William James Sidis (April 1, 1898 – July 17, 1944) was an American child prodigy with exceptional mathematical and linguistic abilities. He initially became famous for his precociousness, and later for his eccentricity and withdrawal from the public eye. He avoided mathematics entirely in later life, writing on various other subjects under a number of different pseudonyms. April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... A child prodigy is someone who is a master of one or more skills or arts at an early age. ... In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. ...

April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... NY redirects here. ... July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ...

Biography

Parents and upbringing (1898-1909)

William James Sidis was born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, Boris Sidis, Ph.D., M.D. and Sarah Mandelbaum Sidis, M.D. on April 1, 1898 in New York City. Boris emigrated in 1887 to escape political persecution, while Sarah's family fled the pogroms about 1889. Boris attended Harvard University where he earned his Ph.D. and M.D. He taught psychology at Harvard, worked as a psychiatrist, published numerous books and articles, and performed pioneering work in psychopathology. Boris was a polyglot and his son William would become one too at a young age. Sarah attended Boston University and graduated from its School of Medicine in 1897.[1] William was named after his godfather, Boris's friend and colleague, William James. The vast territories of the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest Jewish population in the world. ... Immigration is the act of moving to or settling in another country or region, temporarily or permanently. ... Boris Sidis (October 12, 1867 - October 24, 1923). ... April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ... Pogrom (from Russian: ; from громить IPA: - to wreak havoc, to demolish violently) is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious or other, and characterized by destruction of their homes, businesses and religious centers. ... Year 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) , is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. One of the eight Ivies, it was founded in 1636. ... Psychology is an academic or applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes such as perception, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. ... Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that studies and treats mental and emotional disorders (see mental illness). ... Psychopathology is a term which refers to either the study of mental illness or mental distress the manifestation of behaviours and experiences which may be indicative of mental illness or psychological impairment. ... This does not cite its references or sources. ... For other people named William James see William James (disambiguation) William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher. ...

Instead of the disciplinary punishment so common to education, Sidis's parents believed in nurturing a precocious and fearless love of knowledge, an unusual idea in the early 20th century, for which they received much criticism. Nevertheless, young Sidis could read the New York Times at 18 months, taught himself eight languages (Latin, Greek, French, Russian, German, Hebrew, Turkish, and Armenian) by age eight and invented another, Vendergood. Look up Punishment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... The word Hebrew most likely means to cross over, referring to the Semitic people crossing over the Euphrates River. ... Vendergood was a constructed language, the invention of the eccentric prodigy William James Sidis. ...

Harvard and college life (1909-1915)

Although the university had previously refused to let his father enroll him at age nine because he was still a child, in 1909, Sidis set a record by becoming the youngest person ever to enroll at Harvard College at age 11, as part of a program to enroll gifted students early. The experimental group included Norbert Wiener (the father of cybernetics), Richard Buckminster Fuller, and composer Roger Sessions. In early 1910 at age 11, he mastered higher mathematics to the point that he lectured the Harvard Mathematical Club on four-dimensional bodies, prompting MIT professor Daniel F. Comstock to predict that Sidis would become a great mathematician and a leader in that science in the future.[2] Sidis began taking a full-time course load in 1910 and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, on June 18, 1914, at age 16.[3] Harvard Yard Harvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, having been founded in 1636. ... Norbert Wiener Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 - March 18, 1964) was a U.S. mathematician and applied mathematician, especially in the field of electronics engineering. ... Cybernetics is the study of communication and control, typically involving regulatory feedback in living organisms, machines and organisations, as well as their combinations. ... Richard Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller (July 12[1], 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American visionary, designer, architect, poet, author, and inventor. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... Roger Sessions (28 December 1896 – 16 March 1985) was an American composer, critic and teacher of music. ... Cube with fourth-dimensional directions (ana/kata) creating a hypercube. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private, coeducational research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Bachelor of Arts (B.A., BA or A.B.), from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus is an undergraduate bachelors degree awarded for either a course or a program in the liberal arts or the sciences, or both. ... Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. ... June 18 is the 169th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (170th in leap years), with 196 days remaining. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Shortly after graduation, he told reporters that he wanted to live the perfect life, which to him meant living it in seclusion. He granted an interview to a reporter from the Boston Herald, which published his vows to remain celibate and to never marry, and a statement that women do not appeal to him (although he later developed a strong affection for a young woman named Martha Foley[4]). He later enrolled at Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Teaching and further education (1915-1919)

