Evelyn Wood

Life & Legacy

Evelyn Nielsen Wood (January 8, 1909 – August 26, 1995) was an American educator and businessperson, widely known for popularizing speed reading, although she preferred the phrase "dynamic reading". She created and marketed a system said to increase a reader's speed over the average reading rate of 250 to 300 words a minute by a factor of three to ten times, or more, while preserving and even improving comprehension. The system was taught in rented offices, dubbed "institutes", as Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics, a business Wood co-founded with her husband, Doug Wood. It eventually had 150 outlets in the United States, 30 in Canada, and others worldwide.