Science: One Thousand Heavyweights

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A genius, according to Webster, is "a man endowed with transcendent ability." Walter G. Bowerman, assistant actuary of the New York Life Insurance Co., is more specific. A typical U.S. genius (male), he says, is 5 ft. 10 inches tall, weighs 175 Ibs., and begets 5.54 children. Actuary Bowerman has 20 years of study to back his findings, published in a new book Studies in Genius (Philosophical Library; $4.75).

The basis of Bowerman's selection was the space allotted in the 1936 edition of the Dictionary of American Biography: every biography that rated 1½ pages or more was selected in the first drawing. Then, for reasons good & sufficient to Author Bowerman—such as eminence due to sheer luck; traitors and criminals—some 210 names were given the heave ho (samples: William "Boss" Tweed, Carrie Nation, Daniel Boone, Pocahontas). Enough also-rans (1½ pages in the D.A.B.) were then added to bring the list to an even thousand. The finalists include 973 men (examples: George and Booker T. Washington, Eugene V. Debs, Aaron Burr, Andrew Carnegie, Brigham Young) and 27 women (Lillian Russell, Emily Dickinson, Mary Baker Eddy). Some of the findings:

The largest percentage of U.S. geniuses was born in Massachusetts, in January (poorest genius-producing month: June), and inherited their talents equally from their fathers & mothers. The average genius sprang from a large brood (7.51 children) and from mature parents: father was 34.8 when the genius was born, mother was 29.3.

He was most likely to follow politics (the choice of 255*), with writing (140) running an easy second. Over one-third of the thousand geniuses did not go to college; among those who did, Harvard was the overwhelming favorite,† followed, at a respectful distance, by Yale, West Point and Princeton. The average genius was widely traveled, domestically inclined. Only 65 of the thousand were single. As Insurance Man Bowerman undoubtedly noted, the average genius was a good life-insurance risk, dying at a ripe 69.3.