After a gang of Harvard students threatened to beat him up, his parents secured a job for him at Rice Institute (now Rice University) in Houston, Texas as a teaching assistant of mathematics. He arrived at Rice in December 1915 at age 17. He was a Graduate Fellow working towards his doctorate. Lovett Hall William Marsh Rice University, commonly called Rice University and opened in 1912 as The William Marsh Rice Institute for the Advancement of Letters, Science and Art, is a private, comprehensive research university located in Houston, Texas near the Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. ...

Sidis taught three classes, Euclidean geometry, non-Euclidean geometry, and trigonometry (he wrote a textbook for the Euclidean geometry course in Greek). After less than a year, frustrated with the department, his teaching requirements, and his treatment by students older than himself, Sidis left his post and returned to New England. When a friend later asked him why he had left, he replied, "I never knew why they gave me the job in the first place--I'm not much of a teacher. I didn't leave--I was asked to go." (Ref. 1) Sidis abandoned his pursuit of a graduate degree in mathematics and enrolled at the Harvard Law School in September of 1916 but withdrew in good standing in March of 1919 in his final year.[5] This article is about the region in the United States of America. ... Harvard Law School (HLS) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. ...

--possibility inaccurate... see Information Privacy Law by Solove, Rotenberg and Schwartz and published by Aspen Publishing, when looking at Sidis v. F-R Publishing Corp. 113 F2d 806 (2d Cir. 1940) ...pg 3.. this case book states that he graduated law school and taught at the University of Texas afterwards.

Politics and arrest (1919-1921)

In 1919, shortly after his withdrawal from law school, Sidis was arrested for participating in a socialist May Day parade in Boston that turned into a mêlée and was sentenced to 18 months in prison under the Sedition Act of 1918 for rioting and assault. Sidis's arrest featured prominently in newspapers, as his early graduation from Harvard had garnered considerable local celebrity; during the trial, Sidis stated that he had been a conscientious objector of the World War I draft, did not believe in a god, and that he was a socialist (though he later favored a quasi-libertarian system that he invented).[6] His father made an arrangement with the district attorney to keep him out of prison before his appeal came to trial; his parents, instead, held him in their sanitarium in New Hampshire for a year, then took him to California where he spent another year.[7] While at the sanitarium, his parents set about "reforming" him and threatened him with transfer to an insane asylum.[8][9] Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Bold !!! This article is about the holidays celebrated on 1 May. ... The Sedition Act of 1918 was an amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917 passed at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, who was concerned any widespread dissent in time of war constituted a real threat to an American victory. ... John T. Neufeld was a WWI conscientious objector sentenced to 15 years hard labour in the military prison at Leavenworth. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nikolay II Aleksey Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert H. Asquith D. Lloyd George Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ... See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ...

After escaping back to the East Coast in 1921, Sidis was determined to live an independent and private life and would only take work running adding machines or other fairly menial tasks. It took a number of years before he was cleared to be in Massachusetts again and he remained concerned of possible arrest for years.[10] He devoted himself to his hobby of collecting streetcar transfers, published periodicals, and taught small circles of interested friends his version of American history. Regional definitions vary from source to source. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ... This article is about the magazine as a published medium. ...

Later life and remembrances (1921-1944)

In 1944, Sidis won a settlement from The New Yorker for publishing an article about him in 1937, which he alleged contained many false statements.[11] He lost an appeal of an invasion of privacy lawsuit at the U.S. Supreme Court in 1940 over the same article; lower courts had dismissed Sidis as a public figure with no right to challenge personal publicity. 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry and fiction. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties Libertarian Party State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest judicial body...

Sidis died of a cerebral hemorrhage on July 17, 1944, at age 46 in Boston, Massachusetts[12]; his father had died from the same malady in 1923 at age 56. A cerebral hemorrhage is a bleed into the substance of the cerebrum. ... July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ...

