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99-614: The Black Terror was the most popular superhero in Nedor's stable, and appeared in a quarterly solo comic book as well as the lead feature in America's Best Comics and Exciting Comics until 1949. Some Black Terror stories were written by Patricia Highsmith before she became an acclaimed novelist. The character has been revived by various publishers over the years, including AC Comics , Eclipse Comics , America's Best Comics , and Dynamite Entertainment . The Black Terror's secret identity

198-400: A specialist —is used to describe a person with a general approach to knowledge. The term universal genius or versatile genius is also used, with Leonardo da Vinci as the prime example again. The term is used especially for people who made lasting contributions in at least one of the fields in which they were actively involved and when they took a universality of approach. When a person

297-541: A 1970 letter to her stepfather, Highsmith described sex with men as like "steel wool in the face, a sensation of being raped in the wrong place—leading to a sensation of having to have, pretty soon, a boewl [ sic ] movement." Phyllis Nagy described Highsmith as "a lesbian who did not very much enjoy being around other women" and her few affairs with men occurred just to "see if she could be into men in that way because she so much more preferred their company." Highsmith called herself "basically polygamous" and

396-700: A Summer Idyll , was rejected by Knopf (her most recent American publisher) several months before her death. It was published posthumously in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing in March 1995, and nine years later in the United States by W. W. Norton . The novel sold 50,000 copies in France within six weeks of her death. Highsmith's literary estate included eight thousand pages of handwritten notebooks and diaries. Highsmith had anorexia as

495-479: A comprehensive historical overview of the ascension and decline of the polymath as, what he calls, an "intellectual species". He observes that in ancient and medieval times, scholars did not have to specialize. However, from the 17th century on, the rapid rise of new knowledge in the Western world—both from the systematic investigation of the natural world and from the flow of information coming from other parts of

594-462: A friend that after her death a future biographer must discuss her love life and "everyone must know I am queer or gay." Polymath A polymath ( Greek : πολυμαθής , romanized :  polymathēs , lit.   'having learned much'; Latin : homo universalis , lit.   'universal human') or polyhistor ( Greek : πολυΐστωρ , romanized :  polyīstor , lit.   'well-learned')

693-867: A house in Aurigeno , Switzerland and in 1982 moved there permanently. In 1981, Highsmith moved into her Swiss home and began writing a new novel, People who Knock on the Door (1983), about the influence of Christian fundamentalism in America. This, and her following novel, Found in the Street (1986) , were partly based on a research trip to America in early 1981. Her biographer Joan Schenkar states that by this time Highsmith had been living in Europe so long she "began to make errors of American fact and understanding in her novels." Highsmith described People who Knock on

792-619: A job at publications such as Harper's Bazaar , Vogue , Mademoiselle , Good Housekeeping , Time , Fortune , and The New Yorker . She eventually found work with FFF Publishers which provided copy for various Jewish publications. The job, which paid $ 20 per week, lasted only six months but gave her experience in researching stories. In December 1942 Highsmith found employment with comic book publisher Sangor – Pines where she earned up to $ 50 per week. She wrote "Sergeant Bill King" stories, contributed to Black Terror and Fighting Yank comics, and wrote profiles such as Catherine

891-558: A loner who guarded her privacy but she formed a life-long friendship with fellow student Kate Kingsley Skattebol. She continued to read voraciously, kept diaries and notebooks, and developed an interest in eastern philosophy , Marx and Freud . She also read Thomas Wolfe , Marcel Proust and Julien Green with admiration. She published nine stories in the college literary magazine and became its editor in her senior year. After graduating in 1942, Highsmith, despite endorsements from "highly placed professionals," applied without success for

990-821: A long-term association with the publication. She also completed two further novels, Deep Water (published in 1957) and A Game for the Living (1958), and a children's book, Miranda the Panda is on the Veranda (1958), that she co-authored with Doris Sanders. In December 1958, Highsmith moved back to Manhattan where she wrote This Sweet Sickness . The novel was published in February 1960 to generally favorable reviews. From September 1960, she lived near New Hope , Pennsylvania. There she saw René Clement's Plein Soleil (1960),

1089-627: A loose adaptation of Ripley's Game. She praised the film but was displeased with Dennis Hopper as Ripley. The following year, she was elected chairman of the jury for the Berlin Film Festival . In 1980 Highsmith underwent bypass surgery to correct uncontrolled bleeding and serious cardiovascular problems. Soon after, the French authorities fined her for taxation irregularities, prompting her to comment, "How appropriate, to be bleeding in two places." Disillusioned with France, she bought

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1188-580: A mix of occupations or of intellectual interests, Ahmed urges a breaking of the "thinker"/"doer" dichotomy and the art/science dichotomy. He argues that an orientation towards action and towards thinking support each other, and that human beings flourish by pursuing a diversity of experiences as well as a diversity of knowledge. He observes that successful people in many fields have cited hobbies and other "peripheral" activities as supplying skills or insights that helped them succeed. Ahmed examines evidence suggesting that developing multiple talents and perspectives

