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SIDIS vs THE NEW YORKER

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The New Yorker Article

 

 

 

U.S. Court Decision

". . . a limited scrutiny may be had of the private life of any person who has achieved, or has had thrust upon him, the questionable and indefinable status of a "public figure".

 

 

 

 


Legal Brief

 

 


Letter to Julius Eichel re settlement of lawsuit, "...my long fight against the principle of personal publicity."

 

"Anthony Lewis doesn't believe movie stars and other well-known persons are always properly deemed public figures. Lewis thus sees as mistaken the 1940 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Sidis v. F-R Publishing Corporation. The case arose when James Thurber, writing under a pseudonym for The New Yorker, targeted a former boy "genius," William James Sidis, who was then a quiet, eccentric, middle-aged man living in obscurity. Sidis sued for libel, but the Court ruled, in effect, that a person who once was famous is always famous. Lewis disagrees, emphasizing . . . that courts must balance the competing values of personal privacy and the public's right to know." FindLaw.com, Feb. 29, 2008

 

See also   "The Failure Myth"  by Dan Mahony
"Research shows that most child prodigies go on to lead productive lives. As did Sidis."