing about anyone she knew).

Related Topics:
Gifted education - Gifted - J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey - Wes Anderson - The Royal Tenenbaums - Press

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Several subjects on which Sidis wrote or lectured included cosmology, Native American history, and psychology. In "The Animate and the Inanimate" (1925), he eloquently and expertly predicted the existence of black holes. This work on cosmology, based on his theory of reversibility of the second law of thermodynamics was the only book published under his name. His 100,000-year history of North America, "The Tribes and the States" tells the story of America's inhabitants from prehistoric times until 1828, who ever they may have been. Sidis was a railfan or "peridromophile," a term he coined, who was fascinated with transportation research and streetcar systems. He wrote a treatise on streetcar transfers under the pseudonym of "Frank Falupa" that identified means of increasing transit ridership only now gaining general acceptance. In 1930, he was awarded a patent for a rotary perpetual calendar that took into account leap years. Also, in his adult years, he is estimated as capable of speaking more than forty languages.

Related Topics:
Cosmology - Native American - History - Black hole - Second law of thermodynamics - Prehistoric times - 1828 - Railfan - Transport - Streetcar - Pseudonym - 1930 - Perpetual calendar - Language

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1919, Sidis was arrested for participating in an anti-draft May Day parade (though initially a socialist, Sidis later favored Libertarianism, another term he may have coined) and sentenced to a year-and-a-half in jail for acting as a conscientious objector at a time when it was illegal to criticize the government. His parents used their influence to keep him out of prison but held him in their summer home in California instead for a year http://www.sidis.net/railroading.htm. After escaping back to the East Coast in 1921, Sidis was determined to live a private life and would only take work running calculating machines or other fairly menial tasks. He devoted himself to his hobby of collecting streetcar transfers, published periodicals, taught small circles of interested friends his version of American history, and, in his own way, never lost the fighting spirit for liberty. In 1944, Sidis won a small Supreme Court victory for his seven-year charges against The New Yorker for invasion of privacy; earlier courts had dismissed Sidis as a public figure with no right to challenge personal publicity.

Related Topics:
1919 - Draft - May Day - Socialist - Libertarianism - Jail - Conscientious objector - Illegal to criticize the government - California - East Coast - 1921 - Periodicals - 1944 - Supreme Court - The New Yorker

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sidis died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1944.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sidis' main ideas concerned cosmological reversibility, social continuity and Libertarian rights.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~