1287-436: A new model of education that better promotes creativity and innovation: "we must focus education on principles, methods, and skills that will serve them [students] in learning and creating across many disciplines, multiple careers, and succeeding life stages". Peter Burke , Professor Emeritus of Cultural History and Fellow of Emmanuel College at Cambridge, discussed the theme of polymathy in some of his works. He has presented

1386-553: A novel about a lesbian relationship. Strangers on a Train was published in March 1950 and received favorable reviews in The New Yorker , New York Herald Tribune and New York Times. The novel was shortlisted for the Edgar Allan Poe Prize and Alfred Hitchcock secured the film rights for $ 6,000. Sales increased after the release of the film. In February 1951, she left for Europe for the publication of

1485-486: A personality disorder. A psychiatrist who observed her at a hotel in 1963 said to the owner, "You do realize you have a psychopath in the hall." Many who knew her said she could also be funny and good company, but difficult. Her oldest friend, Kate Skattebol, said that at college she was "fun to be with and her sense of humour was great. She loved to shock people." British journalist Francis Wyndham, who met her in 1963, said, "I liked her immediately...I could tell that she

1584-651: A psychopath. The novel went on to win the Edgar Allan Poe Scroll of the Mystery Writers of America. Highsmith biographer Richard Bradford states that the novel "forged the basis for her long term reputation as a writer." Highsmith moved to the affluent hamlet of Palisades , New York State, in 1956 and lived there for over two years. In March 1957, her story "A Perfect Alibi" was published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine , beginning

1683-423: A single issue. Ahmed cites biologist E. O. Wilson 's view that reality is approached not by a single academic discipline but via a consilience between them. One argument for studying multiple approaches is that it leads to open-mindedness . Within any one perspective, a question may seem to have a straightforward, settled answer. Someone aware of different, contrasting answers will be more open-minded and aware of

1782-408: A society, company, community, guild, corporation , etc". At this time, universities did not specialize in specific areas, but rather trained students in a broad array of science, philosophy, and theology. This universal education gave them a grounding from which they could continue into apprenticeship toward becoming a master of a specific field. When someone is called a "Renaissance man" today, it

1881-407: A story about a pyromaniac nanny that she had written in 1941, was published by Harper's Bazaar . The publishers Knopf wrote her that they were interested in publishing any novels she might have. Nothing, however, came from their subsequent meeting. Highsmith's agents advised her that her stories needed to be more "upbeat" to be marketable but she wanted to write stories that reflected her vision of

1980-744: A teenager and episodes of depression throughout her life. Despite literary success, she wrote in her diary of January 1970: "[I] am now cynical, fairly rich ... lonely, depressed, and totally pessimistic." She was an alcoholic who by her middle age drank from breakfast until she went to bed at night. She smoked 40 Gauloises cigarettes a day and rarely ate fruit and vegetables. In 1973 her doctor advised her that if she did not change her lifestyle she might not live past 55. Highsmith underwent surgery in May 1980 for blockages in two arteries of her right leg, and in April 1986 she had successful surgery for lung cancer (of

2079-473: A type not related to smoking). In January 1992 she had a procedure to widen her left femoral artery, and in September the following year she had surgery to remove a non-cancerous tumor in her lower intestine. Later in 1993 she was diagnosed with the aplastic anemia and lung cancer that would kill her. To all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real,

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2178-463: A typology of polymathy, ranging from the ubiquitous mini-c polymathy to the eminent but rare Big-C polymathy, as well as a model with some requirements for a person (polymath or not) to be able to reach the highest levels of creative accomplishment. They account for three general requirements—intelligence, motivation to be creative, and an environment that allows creative expression—that are needed for any attempt at creativity to succeed. Then, depending on

2277-515: A webcomic called Curse of the Black Terror . The comic is described as a superhero/noir story. The webcomic follows a re-imagined version of the Black Terror. Writer Curtis Lawson has stated that the story keeps the original Black Terror's history mostly intact and that his new Black Terror is a Legacy Hero. This new Black Terror features a new costume, but the same powers as the original. His identity has not been revealed. The visual re-design of

2376-526: A writer for comic books while writing her own short stories and novels in her spare time. Her literary breakthrough came with the publication of her first novel Strangers on a Train (1950) which was adapted into a 1951 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock . Her 1955 novel The Talented Mr. Ripley was well received in the United States and Europe, cementing her reputation as a major exponent of psychological thrillers. In 1963, Highsmith moved to England where her critical reputation continued to grow. Following

2475-519: A year. She called this the "saddest year" of her life and felt "abandoned" by her mother. In 1934 she returned to New York to live with her mother and stepfather in Greenwich Village , Manhattan. She was unhappy at home. She hated her step father and developed a life-long love–hate relationship with her mother, which she later fictionalized in stories such as " The Terrapin ", about a young boy who stabs his mother to death. She attended

