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Asperger's and Self-Esteem: Insight and Hope through Famous Role Models
From composer Amadeus Mozart to astronomer Carl Sagan, Ledgin examines the evidence of Asperger's Syndrome in some of history's most famous men and women and shows how, despite their apparent challenges, each made an immeasurable contribution to the world. A great book to raise the self esteem of those with Asperger's.
185 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 16, 2002
11 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Norm Ledgin
12 books6 followersNoted author-historian Norman M. Ledgin, 90, of Stanley, KS, passed away peacefully at home Tuesday, June 18, 2019, after a fierce, two-year battle with degenerative lung disease. A member of the Kansas City Writers Group since its inception, he continued to critique colleagues’ submissions until five days before his death.
Born in Passaic, NJ July 15, 1928, Norm received a bachelor of letters degree in journalism at Rutgers University in 1950 and a master of arts in political science there in 1952. While at Rutgers, where he was inducted into the prestigious Cap and Skull Society, he made waves with his peace and civil rights activism, regardless of blacklisting consequences he was to suffer later in the early 1950s. He is listed on page 119 of the U.S. House of Representatives Report No. 378, 82nd Congress, First Session, April 1, 1951, which condemned a “Peace Offensive” by a few hundred “distinguished patriots with whom I’m proud to be forever listed as opposing manufacture, storage, and use of nuclear weapons, either by the U.S. or U.S.S.R.,” as he stated on his most recent Web page. Within those pages, he was one of 350 Stockholm Peace Appeal sponsors condemned by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Other actions that drew negative attention by Rutgers administration, but served his quest to end discriminatory practices at his alma mater, included his 1949 joining of Omega Psi Phi, a predominantly African-American social fraternity. At the time, Ledgin was on staff of The Targum, the campus newspaper he later served as editor-in-chief. During his tenure, he was the last person at Rutgers to interview Paul Robeson, its most distinguished alumnus, after his final concert appearance there prior to Rutgers banishing Robey for his views. Norm later participated in civil rights actions alongside Paul Robeson, Jr.
After he served minor daily and weekly newspapers in North Jersey (and was blacklisted from job access to others), Norm accepted a teaching post at McNeese State College (now University), Lake Charles, LA, in 1956. In 1957 he turned to safety work, leading accident prevention efforts in Southwest Louisiana as manager of the Calcasieu Safety Council (1957-1962), a branch of the National Safety Council. He then moved to a similar post in Kansas City, MO, where he won the National Safety Council Trustees’ award – the Flame of Life – his first year as manager. He founded Kansas City’s Municipal Court Driver Improvement School in 1966, received numerous other national awards, became the nation’s first Certified Safety Council Executive, and chaired the national Defensive Driving Program.
In 1969, at the Greater Kansas City Area Safety Council, he met, hired, and married his wife, the former Marsha Montague. Later that year, as chair of the Kansas City Youth Symphony, Norm, accompanied by Marsha, led its first European tour to London and to Kansas City’s sister city, Seville, Spain.
He resigned to return to newspaper work as editor-publisher of the Arthur (IL) Graphic-Clarion (1976-77) and was later editor-publisher of The Blue Valley Gazette, Stanley, KS, which he founded in partnership with Marsha in 1980. Shortly after their first son, Alfred, was born in 1984, Norm was diagnosed with colon cancer, which prompted his retiring from the newspaper business that year.
But Ledgin was neither one to sit on his laurels nor one to remain idle. He went on to serve on national, state, and local boards of nonprofit educational and philanthropic agencies. He chaired the Johnson County, KS Democratic Central Committee and served an elected term as clerk of historic Oxford Township, KS. Due to his interest and research, Norm lobbied successfully for local Santa Fe Trail historical markers.
Throughout his life he was an avid music enthusiast, in particular of classical. In fact, he wrote that he regretted not having pursued music professionally. Among other genres and artis
Born in Passaic, NJ July 15, 1928, Norm received a bachelor of letters degree in journalism at Rutgers University in 1950 and a master of arts in political science there in 1952. While at Rutgers, where he was inducted into the prestigious Cap and Skull Society, he made waves with his peace and civil rights activism, regardless of blacklisting consequences he was to suffer later in the early 1950s. He is listed on page 119 of the U.S. House of Representatives Report No. 378, 82nd Congress, First Session, April 1, 1951, which condemned a “Peace Offensive” by a few hundred “distinguished patriots with whom I’m proud to be forever listed as opposing manufacture, storage, and use of nuclear weapons, either by the U.S. or U.S.S.R.,” as he stated on his most recent Web page. Within those pages, he was one of 350 Stockholm Peace Appeal sponsors condemned by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Other actions that drew negative attention by Rutgers administration, but served his quest to end discriminatory practices at his alma mater, included his 1949 joining of Omega Psi Phi, a predominantly African-American social fraternity. At the time, Ledgin was on staff of The Targum, the campus newspaper he later served as editor-in-chief. During his tenure, he was the last person at Rutgers to interview Paul Robeson, its most distinguished alumnus, after his final concert appearance there prior to Rutgers banishing Robey for his views. Norm later participated in civil rights actions alongside Paul Robeson, Jr.
After he served minor daily and weekly newspapers in North Jersey (and was blacklisted from job access to others), Norm accepted a teaching post at McNeese State College (now University), Lake Charles, LA, in 1956. In 1957 he turned to safety work, leading accident prevention efforts in Southwest Louisiana as manager of the Calcasieu Safety Council (1957-1962), a branch of the National Safety Council. He then moved to a similar post in Kansas City, MO, where he won the National Safety Council Trustees’ award – the Flame of Life – his first year as manager. He founded Kansas City’s Municipal Court Driver Improvement School in 1966, received numerous other national awards, became the nation’s first Certified Safety Council Executive, and chaired the national Defensive Driving Program.
