Monday, January 18, 2010

Newton: talked much and pleasantly


I dug into some 300-year old historical documents on Newton: the memoirs of William Stukeley, a good friend of Newton. Here is what the Gentleman has to say about Sir Isaac on meeting some Lincolshire fellow countrymen:
Sir Isaac enjoy'd himself extremely in this society of his countrymen; & talkd much, & pleasantly. particularly I remember one part of the conversation turn'd upon musick, of which Sir Isaac was fond;
Newton was "talking much and pleasantly". Does not sound much like a description of someone who stutters? He certainly seems to like talking. And here is more of Sir Isaac speaking:
Sir Isaac; who remain'd some time with us. & no joy could equal that which I took, in seeing the great man, of whom we had imbibed so high an idea, from being conversant in his works.

 I often visited him, sometime with Dr. Mead, Dr. Halley, or Dr. Brook Taylor, Mr W. Jones or Mr Folkes & others. sometime alone; and we discoursd upon divers curious matters, as well as on country news:

 I was delighted to observe, Sir Godfry, who was not famous for sentiments of religion, sifting Sir Isaac, to find out his notions on that head; who answerd him, with his usual modesty, & caution.
I didn't manage to read the whole text, but no indication of Newton stuttering.

7 comments:

Norbert @ BSA said...

""talking much and pleasantly". Does not sound much like a description of someone who stutters? He certainly seems to like talking."

Sounds like some Luxembourger of my acquaintance...

Anonymous said...

I've read 3 biographies of Isaac Newton, and none of them give any indication that he had a stutter. So I am surprised to read in this blog that people believe he was a stutterer. He certainly had other issues - he was certainly not a very pleasant person, and he didn't like people very much - but stuttering didn't seem to be one of his problems.

PeterL said...

This topic is very relevant, because the lists of famous PWS are becoming longer and longer. The following is a list of the Africa Stuttering website (www.africastuttering.org). I was surprised to see Julia Roberts, Aristotle, Richard Branson, Einstein and Tiger Woods ...

Famous PWS


Do not think that everything is finished for you when you are people who stutter, because like any normal person can be exercised in any industry. The list below will tell long.

Aristotle (Greek philosopher)
Arno (Belgian singer and actor)

Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross)
François Bayrou (french politician)
Boris Becker (German tennis player)
Thomas Becket (holy prelate, Archbishop and politician English)
Roger Blin (french Actor)
Jorge Luis Borges (Argentine writer and poet)
Richard Branson (English Entrepreneur, founder of Virgin)

Lewis Carrol (British writer, author "Alice in Wonderland")
Nicolae Ceausecsu (Romanian politician)
Miguel Cervantes (Spanish novelist and playwright, author of "Don Quichote")
King Charles I (King)
Winston Churchill (English politician)
Claudius (Roman emperor)
Georges Clemenceau (French politician)
Nat King Cole (singer, pianist and conductor U.S.)
Pierre Corneille (French poet)
Darry Cowl (French musician and actor)

Charles Darwin (English naturalist)
Erasmus Darwin (physicist, scientific, grandfather of Charles Darwin)
Régis Debray (French philosopher)
Demosthenes (politician described as the greatest speaker of Antiquity)
Gérard Depardieu (French actor)
Camille Desmoulins (French lawyer, journalist and revolutionary)

Albert Einstein (German physicist and mathematician)
Aesop (Greek writer, author "Fables")

Noel Gallagher (English guitarist)
George VI (king)
Annie Glenn (wife of astronaut and senator John Glenn)

Washington Irving (American writer)

Thomas Jefferson (3rd President of the United States of America)
Ben Johnson (American)
Louis Jouvet (French actor)

Harvey Keitel (American actor)

John Larkin "Scatman" (jazz musician)
Lenin (Russian revolutionary and politician)
Louis II (king)
Louis XIII (king)
Henry Luce (founder of Time Magazine and Sports Illustrated)

William Somerset Maugham (British novelist and playwright)
Marthe Mercadier (French actress)
Moses Mendelssohn (German philosopher)
Michael II (Byzantine emperor)
Moses (biblical heroes)
Molière, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (French comedian)
Molotov (Russian politician)
Marilyn Monroe (American actress)

Napoleon 1er (French emperor)
Sam Neill (Irish actor)
Isaac Newton (English mathematician, physicist and astronomer)
Claude Nougaro (French singer)

Austin Pendleton (American actor and director)
Francis Perrin (French actor, screenwriter and director).


Ludwig Quidde (German pacifist, Nobel Peace Prize 1927)
Anthony Quinn (Mexican actor and artist)

Albert II, Rainier (prince of Monaco)
Eric Roberts (American actor)
Julia Roberts (American actress)
Theodore Roosevelt (26eme president of USA)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French philosopher)

Jimmy Stewart (American actor)

Paul Valéry (French writer, poet, philosopher and epistemologist)
Virgil (Roman poet and writer)

George Washington (1st president of USA)
Bruce Willis (American actor)
Tiger Woods (golf champion American)

Xu Guang (Chinese emperor)

Anonymous said...

parf ad athuga:)

Anonymous said...

Pretty nice site you've got here. Thank you for it. I like such themes and anything connected to them. I would like to read a bit more soon.

Anonymous said...

Albert Einstein had Asperger's....not a stutterer.

Are you kidding me....!!!!

Anonymous said...

I agree with the previous Anonymous; Einstein was not a stutterer. And that puts the credibility of your list into question.

By the way, Alan Turing was certainly a stutterer, but he is not in your list.