2574-437: Is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Embodying a basic tenet of Renaissance humanism that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. This is expressed in the term Renaissance man , often applied to

2673-418: Is considered the principal responsible for rekindling interest in polymathy in the scientific community. His works emphasize the contrast between the polymath and two other types: the specialist and the dilettante. The specialist demonstrates depth but lacks breadth of knowledge. The dilettante demonstrates superficial breadth but tends to acquire skills merely "for their own sake without regard to understanding

2772-411: Is contrasted with the idea of narrowness, specialization, and the restriction of one's expertise to a limited domain. The possession of comprehensive knowledge at very disparate areas is a hallmark of the greatest polymaths. Depth refers to the vertical accumulation of knowledge and the degree of elaboration or sophistication of one's sets of one's conceptual network. Like Robert Root-Bernstein, Araki uses

2871-695: Is defeated by a time travelling version of his original self, the Black Terror. The Black Terror is seen in the Mike Allred illustrated " Stardust the Super Wizard " story in Image Comics ' Next Issue Project #1 (also known as Fantastic Comics #24, January 2008). He can be seen with many other notable Golden Age characters, including Daredevil , Miss Masque , the Green Lama , the Face ,

2970-475: Is helpful for success in a highly specialised field. He cites a study of Nobel Prize-winning scientists which found them 25 times more likely to sing, dance, or act than average scientists. Another study found that children scored higher in IQ tests after having drum lessons, and he uses such research to argue that diversity of domains can enhance a person's general intelligence. Ahmed cites many historical claims for

3069-519: Is meant that rather than simply having broad interests or superficial knowledge in several fields, the individual possesses a more profound knowledge and a proficiency, or even an expertise, in at least some of those fields. Some dictionaries use the term "Renaissance man" to describe someone with many interests or talents, while others give a meaning restricted to the Renaissance and more closely related to Renaissance ideals. Robert Root-Bernstein

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3168-516: Is presented in a 2018 article with two main objectives: The model, which was designed to reflect a structural model, has five major components: Regarding the definition of the term polymathy, the researcher, through an analysis of the extant literature, concluded that although there are a multitude of perspectives on polymathy, most of them ascertain that polymathy entails three core elements: breadth, depth and integration. Breadth refers to comprehensiveness, extension and diversity of knowledge. It

3267-471: Is what we do in bed." In 1970 she wrote to a friend: "We all become reconciled to being queer and prefer life that way." Highsmith refused to speak publicly about her sexuality, repeatedly telling interviewers: “I don’t answer personal questions about myself or other people.” When she finally agreed, in 1990, to have The Price of Salt republished under her own name as Carol she was still reluctant to discuss her sexuality. In 1978, however, she wrote

3366-581: The Diatribae upon the first part of the late History of Tithes of Richard Montagu in 1621. Use in English of the similar term polyhistor dates from the late 16th century. The term "Renaissance man" was first recorded in written English in the early 20th century. It is used to refer to great thinkers living before, during, or after the Renaissance . Leonardo da Vinci has often been described as

3465-599: The Phantom , the Fighting Yank , and Samson , who headlines the book. He also made a small appearance on the cover and in some panels of Savage Dragon #141 (November 2008). In June 2008, pulp publisher Wild Cat Books released Legends of the Golden Age , a prose anthology featuring new stories of the Black Terror and Lev Gleason's Daredevil . Black Terror was one of several Golden Age characters to appear in

3564-778: The Terra Obscura series, the Terror 2000 program institutes a crime prevention program in Invertica City, wherein technologically produced versions of the Black Terror (referred to as the Terror) fight crime. A corporation running the program tries to sell it to other cities in the US. Eventually, the Terror transfers its consciousness into the now deceased Tim and tries to acquire power from the returning Captain Future 's spaceship. He

3663-504: The gifted people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectual, artistic, social, physical, and spiritual. In Western Europe, the first work to use the term polymathy in its title ( De Polymathia tractatio: integri operis de studiis veterum ) was published in 1603 by Johann von Wowern , a Hamburg philosopher. Von Wowern defined polymathy as "knowledge of various matters, drawn from all kinds of studies ... ranging freely through all

3762-634: The "million dollar death ray"), the femme fatale Lady Serpent (who has a hypnotic glance), and the Japanese scientist Hanura and his "electro-hypnotizer", which is used to assassinate American generals and admirals". With the popularity of superheroes fading in the late 40s, the Black Terror's series ended with issue #27 (June 1949). In 1983, AC Comics revised the Black Terror, starting in their Americomics title. In it, now-retired Bob Benton (called Mark Benton in this version) returns to action after an attempt to shake him down for protection money leads to