In 1969, at the Greater Kansas City Area Safety Council, he met, hired, and married his wife, the former Marsha Montague. Later that year, as chair of the Kansas City Youth Symphony, Norm, accompanied by Marsha, led its first European tour to London and to Kansas City’s sister city, Seville, Spain.
He resigned to return to newspaper work as editor-publisher of the Arthur (IL) Graphic-Clarion (1976-77) and was later editor-publisher of The Blue Valley Gazette, Stanley, KS, which he founded in partnership with Marsha in 1980. Shortly after their first son, Alfred, was born in 1984, Norm was diagnosed with colon cancer, which prompted his retiring from the newspaper business that year.
But Ledgin was neither one to sit on his laurels nor one to remain idle. He went on to serve on national, state, and local boards of nonprofit educational and philanthropic agencies. He chaired the Johnson County, KS Democratic Central Committee and served an elected term as clerk of historic Oxford Township, KS. Due to his interest and research, Norm lobbied successfully for local Santa Fe Trail historical markers.
Throughout his life he was an avid music enthusiast, in particular of classical. In fact, he wrote that he regretted not having pursued music professionally. Among other genres and artis
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 18, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. Some of the names I had heard of, others I had not. I will now have to research more deeply into the 13 names in this book to learn more about them. Knowing that they could be on the autism spectrum inspires me as well as brings me down wondering if I will amount to anything in my life. I plan to buy a copy of this book and read it again.
June 23, 2009
Aspegerr's and autism are an interest I have and this book made a good addition to my collection.
October 28, 2017
I am definitely enjoying the insight into this condition. As a 38 year old man that is very recently diagnosed with Aspergers I am appreciating understanding what it means
May 9, 2025
This book was very fascinating, especially once you have already read Norm Ledgin's other book Diagnosing Jefferson.
This book focuses on the positive traits of autism. It not only provides other cases of famous people Norm Ledgin argues had autistic traits (the Thomas Jefferson chapter is basically a summary of Diagnosing Jefferson), but also discusses ways to support autistic students to get the support they need. Although the content is somewhat dated due to it being over 20 years old, it still has value, especially in the particular aspect of supporting autistic students.
(Also it is interesting how since we have gotten better at identifying autism over the years, we now have a fair share of famous people who lived in a time and place where they could actually be diagnosed with autism. This book was written in a time period where nearly all of the famous autistic people were speculative retroactive diagnoses, which I don't necessarily disagree with if it has legitimate reasoning behind it and doesn't involve slapping the autism label onto random people like what Michael Fitzgerald does.)
However, I was honestly kind of disappointed with how I personally felt like there wasn't enough information about each of the famous people. And because of this, I didn't have enough information about some of them for me to decide if I personally agreed with Norm Ledgin's autism claims or not. I also noticed some minor factual errors. For example, Thomas Jefferson's brother Randolph was his younger brother, not his twin brother. Nor did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have savant syndrome; he was just a child prodigy which is a completely different thing.
Yet despite these minor problems I had with this book, I still recommend it, especially to autistic middle school and high school students and their parents. Though I would recommend this one to be read with a somewhat critical eye given said aforementioned problems. I also really liked how the author brought up some lesser-known symptoms of autism, such as Mozart's head size or the various eccentric beliefs and behaviors that multiple of these people had.
Thank you so much, Norm Ledgin, for writing this book and caring about supporting autistic students. I know you passed a few years ago, but I wish I could thank you for writing this book and your other book Diagnosing Jefferson because both of them have help me make major process in processing my internalized ableism.
This book focuses on the positive traits of autism. It not only provides other cases of famous people Norm Ledgin argues had autistic traits (the Thomas Jefferson chapter is basically a summary of Diagnosing Jefferson), but also discusses ways to support autistic students to get the support they need. Although the content is somewhat dated due to it being over 20 years old, it still has value, especially in the particular aspect of supporting autistic students.
(Also it is interesting how since we have gotten better at identifying autism over the years, we now have a fair share of famous people who lived in a time and place where they could actually be diagnosed with autism. This book was written in a time period where nearly all of the famous autistic people were speculative retroactive diagnoses, which I don't necessarily disagree with if it has legitimate reasoning behind it and doesn't involve slapping the autism label onto random people like what Michael Fitzgerald does.)
However, I was honestly kind of disappointed with how I personally felt like there wasn't enough information about each of the famous people. And because of this, I didn't have enough information about some of them for me to decide if I personally agreed with Norm Ledgin's autism claims or not. I also noticed some minor factual errors. For example, Thomas Jefferson's brother Randolph was his younger brother, not his twin brother. Nor did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have savant syndrome; he was just a child prodigy which is a completely different thing.
Yet despite these minor problems I had with this book, I still recommend it, especially to autistic middle school and high school students and their parents. Though I would recommend this one to be read with a somewhat critical eye given said aforementioned problems. I also really liked how the author brought up some lesser-known symptoms of autism, such as Mozart's head size or the various eccentric beliefs and behaviors that multiple of these people had.
Thank you so much, Norm Ledgin, for writing this book and caring about supporting autistic students. I know you passed a few years ago, but I wish I could thank you for writing this book and your other book Diagnosing Jefferson because both of them have help me make major process in processing my internalized ableism.
Read
June 11, 2014This book showed that people see things more as black and white, highlighting that an unrecognized deference to these people as moral leaders/guardians may signal exploitation. This is the "poor in spirit" mentioned in the bible-and if one continues reading, one sees their suggested compensation.
Want to read
March 23, 2012CES AUTISTES QUI CHANGENT LE MONDE 9782706700509
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews