The Great Schizo-Autist War

Last week, the novelist Helen DeWitt announced that she turned down the Windham-Campbell Prize, an unrestricted $175,000 grant funded by a bequest to Yale University, because she couldn’t meet a few modest promotional requirements. The public was shocked, and public intellectual Tyler Cowen of the libertarian Mercatus Center has now given DeWitt a grant for the same amount. The controversy, however, only reveals how little people understand about the creative vocation at the highest levels of accomplishment. DeWitt has continued to rail against the original prize committee, and to disclose her own foibles online: “I think I am looking death in the face. Can’t get my head around this,” she wrote, in response to an email asking her to proof a bio for accuracy.