3861-561: The 1960s, as often eccentric, rude, difficult and antisocial. She brought her pet snails to one dinner party in the 1960s and let them wander over the mahogany. At a dinner party in 1968 she deliberately lowered her head to a candle and set her hair on fire. She had two friends as house guests in 1971 and threw a dead rat into their room. She often made racist or insensitive comments which offended and embarrassed those present. Those who knew her suggested that this behavior might have resulted from depression, alcoholism, Asperger's Syndrome or

3960-481: The 2013 Masks series along other pulp heroes. He again had a solo series in 2019 entitled Black Terror which consisted of 5 issues unrelated to his previous Dynamite versions. The 2009 Metahuman Press serial Out for Vengeance uses both the Black Terror and Black Fury as a basis for the character. He maintains the traditional secret identity and costume. The series is set in the modern day and involves Robert Benton suddenly finding himself young and semi-amnesiac in

4059-487: The Black Terror for certain operations. He had no superpowers or any connection to the original character. The Black Terror, along with other heroes from Nedor Comics , were revived by Alan Moore in 2001 in his series Tom Strong , published by America's Best Comics . This revival set the characters on a parallel world called Terra Obscura , which was also the title of the resulting mini-series. In Tom Strong #11, Moore and co-creator Chris Sprouse more fully introduce

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4158-565: The Black Terror in this webcomic was the work of artist Kundo Krunch. In 2011, Eric M. Esquivel and Ander Sarabia created a version of The Black Terror called "The Blackest Terror", who is more of an urban revolutionary, obsessed with social justice, than a status-quo-enforcing superhero. Theirs is the first version of Robert Benton to be portrayed as an African-American . Blackest Terror also appears in their book Thor: Unkillable Thunder Christ , also published by Moonstone Books . The Black Terror appears alongside other Golden Age superheroes in

4257-461: The Door as "a flat book, but popular in France, Germany and E[ast] Germany." In 1986, Highsmith had a successful operation for lung cancer. Shortly after, she commissioned a new home in Tegna , Switzerland. The home was in the brutalist style and her friends called it "the bunker." There she completed her last two novels, Ripley Under Water (1991) and Small g: A Summer Idyll (1995). In 1990 she

4356-474: The French film adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley, but she was disappointed by its moralistic ending. She also wrote The Cry of the Owl which she completed in February 1962. Although Highsmith considered it one of her worst novels, novelist Brigid Brophy later rated it, along with Lolita , as one of the best since World War II. Highsmith spent 1962 shuttling between New Hope and Europe and finishing

4455-762: The Great , Barney Ross , and Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker for the "Real Life Comics" series. After a year, she realized she could make more money and have more flexibility for travel and serious writing by working freelance for comics and she did so until 1949. From 1943 to 1946, under editor Vincent Fago at Timely Comics , she contributed to its U.S.A. Comics wartime series, writing scenarios for characters such as "Jap Buster Johnson" and The Destroyer . For Fawcett Publications she scripted characters including "Crisco and Jasper." She also wrote for True Comics , Captain Midnight and Western Comics . Working for comics

4554-431: The advantages of polymathy. Some of these are about general intellectual abilities that polymaths apply across multiple domains. For example, Aristotle wrote that full understanding of a topic requires, in addition to subject knowledge, a general critical thinking ability that can assess how that knowledge was arrived at. Another advantage of a polymathic mindset is in the application of multiple approaches to understanding

4653-549: The aesthetic and structural/scientific connections between mathematics, arts and the sciences. In 2009, Sriraman published a paper reporting a 3-year study with 120 pre-service mathematics teachers and derived several implications for mathematics pre-service education as well as interdisciplinary education. He utilized a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach to recreate the emotions, voices and struggles of students as they tried to unravel Russell's paradox presented in its linguistic form. They found that those more engaged in solving

4752-570: The age of nine, she became fascinated by the case histories of abnormal psychology in The Human Mind by Karl Menninger , a popularizer of Freudian analysis. In the summer of 1933, Highsmith attended a girls' camp and the letters she wrote home were published as a story two years later in Woman's World magazine. She received $ 25 for the story. After returning from camp, she was sent to Fort Worth and lived with her maternal grandmother for

4851-441: The all-girl Julian Richman High School where she achieved a B minus average grade. She continued to read widely— Edgar Allan Poe was a favorite—and began writing short stories and a journal. Her story "Primroses are Pink" was published in the school literary magazine. In 1938 Highsmith entered Barnard College where her studies included English literature, playwriting and short story composition. Fellow students considered her

4950-522: The archetype of the Renaissance man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". Many notable polymaths lived during the Renaissance period, a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th through to the 17th century that began in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spread to the rest of Europe. These polymaths had a rounded approach to education that reflected

