Was William James Sidis the Smartest Man on Earth?
Was William Sidis the smartest man on earth? The simple answer is I don't know and nobody ever can know. To date there still does not exist any substantiated evidence to support the claim that Sidis was the smartest man on earth, and without the evidence there can be no logical reason to entertain the idea. Nevertheless, there is evidence of how the myth was born and popularized.
In 1946, Abraham Sperling wrote “A Story of Genius”, an article that focused on the life of William Sidis.1 In the article Sperling stated: “Helena Sidis told me that a few years before his death, her brother Bill took an intelligence test with a psychologist. His score was the very highest that had ever been obtained. In terms of I.Q., the psychologist related that the figure would be between 250 and 300. Late in life William Sidis took general intelligence tests for Civil Service positions in New York and Boston. His phenomenal ratings are matter of record.”2 Sperling’s comments in the article appear to have predominately been based upon hearsay and popular beliefs of the time. Did the psychiatrist actually give an IQ test, or did the psychiatrist merely allude to Sidis’ civil service results as perhaps being the performance of an individual with an IQ of 250-300? Until the day that Sidis’ actual exam scores are made publicly available, it is not rational to form any belief about Sidis’ IQ that is based solely on Sperling’s comments.
Forty years later in 1986, Amy Wallace wrote the book The Prodigy: A Biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy.3 On page 283 of The Prodigy it is stated: “Said Sperling… “In recent years, I have tested more than five thousand people. Of all the mentally superior individuals that I have seen, nobody begins to approach the intellect and perspicacity of William Sidis. According to my computations, he easily had an IQ between 250 and 300. …I have never heard of the existence of anybody with such an IQ. I would honestly say that he was the most prodigious intellect of our entire generation.””4 Where or how did The Prodigy derive its version of Sperling's claim?
Sperling himself stated in 1946 that it was Helena that told him about the IQ score. According to The Prodigy, Sperling would have had to have given Sidis the IQ test before Sidis’ death in 1944. The two claims contradict, both appear to be based on hearsay, and neither claim can be accepted as evidence. If Sperling did give Sidis an IQ test, then why did Sperling not speak of it in A Story of Genius? If Sperling did not tell the truth about the test, then none of what he wrote can be trusted as factual, which also negates the 250-300 IQ claim for both Sperling and The Prodigy. If Sperling gave an accurate account of what he was told, then still his comments are invalid since they are based on hearsay.
Additional difficulties are found in how Helena Sidis was portrayed to have possibly had a tendency to exaggerate. William Sidis’ mother, Sarah Sidis, wrote in The Sidis Story: “He was not alone in this ability. Although his unleashed power enabled him to gain a workable knowledge of 25 languages, his father, Boris Sidis, was fluent in 50. After a little practice, either could master a new tongue within a week.”5 On page 182 of The Prodigy it is claimed: “…and given William’s near perfect command of hundreds of languages and dialects.”6 On page 126 of The Prodigy it is claimed: “William could learn a language in a day. According to Helena, “Billy knew all the languages in the world, while my father only knew twenty-seven. I wonder if there were any Billy didn’t know.””7 Sarah Sidis is known to have had a tendency to exaggerate stories about the Sidis family, and so The Sidis Story cannot be trusted as being an accurate source of information. The Prodigy voiced the improbable claim that William Sidis could learn a language in one day, and when combined with the high quantity of other errors throughout the book, The Prodigyitself is found to have exaggerated its claims about William Sidis. The subtitle of the book itself, A Biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy, is a sensationalized claim of a thing that is not supported by evidence. The claim of Helena Sidis’, that William Sidis knew all the languages of the world, is of course an incorrect claim since it is quite impossible for anyone to live long enough to learn all world languages. If the alleged quote of Helena Sidis’ was correctly quoted, and it was not another invention by The Prodigy, then Helena Sidis was prone to exaggerate, and if Helena Sidis was Sperling’s sole source of information about William Sidis’ IQ, then there is reason to question the veracity of Helena Sidis' claim.
A hand-written letter of August 4, 1933 by William Sidis stated that he had taken a civil service exam, that he passed the state clerical exam, and that he was number 254 on the list; “not so encouraging” he wrote.8 It is unknown if Sidis’ placement on a hiring list had any relevance to the IQ claim of 250-300, but if the letter is authentic, then the letter is evidence of Sidis having taken a civil service test as Sperling claimed in A Story of Genius. The question naturally rises, that if William Sidis took one or more civil service exams, and he was placed at 254 on one exam, and when combining the evidence of the letter with the possible evidence of Helena Sidis’ tendency to exaggerate, then it is necessary to speculate the possibility that Helena Sidis might have misunderstood what exams William Sidis took, or Helena Sidis may have purposefully twisted the job rank into being an IQ score. The simple fact is that no one can now know for sure what Helena Sidis was told or what she might have actually said. It is also possible, although probably not, that William Sidis did not tell the truth in the letter. Simply stated, there is no known verifiable evidence of William Sidis having had a 250-300 IQ. Until the day that William Sidis' IQ exam records are made public, the question will continue to ask what his rated IQ actually was.
