Books like A Personal Odyssey

What a journey and how well he remembers! With change and happenstance that both hurt and helped. The most dire situations to the summits of intellect - and all in immense quantities of lowest to high. Having read some of his works/books (what a treasure)- I had to read this memoir. It's not a autobiography in the immense detail of his love life or disputes or dysfunctions sense- he explains that in the Preface. But it does describe each and every step towards his latter life and "jobs". And his life view upon the world, economics and much else with where, what, how and every year of his long life. I love the short acknowledgment of thanks at the very beginning. "To Mary Frances, who came to look for me." (He was told she was his cousin who came to visit, but she actually was his full sister.)With his way of looking at the world and ultimate habits of addressing the literal or obvious problem despite the social backlash and/or sure negation and penalty he would know he'd have to pay! Beyond guts. And ultimate thick skinned honesty to reveal and declare his own value of "right" or "correct" or to say where he belonged in class. It's only equaled by his pure intellectual ability to face empirical data without assumption, omission, or distraction of emotive praise or negative reaction. Either.My only feeling after reading this? How could he have stood it for all the changes/path moves/dictates within the Academic World. Academia holds, and did even then, such varying scales for/ to "work" and its evaluations of produce/ results or even the process itself that is nearly 180 degrees from his own. His deduction ability is phenomenal from day 1 (did it expose itself in early /middle school paths). And that he could see in full disclosure that growth would never occur for any good purpose within the bickering and constant emotional duplicities and deceptions, the upheavals of day to day around him- to leave at 17 as he did (legally)! I greatly admire his sight. Beyond just his intellectual and worldview acuity.