5049-622: The army of memories, with which I do battle—may they never give me peace. – Patricia Highsmith, "My New Year's Toast", journal entry, 1947 Highsmith was ambitious and socially active in the 1940s but always preferred smaller gatherings to large crowds and public functions. Despite her reputation as a recluse in her later years, she had a circle of friends, neighbors and admirers who she regularly saw in France and Switzerland, and she frequently corresponded with friends in Europe and America. Highsmith's biographers, friends and acquaintances describe her public and private behavior, especially from

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5148-744: The basis of creative giftedness ask not 'who is creative?' but 'what is the basis of creative thinking?' From the polymathy perspective, giftedness is the ability to combine disparate (or even apparently contradictory) ideas, sets of problems, skills, talents, and knowledge in novel and useful ways. Polymathy is therefore the main source of any individual's creative potential". In "Life Stages of Creativity", Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein suggest six typologies of creative life stages. These typologies are based on real creative production records first published by Root-Bernstein, Bernstein, and Garnier (1993). Finally, his studies suggest that understanding polymathy and learning from polymathic exemplars can help structure

5247-550: The big picture—and for analysis. He says: "It takes a polymath to 'mind the gap' and draw attention to the knowledges that may otherwise disappear into the spaces between disciplines, as they are currently defined and organized". Bharath Sriraman , of the University of Montana, also investigated the role of polymathy in education. He poses that an ideal education should nurture talent in the classroom and enable individuals to pursue multiple fields of research and appreciate both

5346-613: The breakdown of her relationship with a married Englishwoman, she moved to France in 1967 to try to rebuild her life. Her sales were now higher in Europe than in the United States which her agent attributed to her subversion of the conventions of American crime fiction. She moved to Switzerland in 1982 where she continued to publish new work that increasingly divided critics. The last years of her life were marked by ill health and she died of aplastic anemia and lung cancer in Switzerland in 1995. The Times said of Highsmith: "she puts

5445-404: The broader applications or implications and without integrating it". Conversely, the polymath is a person with a level of expertise that is able to "put a significant amount of time and effort into their avocations and find ways to use their multiple interests to inform their vocations". A key point in the work of Root-Bernstein and colleagues is the argument in favor of the universality of

5544-537: The city of New Salem. The webcomic Heroes Inc. started in 2009 and takes place in an alternate reality where the allies of World War II lost the war. In present day, the American Crusader gathers DNA from Golden Age heroes in order to create a new generation of heroes. One of these Golden Age heroes is the Black Terror (now going by the alias Duncan Boone), who is currently on death row for first degree murder. In February 2011, Broken Soul Press launched

5643-594: The comic book series Project Superpowers , by writer Jim Krueger and artist Alex Ross . He was also the first in the series to get a spin-off series, written by Krueger with art by Mike Lilly . In the Black Terror series, which began in November 2008, the Terror leads a one-man assault on the White House in search of his lost partner, Tim. The series was cancelled at #14 in 2011. The character appears in

5742-447: The concept of dilettancy as a contrast to the idea of profound learning that polymathy entails. Integration, although not explicit in most definitions of polymathy, is also a core component of polymathy according to the author. Integration involves the capacity of connecting, articulating, concatenating or synthesizing different conceptual networks, which in non-polymathic persons might be segregated. In addition, integration can happen at

5841-630: The country in her bra. Schenkar, however, believes this is only an amusing story and that she smuggled her snails in cottage cheese cartons. Her other hobbies included woodworking, painting and gardening. Diogenes Verlag published a book of her drawings in 1995. She was an accomplished gardener, but in her later years her friends and neighbors did most of the work on her gardens. Highsmith's sexual relationships were predominantly with women. She occasionally engaged in sex with men without physical desire for them, writing in her diary in 1948: "The male face doesn't attract me, isn't beautiful to me." In

5940-499: The creative process. That is, although creative products, such as a painting, a mathematical model or a poem, can be domain-specific, at the level of the creative process, the mental tools that lead to the generation of creative ideas are the same, be it in the arts or science. These mental tools are sometimes called intuitive tools of thinking. It is therefore not surprising that many of the most innovative scientists have serious hobbies or interests in artistic activities, and that some of

6039-631: The crime story literature. Julian Simmons in The Sunday Times commended Highsmith's subtle characterization. The novel won the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers' Association for best foreign novel of 1964. Highsmith was quarreling with her mother and under severe emotional strain due to her difficult relationship with her English lover. She was drinking heavily and her private and public behavior

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6138-417: The death of his wife. He would operate as an over-the-top vigilante, now just called the "Terror". Later, most likely due to trademark issues, he became a criminal enforcer known as the "Terrorist". In Roy Thomas ' Alter Ego mini-series from 1986, several Golden Age characters were used, but renamed. The Black Terror (renamed "The Holy Terror") made an appearance. Bob Benton made a single appearance in

6237-555: The domain of choice, more specific abilities will be required. The more that one's abilities and interests match the requirements of a domain, the better. While some will develop their specific skills and motivations for specific domains, polymathic people will display intrinsic motivation (and the ability) to pursue a variety of subject matters across different domains. Regarding the interplay of polymathy and education, they suggest that rather than asking whether every student has multicreative potential, educators might more actively nurture

