Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism

Paul Collins and his wife Jennifer thought their son was perfect. At age one, Morgan learned the alphabet; by two, he was reading, counting, even doing multiplication tables--yet he couldn't respond to his own name and scarcely noticed others in the room. He was, as it turned out, autistic--gifted, intelligent, preternaturally focused, but a stranger in the strange land of human emotions. Fortunately, Paul Collins is eminently suited to act as his guide. The author of Banvard's Folly and the bibliophile's delight Sixpence House, Collins is a very particular kind of historian: an archaelogist of the arcane and a lover of eccentric people and facts. Not Even Wrong turns that love to the best possible use. Part memoir, part history, it traces the lives of suspected autists both famous and obscure, from Peter the Wild Boy, a semi-feral child who became a sensation at the court of George I, to Henry Darger, the recluse and outsider artist. Collins dabbles in neurology and science history, but what emerges is nothing less than a portrait of how Morgan's mind works--as well as a respectful and fascinating account of those with autism and their contributions to our world. --Mary Park