Need names of AS/ASD/LD authors, past and present

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My first official "outreach" for my nonprofit focusing on services, support and advocacy for adults with learning disabilities, AS/ASD, and ADD/ADHD is this Friday and Saturday at the nonprofit exhibit area of the South Dakota Festival of Books in Sioux Falls, SD. I'm in the process of developing the informational and promotional materials for display and distribution.

In keeping with the theme of the program, I'd like to include a display giving the names of authors, both past and present, with AS/ASD and learning disabilities. To that end, I'd like to request some names of such authors, along with the titles of their chief work.

If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to share. I'm going to come out very strong against Autism Squeaks and FAAAS in my materials and this is a chance to show that we do, in fact, exist, that there are highly intelligent, capable adults with these conditions and that we've been getting the shaft in terms of media coverage and stereotypes.

I read that Lewis Carrol had AS. He wrote Alice in Wonderland.

Did he really? Wow, now that is interesting. Do you remember where you read that?

The Revend Dobson wrote a number of books on math as wall as Alice in wonderland & through the looking glass.

I have no idea if he had AS but he was without doubt a bit special

Not everyone agrees with Lewis Caroll's retrospective diagnosis.

I would stick with authors who are diagnosed in their own lifetime. Wikipedia has a list. Temple Grandin and Donna Williams come to mind, but I think there are others whose books I haven't read.

I agree. I wouldn't include authors whose diagnosis is speculative.

Either that, or make a separate section for authors who are believed to have had AS, and make it clear that it is just speculation.

Many historians believe that H. P. Lovecraft had Asperger's syndrome. Temple Grandin has high-functioning (with emphasis on high-functioning) autism, by the way

Perhaps that would, indeed, be a good idea to have two sections, one for those actually diagnosed and one for those whom it is speculative, such as Carroll. It would certainly make it even more interesting.

Do you have a link or know where I could find that on Wiki? I'm not familiar with it and unsure how to navigate it.

I'd speculate Larkin and Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake interview a tad obvious. I admire her, makes me want to drain my pens dry and keep scribbling to my mind, after all, she's gathered the words worth reading, my poetry pales.

Tito Mukhopadhyay.
Jerry Newport.
John Elder Robison.
Luke Jackson.

-am havent read their books as am not a reader-but have come across their names through their posts on here [apart from Tito] have seen a documentary of Tito showing his work,Luke has also had a documentary about the different autisms in his family [as well as writing books].

I'd include Emily Dickinson in your 'speculative' category. If you study her life and work, a very good case could be made that she had AS.

It was a in a children's book about autism where they talked about what famous people had it. Einstein was in there too, Newton, Mozart, and of course Temple Grandin. I do not remember the name of the book.

Last edited by Spokane_Girl on 21 Sep 2008, 10:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

http://www.ee.uwa.edu.au/~chandra/Downl ... Tesla.html for your speculations.

The wirter Yeats...

Andy Warhol

Peter Sellers?

1. List of people considered to be on ASD spectrum:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:P ... c_spectrum

2. Confirmed dx'd people list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_re ... _disorders

3. Speculative posthumous list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_spe ... n_autistic

4. Fictional characters list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fi ... c_spectrum

So, I'd only put stock in the "recognized" list (#2), but included all these for your perusal.