6336-616: The festival town of Aldeburgh , Suffolk, and the following year she bought a home in the nearby village of Earl Soham where she lived for three years. During this time, Highsmith's critical reputation in the United Kingdom grew. Francis Wyndham wrote a long article on Highsmith for the New Statesman in 1963 which introduced her work to many readers. Brigid Brophy, also writing in the New Statesman , praised The Two Faces of January (1964) stating that Highsmith had made

6435-476: The fields of the disciplines, as far as the human mind, with unwearied industry, is able to pursue them". Von Wowern lists erudition, literature, philology , philomathy , and polyhistory as synonyms. The earliest recorded use of the term in the English language is from 1624, in the second edition of The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton ; the form polymathist is slightly older, first appearing in

6534-459: The fourth issue of Darkline Comics' Dark Adventures . In the script by Vic Peterson and art by Thompson O'Rourke, Benton's exposure to his secret formula has made him ageless and sleepless, and he begins a new war on crime under the name "Terror Knight". Eclipse Comics did a three-issue mini-series "revival" of the Black Terror in 1989. In this series, the character is an undercover FBI agent operating against organized crime who would dress up like

6633-552: The idea of Terra Obscura being a parallel Earth, "but in our own dimension. In our own galaxy". In this issue, Tom Strange is revealed to have run across the Milky Way for 30 years to reach Strong for help in stopping an alien menace that killed or imprisoned most of the science heroes of Terra Obscura. Strong himself theorized that the duplicate Earth "must be due to some near-inconceivable fluke of mathematics, of statistical probability". The parallel Earth, as revealed by Strange,

6732-490: The ideals of the humanists of the time. A gentleman or courtier of that era was expected to speak several languages, play a musical instrument , write poetry , and so on; thus fulfilling the Renaissance ideal . The idea of a universal education was essential to achieving polymath ability, hence the word university was used to describe a seat of learning. However, the original Latin word universitas refers in general to "a number of persons associated into one body,

6831-508: The independent film Avenging Force: The Scarab . Patricia Highsmith Patricia Highsmith (born Mary Patricia Plangman ; January 19, 1921 – February 4, 1995) was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers , including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley . She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories in a career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her writing

6930-702: The individual and wider society. It suggests that the complex problems of the 21st century need the versatility, creativity, and broad perspectives characteristic of polymaths. For individuals, Ahmed says, specialisation is dehumanising and stifles their full range of expression whereas polymathy "is a powerful means to social and intellectual emancipation" which enables a more fulfilling life. In terms of social progress, he argues that answers to specific problems often come from combining knowledge and skills from multiple areas, and that many important problems are multi-dimensional in nature and cannot be fully understood through one specialism. Rather than interpreting polymathy as

7029-445: The intellectual climate, it has since then been more common to find "passive polymaths", who consume knowledge in various domains but make their reputation in one single discipline, than "proper polymaths", who—through a feat of "intellectual heroism"—manage to make serious contributions to several disciplines. However, Burke warns that in the age of specialization, polymathic people are more necessary than ever, both for synthesis—to paint

7128-728: The limitations of their own knowledge. The importance of recognising these limitations is a theme that Ahmed finds in many thinkers, including Confucius , Ali ibn Abi Talib , and Nicolas of Cusa . He calls it "the essential mark of the polymath." A further argument for multiple approaches is that a polymath does not see diverse approaches as diverse, because they see connections where other people see differences. For example da Vinci advanced multiple fields by applying mathematical principles to each. Aside from Renaissance man , similar terms in use are homo universalis ( Latin ) and uomo universale ( Italian ), which translate to 'universal man'. The related term generalist —contrasted with

7227-514: The most innovative artists have an interest or hobbies in the sciences. Root-Bernstein and colleagues' research is an important counterpoint to the claim by some psychologists that creativity is a domain-specific phenomenon. Through their research, Root-Bernstein and colleagues conclude that there are certain comprehensive thinking skills and tools that cross the barrier of different domains and can foster creative thinking: "[creativity researchers] who discuss integrating ideas from diverse fields as

7326-547: The multicreative potential of their students. As an example, the authors cite that teachers should encourage students to make connections across disciplines, use different forms of media to express their reasoning/understanding (e.g., drawings, movies, and other forms of visual media). In his 2018 book The Polymath , British author Waqas Ahmed defines polymaths as those who have made significant contributions to at least three different fields. Rather than seeing polymaths as exceptionally gifted, he argues that every human being has

7425-515: The novel The Two Faces of January . She had fallen in love with a married English woman and wanted to live closer to her. In February 1963, she moved permanently to Europe. Highsmith rented an apartment in Positano where she worked on her prison novel The Glass Cell. She then traveled to London where she promoted The Cry of the Owl , newly published in Britain. In November 1963 she moved to

