Did you know that the first African-American person to perform at the White house was an autistic person?

I didn't know that. He was popularly known by the name Blind Tom Wiggins, and he was a black, blind autistic musical prodigy/savant who had an amazing talent for music and imitation of sounds. He wasn't just a human pianola, he could perform music brilliantly and he was also an accomplished composer. He was hugely popular and successful as a touring musical performer, but sadly he was also a slave, so his extraordinary talent made someone else rich. An Australian author, Deirdre O'Connell, has written a biography of Blind Tom, and you can hear her interviewed yesterday on Australian radio through the internet (see below). You Americans have some interesting history!


Some stuff about Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins

AfriClassical.com (accessed 2007) Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (1849-1908): African American Pianist and Composer: A Blind And Autistic Slave Was A Musical Genius. AfriClassical.com
http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/Wiggins.html#1
[a detailed biography, a list of works by Wiggins and a bibliography, includes details of Oliver Sacks’ writings about Wiggins and his case that Wiggins was an autistic savant]

Blindtom.org
http://www.blindtom.org/index.html
[a web site that promotes O'Connell's biography, but there's much more to it than that]

LoPresti, Linda (2009) Blind Tom: a lost musical genius. The Book Show. ABC Radio National. July 13th 2009.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2009/2621009.htm

O'Connell, Deidre (2009) The ballad of Blind Tom, slave pianist: America's lost musical genius. Overlook Press, 2009.
http://www.amazon.com/Ballad-Blind-Tom-Slave-Pianist/dp/1590201434

Sacks, Oliver (1995) An anthropologist on mars: seven paradoxical tales. Knopf, 1995.
[Wiggins’ as an autist is written about in the chapter titled Prodigies in this book]

Oh, and by the way, did you know that Thomas Wiggins is one of the 138 famous people in my list of famous or important people diagnosed with an autism spectrum condition or subject of published speculation about whether they are or were on the autistic spectrum (how's that for a mouthful?). Now I'll have to add more stuff to the references section of my list. There's no rest for the obsessed!

http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2006/09/referenced-list-of-famous-or-important.html