In 1946, Abraham Sperling wrote “A Story of Genius”, an article that focused on the life of William Sidis.1 In the article Sperling stated: “Helena Sidis told me that a few years before his death, her brother Bill took an intelligence test with a psychologist. His score was the very highest that had ever been obtained. In terms of I.Q., the psychologist related that the figure would be between 250 and 300. Late in life William Sidis took general intelligence tests for Civil Service positions in New York and Boston. His phenomenal ratings are matter of record.”2 Sperling’s comments in the article appear to have predominately been based upon hearsay and popular beliefs of the time. Did the psychiatrist actually give an IQ test, or did the psychiatrist merely allude to Sidis’ civil service results as perhaps being the performance of an individual with an IQ of 250-300? Until the day that Sidis’ actual exam scores are made publicly available, it is not rational to form any belief about Sidis’ IQ that is based solely on Sperling’s comments.
Forty years later in 1986, Amy Wallace wrote the book The Prodigy: A Biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy.3 On page 283 of The Prodigy it is stated: “Said Sperling… “In recent years, I have tested more than five thousand people. Of all the mentally superior individuals that I have seen, nobody begins to approach the intellect and perspicacity of William Sidis. According to my computations, he easily had an IQ between 250 and 300. …I have never heard of the existence of anybody with such an IQ. I would honestly say that he was the most prodigious intellect of our entire generation.””4 Where or how did The Prodigy derive its version of Sperling's claim?
Sperling himself stated in 1946 that it was Helena that told him about the IQ score. According to The Prodigy, Sperling would have had to have given Sidis the IQ test before Sidis’ death in 1944. The two claims contradict, both appear to be based on hearsay, and neither claim can be accepted as evidence. If Sperling did give Sidis an IQ test, then why did Sperling not speak of it in A Story of Genius? If Sperling did not tell the truth about the test, then none of what he wrote can be trusted as factual, which also negates the 250-300 IQ claim for both Sperling and The Prodigy. If Sperling gave an accurate account of what he was told, then still his comments are invalid since they are based on hearsay.
Additional difficulties are found in how Helena Sidis was portrayed to have possibly had a tendency to exaggerate. William Sidis’ mother, Sarah Sidis, wrote in The Sidis Story: “He was not alone in this ability. Although his unleashed power enabled him to gain a workable knowledge of 25 languages, his father, Boris Sidis, was fluent in 50. After a little practice, either could master a new tongue within a week.”5 On page 182 of The Prodigy it is claimed: “…and given William’s near perfect command of hundreds of languages and dialects.”6 On page 126 of The Prodigy it is claimed: “William could learn a language in a day. According to Helena, “Billy knew all the languages in the world, while my father only knew twenty-seven. I wonder if there were any Billy didn’t know.””7 Sarah Sidis is known to have had a tendency to exaggerate stories about the Sidis family, and so The Sidis Story cannot be trusted as being an accurate source of information. The Prodigy voiced the improbable claim that William Sidis could learn a language in one day, and when combined with the high quantity of other errors throughout the book, The Prodigyitself is found to have exaggerated its claims about William Sidis. The subtitle of the book itself, A Biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy, is a sensationalized claim of a thing that is not supported by evidence. The claim of Helena Sidis’, that William Sidis knew all the languages of the world, is of course an incorrect claim since it is quite impossible for anyone to live long enough to learn all world languages. If the alleged quote of Helena Sidis’ was correctly quoted, and it was not another invention by The Prodigy, then Helena Sidis was prone to exaggerate, and if Helena Sidis was Sperling’s sole source of information about William Sidis’ IQ, then there is reason to question the veracity of Helena Sidis' claim.
A hand-written letter of August 4, 1933 by William Sidis stated that he had taken a civil service exam, that he passed the state clerical exam, and that he was number 254 on the list; “not so encouraging” he wrote.8 It is unknown if Sidis’ placement on a hiring list had any relevance to the IQ claim of 250-300, but if the letter is authentic, then the letter is evidence of Sidis having taken a civil service test as Sperling claimed in A Story of Genius. The question naturally rises, that if William Sidis took one or more civil service exams, and he was placed at 254 on one exam, and when combining the evidence of the letter with the possible evidence of Helena Sidis’ tendency to exaggerate, then it is necessary to speculate the possibility that Helena Sidis might have misunderstood what exams William Sidis took, or Helena Sidis may have purposefully twisted the job rank into being an IQ score. The simple fact is that no one can now know for sure what Helena Sidis was told or what she might have actually said. It is also possible, although probably not, that William Sidis did not tell the truth in the letter. Simply stated, there is no known verifiable evidence of William Sidis having had a 250-300 IQ. Until the day that William Sidis' IQ exam records are made public, the question will continue to ask what his rated IQ actually was.
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