A Genius Who Fled from Fame: The Sad Story of Child Prodigy William Sidis

William James Sidis is a name that once made headlines. He was called the greatest child prodigy of the 20th century: he began reading at age 2, wrote treatises at 4, entered Harvard at 11, and by age 16 knew more than 40 languages and dialects. His brilliant mind delighted scientists, journalists, and educators. But contrary to expectations, he did not become a modern Newton – he disappeared from view, choosing a secluded and unremarkable life.

William was born on April 1, 1898, in New York City to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. His father, Boris Sidis, fled political persecution in Tsarist Russia and became a renowned psychologist and Harvard professor. His mother, Sarah, graduated from medical school, which was rare for women at the time. Both parents believed in the power of education and began developing their son from infancy. William became the subject of their parents' experiments.

The boy was taught to write and read as soon as he started talking. At 1.5 years old, the little boy had already mastered The New York Times. By the age of 5, he knew the train schedule by heart. When he turned 6, his parents took him to a regular school in Brooklyn. In six months, William completed the seven-year program of study, which attracted the attention of major Boston publications. At 8, while his peers were just learning to sit at school, Sidis spoke eight languages, including Latin. And at 9, he created his own logarithmic number system with a base of 12.

The parents were proud of their unique child and called him "living proof" of the power of a scientific approach to education. William became a celebrity, and journalists presented him as a person who could change the world with his discoveries in the future. But there was a flip side to this coin. William did not know a normal childhood - games with friends, carefree walks. His life was subordinated to his studies, and his father sometimes used hypnosis to speed up his learning. Journalists followed every step of the child prodigy, and this pressure became unbearable for him.

In 1907, at the age of 9, William tried to enroll at Harvard. The university rejected the application, citing the candidate’s “emotional immaturity.” Two years later, at the age of 11, he finally became a student and the youngest in the history of the university. In 1910, Sidis gave a two-hour lecture on four-dimensional space to the scientists of the Harvard Mathematical Club. The audience greeted him with a standing ovation, and newspapers vied with each other to write about the “brilliant boy.”

Professors and journalists were amazed by William's abilities, but other students kept their distance from him. Many saw him as a strange freak, obsessed with science and immersed in his own world. Sidis was not interested in sports or socializing with his peers at all - he always preferred solitude. The constant attention of the press did not go to waste either: at the age of 12, the boy suffered a nervous breakdown and ended up in a sanatorium. When he returned to Harvard, he became even more withdrawn and depressed. He no longer gave lectures, and close contact with people now only caused him discomfort.

At the age of 16, William Sidis completed his studies at the university. After graduation, he announced to his parents that he intended to live independently - he wanted privacy. During an interview for the Boston Herald, a reporter asked 16-year-old Sidis about his sex life. The sensation that the child prodigy had taken a vow of celibacy made it into The New York Times. After that, all of America mocked Sidis's personal life.

At the age of 17, the young man began teaching mathematics at Rayas University. But this work was difficult for him. Despite his outstanding intellect and brilliant knowledge, William was not at all ready for an independent life. Students who were older than him constantly made fun of the young teacher. The situation was aggravated by female students - they liked to embarrass William, pretending to be in love with him. As a result, having worked for only 8 months, Sidis left the university. After that, he decided to continue his education and entered Harvard Law School, but dropped out in his third year.

William never managed to find the solitude he desired. Wherever he went, he was followed by journalists and random passers-by, eager to learn more about the child prodigy. When asked about his plans for the future, Sidis always gave the same answer:

Despite his lifestyle, William Sidis was interested in politics, was a socialist and took part in anti-war actions. In 1919, when fears of the red threat began to grow in the United States, William was arrested for participating in a demonstration in which he carried a red flag. The young man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for inciting a riot. The genius's father had to use his serious connections and make a deal with the investigation to free his son. As a result, instead of imprisonment, William spent about a year in a private psychiatric clinic.

Although Sidis firmly rejected the idea of marriage, he fell in unrequited love with a girl named Martha Foley. She was a young Irish woman and an active participant in the anti-war movement. William met her at a political rally. Although they never got together, he kept her photograph in his pocket for the rest of his life.

In the early 1920s, William Sidis became disillusioned with his scientific career and politics. The child prodigy began working in various companies as an ordinary clerk. To avoid annoying attention, he took a job under a false name. Among his professions were a calculating machine operator and a factory manager.

Despite his attempts to hide, sooner or later the child prodigy was recognized, and Sidis had to find a new place. For example, in 1924, a reporter for The New York Herald Tribune spotted him in an office on Wall Street. “The Child Prodigy of 1909 Now Works as an Adding Machine Operator for $23 a Week,” the newspapers wrote, hinting at the inglorious fading of his talents.

After that, the “smartest man in the world” managed to hide from journalists for more than ten years. He lived quietly and comfortably, avoiding everyone’s attention, and in his free time he wrote novels and scientific articles on various topics – from biology to history. In 1925, he published the book “The Animate and the Inanimate”, which, however, went unnoticed. Sidis’s main hobbies were collecting tram tickets and studying the life of one of the Native American tribes. He reacted extremely irritably to any questions about his brilliant past. When his father died in 1923, William did not even attend the funeral, because he blamed him for his tragic fate.

In 1937, the wall of anonymity that Sidis had so carefully built around himself came crashing down. He made a rash move, giving an interview to a friend that became the basis for a piece in the New Yorker. As part of a series called “Where Are They Now?” devoted to forgotten celebrities, he was described in an extremely unflattering way: “a heavyset man with a protruding jaw, a rather thick neck, and a reddish mustache.” The authors emphasized his awkwardness, his childish carelessness about responsibility, and his difficulty finding the right words to express his thoughts.

Deeply hurt by the offensive description, Sidis filed a lawsuit against the New Yorker, alleging invasion of privacy. However, the court ruled that he was still considered a public figure, meaning his failures and mistakes remained a matter of public interest.

By the 1940s, William's health had deteriorated. He suffered from excess weight, high blood pressure, and the effects of stress. In July 1944, his landlady found Sidis unconscious in his rented Boston dorm room. William Sidis died in 1944 from a cerebral hemorrhage. He was only 46 years old.

Alone and penniless, he passed away without realizing his potential. The world expected great discoveries from him, but William chose anonymity and peace. Perhaps it was his last act of rebellion against the system that turned his childhood into a public spectacle.

Scientists and psychologists still argue: was he, like many other child prodigies, a victim of parental ambitions and broken hopes or a person who consciously chose solitude? His story is not just a biography, but a reason to think about the price of genius, freedom of choice and what is considered success in our society.

Can William Sidis' life be considered a failure - or, on the contrary, was it a conscious choice of a genius who did not want to live according to someone else's scenarios? Share your opinion in the comments.