7524-524: The novel in England and France. She stayed for two years, traveling and working on an unfinished novel, "The Traffic of Jacob's Ladder," which is now lost. She wrote Skattebol, "I can imagine living mostly in Europe the rest of my life." Highsmith was back in New York in May 1953. The Price of Salt had been published in hardback under a pseudonym the previous May, and sold well in paperback in 1953. It

7623-561: The novel. Strangers on a Train was accepted for publication by Harper & Brothers in May 1949. The following month, Highsmith sailed to Europe where she spent three months in England, France and Italy. In Italy, she visited Positano which would later become the major setting for her novel The Talented Mr. Ripley . She read an anthology of Kierkegaard on the trip and declared him her new "master". Highsmith returned to New York in October 1949 and began writing The Price of Salt ,

7722-547: The paradox also displayed more polymathic thinking traits. He concludes by suggesting that fostering polymathy in the classroom may help students change beliefs, discover structures and open new avenues for interdisciplinary pedagogy. Michael Araki is a professor at the UNSW Business School at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He sought to formalize in a general model how the development of polymathy takes place. His Developmental Model of Polymathy (DMP)

7821-430: The personality level, when the person is able to integrate their diverse activities in a synergic whole, which can also mean a psychic (motivational, emotional and cognitive) integration. Finally, the author also suggests that, via a psychoeconomic approach, polymathy can be seen as a "life project". That is, depending on a person's temperament, endowments, personality, social situation and opportunities (or lack thereof),

7920-567: The posthumous availability of her diaries and notebooks in which she recorded the motivations of her behavior. Highsmith began keeping snails as pets in 1946 or 1949 as she was fascinated by their sexuality. Pet snails appear in her 1957 novel Deep Water, and her story "The Snail Watcher" is about pet snails who kill their owner. She kept 300 snails at her home in Earl Soham and occasionally took some with her on social outings. She said that when she moved to France she smuggled her snails into

8019-486: The potential to become one: that people naturally have multiple interests and talents. He contrasts this polymathic nature against what he calls "the cult of specialisation". For example, education systems stifle this nature by forcing learners to specialise in narrow topics. The book argues that specialisation encouraged by the production lines of the Industrial Revolution is counter-productive both to

8118-594: The project of a polymathic self-formation may present itself to the person as more or less alluring and more or less feasible to be pursued. James C. Kaufman , from the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, and Ronald A. Beghetto, from the same university, investigated the possibility that everyone could have the potential for polymathy as well as the issue of the domain-generality or domain-specificity of creativity. Based on their earlier four-c model of creativity, Beghetto and Kaufman proposed

8217-682: The promise of any future royalties, to the Yaddo colony, where she spent two months in 1948 writing the draft of Strangers on a Train . Highsmith bequeathed her literary estate to the Swiss Literary Archives at the Swiss National Library in Bern, Switzerland. Her Swiss publisher, Diogenes Verlag , which had principal rights to her work, was appointed literary executor of the estate. Her last novel, Small g:

8316-489: The suspense story in a toweringly high place in the hierarchy of fiction." Her second novel, The Price of Salt , published under a pseudonym in 1952, was ground breaking for its positive depiction of lesbian relationships and optimistic ending. She remains controversial for her antisemitic, racist and misanthropic statements. Highsmith was born Mary Patricia Plangman in Fort Worth, Texas on January 19, 1921. She

8415-429: The world. In 1946, Highsmith read Albert Camus ' The Stranger and was impressed by his absurdist vision. The following year she commenced writing Strangers on a Train , and her new agent submitted an early draft to a publisher's reader who recommended major revisions. Based on the recommendation of Truman Capote , Highsmith was accepted by the Yaddo artist's retreat during the summer of 1948, where she worked on

8514-399: The world—was making it increasingly difficult for individual scholars to master as many disciplines as before. Thus, an intellectual retreat of the polymath species occurred: "from knowledge in every [academic] field to knowledge in several fields, and from making original contributions in many fields to a more passive consumption of what has been contributed by others". Given this change in

8613-682: Was because they were "too subtle". In 1970, Highsmith flew to the United States where she visited New York and her family in Fort Worth. She drew on her trip for her novel A Dog's Ransom (1972) which is set in Manhattan. In November 1970 she moved to the village of Moncourt , in the Moselle region of France. The novels she wrote there include Ripley's Game (1974), Edith's Diary (1977) and The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980). In 1977, she saw Wim Wenders' The American Friend ,

8712-520: Was becoming more eccentric and antisocial. When her love affair ended in late 1966, she decided to move to France. After a brief visit to Tunisia, Highsmith moved to the Île-de-France in 1967 and eventually settled at Montmachoux in April 1968. Her novels of this period include The Tremor of Forgery (1969), which Graham Greene considered her finest work, and Ripley Under Ground (1970) which gained generally positive reviews. Her books, however, were selling poorly in America which her agent suggested

