A Quarter-Century Of Geniuses

Next week, the MacArthur “Genius” Grants for 2006 will be revealed, and those of us not lucky enough to have been handed $500,000 out of the blue will wonder at the good fortune of those who have. But beyond the shock of the award and the immediate cash benefit, “how might the credential be cashed long after the checks from Chicago stop arriving? What [is] it like to deal with high expectations? Is it true what they say about ‘genius’ envy?” An in-depth review of the winners over the last twenty-odd years reveals much…