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....
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
