The newspapers ribbed him: Borrelli, “Greg Grossman: Celebrity Chef Is Just 13”; Shen, “Lil’ Food Dude.”
When TV came calling: Borrelli, “Greg Grossman: Celebrity Chef Is Just 13”; “Kid Chef Greg Grossman Failed to Wow VIP Guests with Five-Course Meal,” New York Daily News, March 15, 2011.
Just one summer after: “Greg Grossman Thanks Martha Stewart for Ross School Scholarship and Makes Dessert for 450,” YouTube video, 17:51, posted by “acookstale,” Nov. 3, 2012; Greg Grossman, Twitter entries, July and Aug. 2009.
The conference’s host: Harold McGee, “Modern Cooking & the Erice Workshops on Molecular & Physical Gastronomy,” Curious Cook, last modified 2011; David Arnold, “What About This?,” Food Arts, June 2006.
Hervé This: Patric Kuh, “Proving It,” Gourmet, Jan. 2005; Sally McGrane, “The Father of Molecular Gastronomy Whips Up a New Formula,” Wired, July 24, 2007; “The Man Who Unboiled an Egg,” Observer, Feb. 2008.
Greg hated the term: Greg was not alone in this sentiment. Others closely associated with molecular gastronomy also clarified their feelings about the term. As Heston Blumenthal explained, “Molecular makes it sound complicated . . . and gastronomy makes it sound elitist.” “‘Molecular Gastronomy Is Dead.’ Heston Speaks Out,” Observer, Dec. 2006. See also Ferran Adrià et al., “Statement on the ‘New Cookery,’” Observer, Dec. 9, 2006.
But from Greg’s youngest days: Greg Grossman, “Komputer Kid” (business card); Greg Grossman, “Naturefaces” (overview of Naturefaces idea).
But his need to cook: Greg Grossman, “Independent Study Proposal: Culinary Technology Lab @Ross,” ca. 2009; Greg Grossman, “Culinary Technology Analysis Report (T1),” ca. 2009; Greg, Twitter entries, fall 2009–spring 2010.
Greg and his team prepared: Vicki Jenkins, e-mail.
It’s a score meant to reflect: “Frequently Asked Questions About the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition,” Thomson Nelson. The memory section of the Stanford-Binet was changed from the fourth edition of the test (which Garrett took) to the fifth edition (which Greg took) so that it focused more on working memory as opposed to short-term memory. The fourth edition also included some working memory components, and all of the other prodigies that Joanne IQ tested were given the fifth edition of the test.
Greg had plenty of amazing-memory anecdotes: Terre and Ed Grossman to Greg Grossman’s teacher, ca. 2003; Greg Grossman, telephone interview, July 12, 2015.
His mind was awash: Similar anecdotes of extraordinary memory pepper the child prodigy literature. In a case study of a writing prodigy, for example, the authors characterized the child’s memory as “extraordinary.” He had excellent recall of his own writing, could recite whole paragraphs of books verbatim at two and a half, and reproduced the exact score of Bach’s Sixth Suite from memory at four. See Alan L. Edmunds and Kathryn A. Noel, “Literary Precocity: An Exceptional Case Among Exceptional Cases,” Roeper Review 25, no. 4 (2003): 185–94.
In a groundbreaking 1946 doctoral dissertation: Adriaan D. de Groot’s work was eventually translated into English. See Thought and Choice in Chess (1965; reprint, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2008).
Since then, dozens of studies: For a list of studies on expert memory in various fields, see Kim J. Vicente and JoAnne H. Wang, “An Ecological Theory of Expertise Effects in Memory Recall,” Psychological Review 105, no. 1 (1998): 33–57.
waiters demonstrate better memories: Tristan A. Bekinschtein, Julian Cardozo, and Facundo F. Manes, “Strategies of Buenos Aires Waiters to Enhance Memory Capacity in a Real-Life Setting,” Behavioural Neurology 20, no. 3 (2008): 65–70; H. L. Bennett, “Remembering Drink Orders: The Memory Skill of Cocktail Waitresses,” Human Learning 2, no. 2 (1983): 157–69; K. Anders Ericsson and Peter G. Polson, “A Cognitive Analysis of Exceptional Memory for Restaurant Orders,” in The Nature of Expertise, ed. Michelene T. H. Chi, Robert Glaser, and M. J. Farr (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988), 23–70.
musicians demonstrate better memories: John A. Sloboda, The Musical Mind: The Cognitive Psychology of Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985); John A. Sloboda, “Visual Perception of Musical Notation: Registering Pitch Symbols in Memory,” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 28, no. 1 (1976): 1–16; John A. Sloboda, “Perception of Contour in Music Reading,” Perception 7, no. 3 (1978): 323–31.