8811-675: Was consistently unfaithful to her lovers. She noted in her 1949 diary that she couldn’t sustain any relationship for more than two to three years. In 1943 she wrote, "there is something perverted within me, that I don’t love a girl anymore if she loves me more than I love her." According to biographer Andrew Wilson , "She would be forever prone to falling in love but always happiest when alone." Highsmith held varying views about her sexuality throughout her life. In 1942 she wrote that lesbians were inferior to homosexual men because they never sought their equals. Later she told author Marijane Meaker : "the only difference between us and heterosexuals

8910-411: Was engaged in battle by the members of SMASH . It killed some members, and trapped others in suspended animation for 30 years, until freed by the combined efforts of Tom Strong and Tom Strange. In Tom Strong #12, it is revealed that the Black Terror had been killed in battle with the alien. However, Benton, a polymath , had transferred his consciousness into a computer program called Terror 2000. In

9009-455: Was formed much as our own, except that once Earth had completely formed, something large collided and combined with it — a vast spacecraft. The pilot of the spacecraft survived in the Moon , until awakened by astronauts on July 20, 1969. It apparently followed them back to Earth, where it began construction of a ship to return home — by converting the entire Earth into a spaceship. In the process, it

9108-416: Was influenced by existentialist literature, and questioned notions of identity and popular morality . She was dubbed "the poet of apprehension " by novelist Graham Greene . Born in Fort Worth , Texas, and mostly raised in her infancy by her maternal grandmother, Highsmith moved to New York City at the age of six to live with her mother and step father. After graduating college in 1942, she worked as

9207-786: Was made an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. In 1993 her health deteriorated and she required the help of a home carer. Highsmith died on February 4, 1995, at 74, from aplastic anemia and lung cancer at Carita Hospital in Locarno , Switzerland, near Tegna. She was cremated at the cemetery in Bellinzona ; a memorial service was conducted in the Chiesa di Tegna in Tegna and her ashes were interred in its columbarium . She left her estate , worth an estimated $ 3 million, and

9306-527: Was pharmacist Bob Benton, who formulated a chemical he called "formic ethers", which gave him various superpowers. He used these powers to fight crime with his sidekick, Tim Roland, together known as the "Terror Twins". His love interest is secretary Jean Starr, who initially despises Benton and loves the Black Terror, but later discovers that they are the same person. According to Jess Nevins' Encyclopedia of Golden Age Superheroes , "The Black Terror has enemies ranging from Nazis to mad scientists like Thorg (he of

9405-501: Was praised in the New York Times Book Review for "sincerity and good taste" but the reviewer found the characters underdeveloped. The novel made Highsmith a respected figure in the New York lesbian community, but as she did not publicly acknowledge authorship, it did not further her literary reputation. In September 1953, Highsmith traveled to Fort Worth where she completed a fair copy of The Blunderer which

9504-576: Was published the following year. In 1954 she worked on a new novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, about a young American who kills a rich compatriot in Italy and assumes his identity. She completed the novel in six months in Lenox , Massachusetts, and Santa Fe and Mexico. The Talented Mr. Ripley was published in December 1955 to favorable reviews in the New York Times Book Review and The New Yorker , their critics praising Highsmith's convincing portrait of

9603-542: Was shy and reticent, a woman with deep feelings, someone who was affectionate but also difficult." Gary Fisketjon, her American editor the 1980s, said, "She was very rough, very difficult ... But she was also plainspoken, dryly funny, and great fun to be around." Highsmith lived alone for most of her adult life, stating in a 1991 interview, "I choose to live alone because my imagination functions better when I don't have to speak with people." Although she preferred her personal life to remain private, she took no steps to avoid

9702-725: Was the only child of commercial artists Jay Bernard Plangman (1889–1975) and Mary Plangman ( née Coates; September 13, 1895 – March 12, 1991). Her father had not wanted a child and had persuaded her mother to have an abortion. Her mother, after a failed attempt to abort her by drinking turpentine , decided to leave Plangman. The couple divorced nine days before their daughter's birth. In 1927 Highsmith moved to New York City to live with her mother and her stepfather, commercial artist Stanley Highsmith, whom her mother had married in 1924. Patricia excelled at school and read widely, including works by Jack London , Louisa May Alcott , Robert Louis Stevenson , Bram Stoker , and John Ruskin . At

9801-607: Was the only long-term job Highsmith ever held. Highsmith considered comics boring "hack work" and was determined to become a novelist. In the evenings she wrote short stories which she submitted, unsuccessfully, to publications such as The New Yorker. In 1944 she spent five months in Mexico where she worked on an unfinished novel "The Click of the Shutting". On her return to Manhattan she worked on another unfinished novel "The Dove Descending". The following year, "The Heroine,"

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