Abraham Sperling, Ph.D., director of New York City's Aptitude Testing Institute, said after Sidis' death that according to his computations, he "easily had an IQ between 250 and 300" * and that there was no evidence that his intellect had declined in adulthood.[13][14] (His father once dismissed tests of intelligence as "silly, pedantic, absurd, and grossly misleading." [15])

* Probably referring to ratio IQ.[16] IQ tests are designed to give approximately this Gaussian distribution. ...

Publications and subjects of research

Aside from mathematics, subjects on which Sidis wrote or lectured included cosmology, psychology, and Native American history. Some of his ideas concerned cosmological reversibility, social continuity and libertarian rights. Physical cosmology, as a branch of astrophysics, is the study of the large-scale structure of the universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its formation and evolution. ... Psychology is an academic or applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes such as perception, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. ... A Hupa man. ... In thermodynamics, a reversible process (or reversible cycle if the process is cyclic) is a process that can be reversed by means of infinitesimal changes in some property of the system. ... See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ...

In The Animate and the Inanimate (1925), Sidis predicted the existence of regions of space where the second law of thermodynamics operated in reverse to the temporal direction that we experience in our local area. Everything outside of what we would today call a galaxy would be such a region. Sidis claimed that the matter in this region would not generate light. (These dark areas of the universe are not properly dark matter or black holes as they are used in contemporary cosmology.) This work on cosmology, based on his theory of reversibility of the second law of thermodynamics was the only book published under his name.[17] The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy. ... NGC 4414, a typical spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices, is about 17,000 parsecs in diameter and approximately 20 million parsecs distant. ... In astrophysics and cosmology, dark matter is matter, not directly observed and of unknown composition, that does not emit or reflect enough electromagnetic radiation to be detected directly, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter. ... For other senses of this word, see black hole (disambiguation). ...

Sidis' The Tribes and the States (ca. 1935) employs the pseudonym "John W. Shattuck," giving a 100,000-year history of North America's inhabitants, from prehistoric times to 1828.[18] In this text, he suggests that "there were red men at one time in Europe as well as in America." A pseudonym (Greek pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons true name. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Prehistoric man. ... 1828 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Sidis was also a "peridromophile," a term he coined for people fascinated with transportation research and streetcar systems. He wrote a treatise on streetcar transfers under the pseudonym of "Frank Folupa" that identified means of increasing public transport usage only now gaining general acceptance.[19] Railfans practicing their hobby at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. ... a historic postcard showing electric trolley-powered streetcars in Richmond, Virginia, where Frank J. Sprague successfully demonstrated his new system on the hills in 1888 A streetcar is a railway vehicle designed to carry passengers on tracks, usually laid in city streets. ...

In 1930, Sidis was awarded a patent for a rotary perpetual calendar that took into account leap years.[20] Also, in his adult years, it was estimated that he could speak more than forty languages^{[citation needed]}. Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ... A perpetual calendar is a calendar which is good for a span of many years, such as the Runic calendar. ...

Use as an example in educational discussions

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 topic of 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 as adults - in either material or creative terms. Gifted education is a broad term for special practices, procedures and theories used in the education of children who have been identified as gifted or talented. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Gifted education. ...

Many of these depictions rely on Sidis' negative image in the press of the day, which refused to acknowledge that Sidis' intellect could be attributed to anything but monotonous cramming — precisely what his parents argued against. In fact, his mother later noted that newspaper accounts of her son had little or nothing in common with William himself. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

See also

• Child prodigy
• Intelligence quotient

A child prodigy is someone who is a master of one or more skills or arts at an early age. ... IQ tests are designed to give approximately this Gaussian distribution. ...

References

1. Wallace, Amy, The Prodigy: A biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. 1986. ISBN 0-525-24404-2

• A review of "The Prodigy" by Martha Brassil
• Book review by Robert N. Seitz, Ph.D.

External links

• "Sidis Archives" website
  • Frequently Asked Questions
• Details and outline of his life
• The Rise and Fall of William J. Sidis - a brief biography
• The Newsletter of the Rice (University) Historical Society
• "Apologia Pro Sua Vita", 1924 article from Harvard newspaper
• Family Biographies by Sarah Sidis