True Wisdom: The Men Who Shaped Thought

What if you could sit down with the greatest minds in history-not to study them, but to speak with them?

True Wisdom I: The Men Who Shaped Thought is the first book in a groundbreaking six-volume literary series that blends history, imagination, and philosophy into an unforgettable journey through time. With insight, humor, and emotional depth, author Lynn Scheid invites you to meet the men whose ideas reshaped civilization, not in their youth, but in their final days.

The narrator, living in present-day New Hampshire, discovers a mysterious device in his pocket. It is silent, smooth, and precise. When he speaks a name, a place, and a date, clearly and with intention, it takes him there. No flashes, no portals. Just arrival. And always at the end. Galileo. Newton. Lincoln. Einstein. Gandhi. Darwin. Each chapter is a cinematic first-person encounter with one of history's most impactful thinkers, not as icons, but as human beings.

What they offer is not instruction. It is clarity. The kind of clarity that only comes near the end of life, when the public has turned, the noise has faded, and the cost of truth has been fully paid.

These are not retellings of what we already know. These are imagined conversations grounded in fact, yet full of emotion, vulnerability, and shared humanity. Galileo talks about how to keep seeking truth when the world demands silence. Newton speaks of the loneliness of seeing what no one else sees. Lincoln grieves his son and explains why he chose to keep leading through hate. Einstein reflects on regret, humility, and the difference between brilliance and wisdom.

The stories unfold with subtle humor, emotional honesty, and real-world relevance. The narrator does not save the world. He does not correct history. He listens, asks questions, and sometimes receives answers. Other times, he leaves with only a feeling, a weight, or a permission, to keep going.

True Wisdom I includes imagined final encounters with:

• Galileo Galilei

• Sir Isaac Newton

• Abraham Lincoln

• Charles Darwin

• Leonardo da Vinci

• William Shakespeare

• Ludwig van Beethoven

• Mahatma Gandhi

• Thomas Jefferson

• Christopher Columbus

• Socrates

• Confucius (Kong Fuzi)

• Leo Tolstoy

• Karl Marx

• Ernest Hemingway

• Dylan Thomas

• Albert Einstein

• Jorge Luis Borges

The questions that spark each visit are timely and personal. What is the price of vision? Is curiosity still worth it? Does legacy matter more than being understood? How do you lead when no one wants to follow? How do you hold on to truth when the world punishes those who speak it?

This is not a book of facts. It is a book of wonder. It asks what we might learn if we were brave enough to sit across from history's most stubborn minds, not to admire them, but to ask them the questions we are still trying to answer. Each story ends with a quiet return to the present and a personal reflection that reveals how the visit changed the narrator, and maybe us too.

Perfect for readers of historical fiction, literary nonfiction, philosophical memoir, or anyone who loves books that blend deep thinking with storytelling. If you have ever asked why the world feels so loud, what makes someone keep going, or whether one voice can still make a difference, True Wisdom I is for you.

This is Volume I in a six-book series. Future volumes will feature women, artists, writers, personal heroes, and those who changed the world quietly. But it begins here, with the men who shaped thought, and whose wisdom still waits to be heard.