J.S. Bach—
All of his kids were musical geniuses. Or at least semi-geniuses
Yes, Bosda, that’s a good example I didn’t think of. Four or five of his sons became very well-known and prolific composers in their own right. Although one could say, that since ol’ Johann had twenty kids with two wives, that you could very well expect to get a couple of remarkable ones out of the batch! 
By the way, Eonwe – any relation to the Chevalier d’Eon, France’s notorious transvestite spy?
.:Nichol:.
Well, if you look for greatness in different areas, you’ll find that MANY sons of “great” men have equalled and surpassed their fathers’ accomplishments.
Do the names Peyton Manning, Barry Bonds, Grant Hill, Ken Griffey Jr., or Brett Hull ring any bells?
astorian wrote:
Do the names Peyton Manning, Barry Bonds, Grant Hill, Ken Griffey Jr., or Brett Hull ring any bells?
No. May I ask what field these men excelled in?
.:Nichol:.
I think a Ken Griffy is a pro hockey player, or maybe some other sport. Dunno if he’s jr. or a sr., though.
Eonwe, I think the pattern you describe does occur. I don’t know how common it is. Einstein comes to mind.
I don’t mean that Einstein was inept at ordinary, everyday social relations; I don’t think he was. Just at relationships with women. And he seems not to have been much of a parent. I got this impression from a PBS bio of him.
Nichol_storm wrote:
Wasn’t Mary Shelley – the author of Frankenstein – also the daughter of Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft?
Great people aren’t necessarily great at raising children, and encouraging them to reach their full potential.
Here’s a question for you. How many of these great people had siblings of equal reknown? (Heck, how many have siblings?). I can look around at my sibs and see four very different people, who will accomplish very different things.
Aren’t Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley one in the same?
I could have sworn Mary Shelley was married to Percy Shelley, but I don’t recall.
Harvey Mackay, in his book “How To Swim With The Sharks”, devotes a chapter to this. He talks about the old adage “it’s two generations from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves”, meaning that if a man is successful, likely his son will not be, and then in turn his grandson will be.
Partially, IMHO, this is due to the pressure placed on each individual. Mackay brings up Kirk Douglas praising his son Michael- “My father owned a pushcart. If I wanted to be more successful than him, I only needed to own two pushcarts.” ‘Great people’ generally do not have to fulfill great expectations; generally, society has small expectations for them- Napoleon’s father certainly never told Napoleon that he was expected to rule France, and I doubt that anyone from his village in Corsica would even have imagined such. But how much was Napoleon II immediately expected to be the great general and politician that his father was? The children of the great have huge assumptions and expectations placed upon them, and that pressure becomes more of a burden than a help.
DPWhite,
I read with interest your assessment of George Washington under the “Why is it that great people so rarely produce great offspring?” Straight Dope thread. I’ve read only a single (although quite good) book which dealt directly with Washington, the early patriots, and the revolution.
In particular I’m interested in the following statements that you made in your post:
“He had an enormous temper, when in an informal group swore with far saltier language than any other man (and in the military this is saying something)”
“When he was a junior officer, he personally started the “French-Indian” war by firing the first
shot.”
“When his best friend, George Mason, refused to endorse the new Constitution because it would destroy states as individual nations, Washington, having once championed this position and seen its failure, choose never to speak to Mason again.”
I wasn’t aware of these details about Washington as the book I read, Patriots by A.J. Languth, didn’t really touch on any of these areas. I was hoping you could direct me to whatever reading material you used as your source. Thanks.
Grim
Yes, Mary Wollenstonecraft Godwin and Mary Shelley are one and the same. Mary Shelley was her married name. She and Percy didn’t have any daughters – or at least none that survived past infancy.
.:Nichol:.
Conversely, why is it that so many great people were the offspring of ordinary parents? This of course was answered above: Greatness is not simply a matter of good genes. The right choices one makes about what to do with ones life, and the circumstances he finds himself in that may give rise to his greatness are equally important.
I’ve been dwelling on this for about twenty minutes trying to come up with a name and the only ones I can think of are:
The Barrymores. Ethel, John, Lionel, & Drew
The Carradines (OK, David Carridine is a bit of a stretch)
Allen Hale SR & Jr. ( Friar Tuck from Robin Hood and…Skipper from Gilligan’s Island. One or both of them was an inventor, IIRC.)-Again, a bit of a stretch.
Wasn’t **Patton’s ** dad a General in WW1?
**John & Samuel Adams **
Of course, they weren’t father and son, but second cousins once removed, I believe. You might mean John and John Quincy Adams.