Who is Genie from Genie: A Scientific Tragedy and what is their importance?

Genie was only twenty months old when her father began strapping her to an infant potty seat with a harness he made himself. Genie would sit isolated in a dark room on her chair, able to move only her fingers and toes. The only things Genie could see were the mesh cage-like crib she would sleep in when her father remembered to move her and an inch or so of the outside world outside the windows of her room. Genie would often be beaten with a stick when she made any noise at all and tormented by barking noises from her father whenever he did not feel like beating her. Genie was fed baby food and bottles of milk when they remembered to feed her at all. Genie endured all this for nearly twelve years.