Larry Gowdy

Today there exist numerous myths about intellectual prodigies. The myths' errors are easily recognized, but the question is raised of how the myths originated. This e-book uses the child prodigy William Sidis story as an example of how some biographies have relied heavily on popular opinion, personal bias, imagination, and little or no evidence. The biographies' misinterpretations have been directly responsible for many negative myths about William Sidis and prodigies in general. The cause of the errors did not originate from any single author or from any one particular source, but rather the misinterpretations were the result of numerous simultaneous influences. Psychology and philosophy were two of the primary influences that existed prior to William Sidis' birth, and it was from those two influences that the general public's world-view about prodigious talents was already formed. Two additional influences were non-prodigy interpretations and the lack of evidence. The result was that for over half a century biographers belittled child prodigy William Sidis as a burned-out failure, a "woeful specimen of misspent brilliance".
Contents
Abstract
Overview
A Brief Chronological Overview – The Primary Underlying Influences
Underlying Concepts about Intelligence
Newspaper Articles
Bending the Twig
The Sidis Story
Ex-Prodigy – My Childhood and Youth
The Broken Twig
Source of Sources – Dan Mahony, M.Phil.
The Prodigy
The Outsiders
Opinion
The e-book includes 90 endnotes with references.

(abbreviated) "[Myths] ...is an important work and contribution to intellectual history and should be presented to the public. ...the literature review is the strongest, but the intro paragraphs do a great job of outlining the significance and importance of Sidis. [It should be] visible and available for comment and review.

- C.L., Ph.D. (American History)