| SIDIS vs THE NEW YORKER |
|
"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."