Strange Brains and Genius

Strange Brains and Genius
Author: Clifford A. Pickover
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 356
Release: 1999-05-19
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0688168949

Never has the term mad scientist been more fascinatingly explored than in internationally recognized popular science author Clifford Pickover's richly researched wild ride through the bizarre lives of eccentric geniuses. A few highlights: "The Pigeon Man from Manhattan" Legendary inventor Nikola Tesla had abnormally long thumbs, a peculiar love of pigeons, and a horror of women's pearls. "The Worm Man from Devonshire" Forefather of modern electric-circuit design Oliver Heaviside furnished his home with granite blocks and sometimes consumed only milk for days (as did Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison). "The Rabbit-Eater from Lichfield" Renowned scholar Samuel Johnson had so many tics and quirks that some mistook him for an idiot. In fact, his behavior matches modern definitions of obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette's syndrome. Pickover also addresses many provocative topics: the link between genius and madness, the role the brain plays in alien abduction and religious experiences, UFOs, cryonics -- even the whereabouts of Einstein's brain!

C. S. Lewis -- A Life

C. S. Lewis -- A Life
Author: Alister McGrath
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2013-02-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1414382529

ECPA 2014 Christian Book Award Winner (Non-Fiction)! Fifty years after his death, C. S. Lewis continues to inspire and fascinate millions. His legacy remains varied and vast. He was a towering intellectual figure, a popular fiction author who inspired a global movie franchise around the world of Narnia, and an atheist-turned-Christian thinker. In C.S. Lewis—A Life, Alister McGrath, prolific author and respected professor at King’s College of London, paints a definitive portrait of the life of C. S. Lewis. After thoroughly examining recently published Lewis correspondence, Alister challenges some of the previously held beliefs about the exact timing of Lewis’s shift from atheism to theism and then to Christianity. He paints a portrait of an eccentric thinker who became an inspiring, though reluctant, prophet for our times. You won’t want to miss this fascinating portrait of a creative genius who inspired generations.

Born to Be Posthumous

Born to Be Posthumous
Author: Mark Dery
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 472
Release: 2018-11-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 031645107X

The definitive biography of Edward Gorey, the eccentric master of macabre nonsense. From The Gashlycrumb Tinies to The Doubtful Guest, Edward Gorey's wickedly funny and deliciously sinister little books have influenced our culture in innumerable ways, from the works of Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman to Lemony Snicket. Some even call him the Grandfather of Goth. But who was this man, who lived with over twenty thousand books and six cats, who roomed with Frank O'Hara at Harvard, and was known -- in the late 1940s, no less -- to traipse around in full-length fur coats, clanking bracelets, and an Edwardian beard? An eccentric, a gregarious recluse, an enigmatic auteur of whimsically morbid masterpieces, yes -- but who was the real Edward Gorey behind the Oscar Wildean pose? He published over a hundred books and illustrated works by Samuel Beckett, T.S. Eliot, Edward Lear, John Updike, Charles Dickens, Hilaire Belloc, Muriel Spark, Bram Stoker, Gilbert & Sullivan, and others. At the same time, he was a deeply complicated and conflicted individual, a man whose art reflected his obsessions with the disquieting and the darkly hilarious. Based on newly uncovered correspondence and interviews with personalities as diverse as John Ashbery, Donald Hall, Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, and Anna Sui, Born to Be Posthumous draws back the curtain on the eccentric genius and mysterious life of Edward Gorey.

A Collection of (Mostly) Rather Eccentric Commentaries and The Night the Tet Offensive Began

A Collection of (Mostly) Rather Eccentric Commentaries and The Night the Tet Offensive Began
Author: John Hester
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2014-09-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1499050658

This book is a collection of some of the commentaries he wrote in his editorial-page column over the years. Most of his commentaries were about local matters, of specific interest to the community in which the newspaper was located, but all of these are of a more universal scope.

The Knickerbocker

The Knickerbocker
Author: Charles Fenno Hoffman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 560
Release: 1841
Genre: American periodicals
ISBN:

Genius on Television

Genius on Television
Author: Ashley Lynn Carlson
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2015-07-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0786497734

Whether it's Sherlock Holmes solving crimes or Sheldon and Leonard geeking out over sci-fi, geniuses are central figures on many of television's most popular series. They are often enigmatic, displaying superhuman intellect while struggling with mundane aspects of daily life. This collection of new essays explores why TV geniuses fascinate us and how they shape our perceptions of what it means to be highly intelligent. Examining series like Criminal Minds, The Big Bang Theory, Bones, Elementary, Fringe, House, The Mentalist, Monk, Sherlock, Leverage and others, scholars from a variety of disciplines discuss how television both reflects and informs our cultural understanding of genius.