But when chess pieces: William G. Chase and Herbert A. Simon, “Perception in Chess,” Cognitive Psychology 4, no. 1 (1973): 55–81.
Psychologists have thus theorized: K. Anders Ericsson and Peter G. Polson, “An Experimental Analysis of the Mechanisms of a Memory Skill,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 14, no. 2 (1988): 305–16.
not superior overall memory: Chase and Simon, “Perception in Chess”; Vicente and Wang, “Ecological Theory of Expertise Effects in Memory Recall”; K. Anders Ericsson and William G. Chase, “Exceptional Memory,” American Scientist 70, no. 6 (1982): 607–15.
Again and again, the prodigies: For an evolutionary explanation of child prodigies tied to working memory, see Larry R. Vandervert, “The Appearance of the Child Prodigy 10,000 Years Ago: An Evolutionary and Developmental Explanation,” Journal of Mind and Behavior 30, nos. 1 and 2 (2009): 15–32.
“the information tends to be repeated”: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Association, 1994), 68.
“an inordinate number”: Kanner, “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact,” 243.
Asperger similarly observed: Asperger, “‘Autistic Psychopathy’ in Childhood,” 44, 75.
Similar reports of autists: Tom Fields-Meyer, “What One Father Learned from His Extraordinary Son’s Autism,” Atlantic, Sept. 6, 2011; Gareth Cook, “The Autism Advantage,” New York Times, Nov. 29, 2012.
But systematic studies: For overviews of the research on autism and memory, see Jill Boucher, Andrew Mayes, and Sally Bigham, “Memory in Autism Spectrum Disorder,” Psychological Bulletin 138, no. 3 (2012): 458–96; and Suneeta Kercood et al., “Working Memory and Autism: A Review of Literature,” Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders 8, no. 10 (2014): 1316–32.
a trait of some: Andrée-Anne S. Meilleur, Patricia Jelenic, and Laurent Mottron, “Prevalence of Clinically and Empirically Defined Talents and Strengths in Autism,” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 45, no. 5 (2015): 1354–67.
Nadia: For the most comprehensive accounts of Nadia, see Lorne Selfe, Nadia: A Case of Extraordinary Drawing Ability in an Autistic Child (New York: Academic Press, 1977); and Lorne Selfe, Nadia Revisited: A Longitudinal Study of an Autistic Savant (New York: Psychology Press, 2011). For an informative review of the first book, see Nigel Dennis, “Portrait of the Artist,” New York Review of Books, May 4, 1978.
“island of genius”: Darold A. Treffert, Islands of Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic, Acquired, and Sudden Savant (London: Jessica Kingsley, 2010).
Treffert, a Wisconsin psychiatrist: Darold Treffert, telephone interview, April 2, 2015; Darold A. Treffert, “The Savant Registry: A Preliminary Report,” Wisconsin Medical Society, https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org.
a varied collection of talents: For an overview of the savants described here, see Treffert, Islands of Genius.
This ability is so predominant: Treffert, Islands of Genius.
“practically every song written”: Bernard Rimland and Deborah Fein, “Special Talents of Autistic Savants,” in The Exceptional Brain: Neuropsychology of Talent and Special Abilities, ed. Loraine K. Obler and Deborah Fein (New York: Guilford Press, 1988), 479.
John, the first savant: Treffert, telephone interview, April 2, 2015; Treffert, Islands of Genius.
An exceptional memory is: Darold A. Treffert, “The Savant Syndrome: An Extraordinary Condition,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 364, no. 1522 (200
9): 1353.
Chapter 4: Growing a Prodigy
an independent album: Jonathan Russell, Stargazer, CD (2015).
“My brain is in constant music mode”: Jonathan Russell, telephone interview, Jan. 20, 2014.
Music has been a part: The events in this chapter described by Jonathan Russell come from a telephone interview conducted on June 20, 2014; and e-mail. The events in this chapter described by Eve Weiss come from telephone interviews conducted on Jan. 20 and Nov. 18 and 19, 2014 (with occasional input from Jim Russell); and e-mail. In addition, Eve provided photographs of Jonathan. Jonathan’s story was also drawn from his Web site, his YouTube channel (channel ID: jdrcomposer), and news reports, including Marc Ferris, “A Pet Named Mercutio and Spaceship Sheets,” New York Times, Nov. 17, 2002; Mike Voorheis, “Violin Prodigy, Guitar Expert Return to Jazz Fest,” StarNews, Feb. 15, 2011; Bobby Caina Calvan, “Sacramento Jazz Jubilee: Youthfull Feats (and Feet),” Sacramento Bee, May 27, 2007; Andy Webster, “A Funny Girl Strives to Survive,” New York Times, April 13, 2011.
His mother, Eve Weiss: Allen Hughes, “Recital: Eve Weiss, Guitarist,” New York Times, June 26, 1983.
