The Prodigy

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

By: Amy Wallace

Narrated by: Aze Fellner

William Sidis, 1897-1944, was the world's greatest child prodigy. His IQ was an estiamted 50 to 100 points higher than Einstein's, the highest ever recorded or estimated. His father, a pioneer in the field of abnormal psychology, believed that he and his wife could create a genius in the cradle. They hung alphabet blocks over the baby's crib-and within six months little Billy was speaking. At 18 months he was reading The New York Times; at three, Homer in the original Greek. At six he spoke at least seven languages.

Told with flair and insight ... this is his story.

©1986, 2011 Amy Wallace (P)2011 David N. Wilson

good listen

very interesting story . a story of a child prodigy brought down by media. it

Well written...

...but repetitive in places. It was clear to me that WJ Sidis was a genius, but also had a high functioning form of Autism. This book would have better served to have at least included this as a possibility, especially in the epilogue when the author explored the real reasons for his misunderstood life. It would have been interesting had he been born into today's world. The unfortunate thing would have been in today's nationalism and prejudice, he may have been treated much the same way. Today too is the tendency for a conservative nationalistic trend to denigrate intellectualism, just as Billy experienced in his time. He would have been a great person to know.

Great Book about a sad loss.

This was a great book about a sad loss of human potential and societies insecurities and prejudices.

Great book

Great book of a personal hero I love the story and the deep of the information

Intriguing

A really interesting story about a man who could have been so much more if only the media and others let him be.