“teeny tiny violin”: Eve Weiss, telephone interview, Nov. 18, 2014.
“sophisticated improvisations”: Ferris, “Pet Named Mercutio and Spaceship Sheets.”
“the rotary phone and the cell phone”: Voorheis, “Violin Prodigy, Guitar Expert Return to Jazz Fest.”
“pluckishly improvised”: Calvan, “Sacramento Jazz Jubilee: Youthful Feats (and Feet).”
“sprightly contributions”: Webster, “A Funny Girl Strives to Survive.
Lauren Voiers grew up in Westlake: The events in this chapter described by Lauren Voiers come from telephone interviews conducted on Feb. 6, Nov. 17, and Dec. 2, 2014, and Sept. 7, 2015; and e-mail. In addition, Lauren provided photographs and images of artwork. The events in this chapter described by Doug Voiers come from a telephone interview conducted on Nov. 30, 2014. The events in this chapter described by Nancy Voiers come from e-mail. Lauren’s story was also drawn from her Web site and news reports, including John Soeder, “Cleveland Artist Lauren Voiers Sculpts John Lennon Tribute for Liverpool Park,” Plain Dealer, Oct. 8, 2010; Ron Vidika, “Lakewood Artist Creates Sculpture Honoring the Beatles’ John Lennon,” Morning Journal, April 10, 2011; Fran Storch, “Two Talented Young Artists Display Their Works at Beck Center Through August 24,” Lakewood Observer, July 21, 2008; Joe Noga, “Westlake’s Lauren Voiers Crafts Sculpture to Honor John Lennon’s Legacy of Peace,” Cleveland.com, Sept. 29, 2010; “Making the Connection,” ASCENT (Autumn 2011); “Artist of the Month,” Art List, May 2007; and Lauren’s appearances on local television channels, including Fox 8, WKYC, and ABC Live on 5, many of which can be found on YouTube.
She quickly moved toward cubism: For an overview of cubism, see “Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/.
“a more stained-glass effect”: “Artist of the Month,” quoting Lauren Voiers.
“not precocious”: “Training Supermen,” New York Times, May 7,1914.
“not geniuses” and “not even exceptionally bright”: Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman, Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Norbert Wiener (New York: Basic Books, 2005), 21, quoting a 1909 article from Boston’s Sunday Herald. For other examples of these parents claiming that their children were not innately exceptional, see “The Boy Prodigy of Harvard,” Current Literature, March 1910; H. Addington Bruce, “New Ideas in Child Training,” American, July 1911; H. Addington Bruce, “New Ideas in Child Training,” Journal of Education, Sept. 21, 1911. On one occasion, though, Wiener did describe Norbert as having a “keen analytical mind” and “tremendous memory.” See Conway and Siegelman, Dark Hero of the Information Age, 5.
“I could take almost any child”: “Training Supermen.”
In their parents’ telling: On the parents’ educational philosophies, see “Illustrating a System of Education,” New York Times, Jan. 7, 1910; “Boy Prodigy of Harvard”; Bruce, “New Ideas in Child Training,” American; “Give Easy Recipe for Child Prodigies,” New York Times, Oct. 31, 1920; Greg Daugherty, “The Child Prodigies Who Became 20th-Century Celebrities,” Smithsonian, June 24, 2013; Winifred Sackville Stoner, Natural Education (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1914); Conway and Siegelman, Dark Hero of the Information Age; Bruce, “New Ideas in Child Training,” Journal of Education; and H. Addington Bruce, “Bending the Twig: The Education of the Eleven Year Old Boy Who Lectured Before the Harvard Professors on the Fourth Dimension,” American, March 1910.
“verses, zoologic and botanic names”: Kanner, “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact,” 243.
“emotional refrigeration”: Leo Kanner and Leon Eisenberg, “Notes on the Follow-Up Studies of Autistic Children,” in Psychopathology of Childhood, ed. Paul H. Hoch and Joseph Zubin (New York: Grune & Stratton, 1955), 229.
He eventually concluded: Leo Kanner and Leon Eisenberg, “Early Infantile Autism, 1943–1955,” Psychiatric Research Reports of the American Psychiatric Association 7 (1957): 62. See also Kanner, “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact”; Leo Kanner, “Follow-Up Study of Eleven Autistic Children Originally Reported in 1943,” Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia 1, no. 2 (1971): 119–45.
Bruno Bettelheim: Much has been written about Bruno Bettelheim; see, for example, Richard Pollak, The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997); and Nina Sutton, Bettelheim: A Life and a Legacy (New York: Basic Books, 1996).
“devouring witch”: Bruno Bettelheim, The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self (New York: Free Press, 1967), 71.
In the first of these: Susan Folstein and Michael Rutter, “Infantile Autism: A Genetic Study of 21 Twin Pairs,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 18, no. 4 (1977): 297–321.
These findings were buttressed: Edward R. Ritvo et al., “Concordance for the Syndrome of Autism in 40 Pairs of Afflicted Twins,” American Journal of Psychiatry 142, no. 1 (1985): 74–77; Suzanne Steffenburg et al., “A Twin Study of Autism in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 30, no. 3 (1989): 405–16; and A. Bailey et al., “Autism as a Strongly Genetic Disorder: Evidence from a British Twin Study,” Psychological Medicine 25, no. 1 (1995): 63–77. For a more recent twin study, see Rebecca E. Rosenberg et al., “Characteristics and Concordance of Autism Spectrum Disorders Among 277 Twin Pairs,” Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 163, no. 10 (2009): 907–14. For a study finding a higher-than-expected incidence of concordance for autism in fraternal twins, see Joachim Hallmayer et al., “Genetic Heritability and Shared Environmental Factors Among Twin Pairs with Autism,” Archives of General Psychiatry 68, no. 11 (2011): 1095–102.
studies that identified a higher prevalence: Early studies focused on an elevated rate of intellectual disability among autists’ family members; for a review, see Patrick Bolton and Michael Rutter, “Genetic Influences in Autism,” International Review of Psychiatry 2, no. 1 (1990): 67–80. For an example of an early study identifying subclinical social and communication deficits in autists’ families, see P. Bolton, “A Case-Control Family History Study of Autism,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 35, no. 5 (1994): 877–900. For a more recent review, see Gerdts and Bernier, “Broader Autism Phenotype and Its Implications on the Etiology and Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders.”
“striking and extreme”: Feldman and Goldsmith, Nature’s Gambit, 43.
Kelvin Doe, for example: THNKR, “Kelvin Doe at TEDxTeen”; Kelvin Doe, “Persistent Experimentation,” TEDxTeen; Ian Steadman, “Teenager Signs £60,000 Contract to Develop His Own Solar Panel Technology,” Wired UK, Oct. 10, 2013; Oswald Hanciles, “The Mystery (and Challenge) of Kelvin Doe,” Concord Times, July 1, 2015; Nina Strochlic, “Why the Cl
intons Love Sierra Leone’s Boy Genius,” Daily Beast, Sept. 26, 2013.
“a beautifully choreographed”: Feldman and Goldsmith, Nature’s Gambit, 14.
“stand out like Gulliver”: Goode, “Uneasy Fit of the Precocious and the Average.”
the music prodigy: “Musical Prodigy, Bluejay,” 60 Minutes, Nov. 30, 2006.
“real learning”: Written summary of Alex’s and William’s development, provided by Lucie, 2012.
“He then put his pencil down”: Ibid.
“I think we’ll just avoid”: Lucie, telephone interview, Sept. 12, 2014.
“rage to master”: Winner, “The Rage to Master: The Decisive Role of Talent in the Visual Arts.”
Chapter 5: The Evidence Mounts
He was born in Newport-on-Tay: The events in this chapter described by Mike Wawro come from telephone interviews conducted on Dec. 14 and 16, 2014, and March 30, 2015; and e-mail. In addition, Mike provided photographs, images of Richard’s artwork, and a record of Richard’s drawings and sales. The events described by Laurence A. Becker come from a telephone interview conducted on Dec. 17, 2014; and e-mail. Richard’s story was also drawn from his Web site; documentaries, including Ron Zimmerman and Laurence A. Becker, With Eyes Wide Open (1983); and news reports, including “A Conversation with Laurence A. Becker: On the Gifted Handicapped,” The Human Condition, adapted for publication by Charlene Warren (Austin: Hogg Foundation for Mental Health and the University of Texas, 1981); Ann Shearer, “Subnormal—but an Astounding Artist,” Guardian, April 18, 1970; “Richard Wawro,” Scotsman, March 9, 2006; “Richard Wawro,” Telegraph, March 11, 2006; Jonathan Brinckman, “Autistic Artist Can’t Explain How His Talent Works,” New Haven Register, May 20, 1990; Lee Kelly, “Austin Exhibit of Wawro’s Artwork Kicks Off National Tour,” Austin American-Statesman, April 8, 1990; Mary Meehan, “Blind Artist Shows His True Colors,” Orlando Sentinel, May 10, 1990; Adam Geller, “Art That Speaks—Autistic and Nearly Blind, Scot Inspires Disabled Kids,” Record, April 7, 1998; Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, “Phenomenon,” ca. mid-1960s, translated version used by the Wawro family provided by Mike Wawro; Joseph Blank, “I Can See Feeling Good,” Reader’s Digest, Nov. 1983; and Denise Gamino, “Renowned Artist Savant Visits Austin,” Austin American-Statesman, Oct. 13, 1994.
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