Random Geniuses Who Vanished or Went Into Hiding (10 items)

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  (#1) Grigori Perelman

  • 52

  Russian math god Dr. Grigori Perelman collected the super-prestigious $1,000,000 Clay Mathematics Institute Millennium Prize in 2010 for proving the Poincaré conjecture, and earned the super-awesome nickname “Mathsputin” for rejecting the prize to continue living in squalor with his probably pissed off mother and sister in St. Petersburg. The Poincaré conjecture states, “Every simply connected, closed 3-manifold is homeomorphic to the 3-sphere,” which you have to admit sounds a bit like rejected Pootie Tang dialogue unless you’re a Good Will Hunting-level math wizard.

  The wild-bearded Perelman, who turned down teaching offers from Princeton and Berkeley, reportedly lives “extremely humbly,” which is wee bit of an understatement: an “astounded” neighbor said in 2010 that Perelman “only has a table, a stool and a bed with a dirty mattress.” Slightly more recent reports indicate Perelman has “all [he] needs,” and just doesn’t want the attention, likening it to being “on display like an animal in a zoo.”

  After Perelman's sudden flight from obscurity to fame, he more or less disappeared from public view, so much so journalists went looking for him. Brett Forrest of British newspaper The Telegraph conducted a stakeout to find the reclusive genius in 2012, and apparently made brief contact with him. Meanwhile, Perelman's Wikipedia page is full of bizarre conjecture like "Some Russian news outlets have indicated that Perelman has had a job in Sweden since 2014" and "In April 2011, Aleksandr Zabrovsky, producer of President-Film studio, claimed to have held an interview with Perelman... A number of journalists believe that Zabrovky's interview is most likely a fake... "
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  (#5) Chaim Soutine

  • Dec. at 50 (1893-1943)

  Chaim Soutine, an acclaimed Russian Expressionist painter of Belarusian-Jewish origin, vanished from Paris and the public eye in 1941 to escape the Gestapo. For two years, he traveled, battling a stomach ulcer, with his girlfriend Marie-Berthe Aurenche, sleeping in forests, bouncing from hotel-to-hotel, constantly changing accommodations to avoid detection.

  The art world discovered his whereabouts in 1943, after Aurenche took more than 24 hours to stealthily drive him 200 miles back to Paris for treatment for his ulcer (they did not trust any local doctors where they were hiding). Soutine died of internal bleeding on August 9, 1943.

  Known best for his vivid paintings of animal carcasses, Soutine’s work was wildly popular in New York during the ‘30s and ‘40s. He was championed as a genius by Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani (responsible for the portrait of Soutine above) as early as 1917, but his work didn’t find acclaim until a prominent American collector purchased all of his work at once in 1922 (now permanently on display at a museum in Merion, PA).
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  (#9) Beverley Thorne

  • 95

  Architect David Thorne received so much attention for his work on jazz giant Dave Brubeck’s house in 1954, he changed his professional name in the ‘60s, got an unlisted phone number, and didn’t “resurface” until the ‘80s. Brubek’s mid-century modern house in Oakland was considered a brilliant early example of the dramatic, steel-supported homes that would later fill the Hollywood hills.

  Tired of attention from rich developers and “crooks,” Thorne changed his professional name to Beverley Thorne and largely dropped out of sight, quietly doing work that went largely unheralded. In the ‘80s, his profile increased on account of work he did in Hawaii. By 2006, he once again began speaking openly about his 1950s work.
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  (#8) Ettore Majorana

  • Dec. at 32 (1906-1938)

  Theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana (1906-1938?) was considered one of the most deeply brilliant men in the world by Enrico Fermi, creator of the first nuclear reactor. Fermi even compared Majorana to Galileo and Newton. So the scientific community was shocked to learn Majorana disappeared without a trace in 1938, shortly after traveling on a ship headed from Palermo to Naples.

  There are many theories as to what happened to Majorana, but no real evidence to back them up. Suicide is a popular theory. He wrote a letter to a friend saying he “made a decision that has become unavoidable,” but later sent another letter saying, “Don’t think I’m like an Ibsen heroine, because the case if different. I’m at your disposal for further details.”

  Some think Majorana may have been killed by Nazis, joined a monastery, or just decided to start a new life (he did drain his bank account the day before he disappeared).
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  (#6) Barbara Newhall Follett

  • Dec. at 25 (1914-1939)

  Child prodigy Barbara Newhall Follett disappeared in 1939, at age 26, following a fight with her husband. She has never been seen again. Follett famously authored a novel, The House Without Windows, at age 12. It garnered near-unanimous praise. Anne Carroll Moore, of the New York Herald Tribune, found the story “exquisite,” but wrote, “I can conceive of no greater handicap for the writer between the ages of 19 and 39 than to have published a successful book between the age of nine and 12.” Moore wondered what price young Follett would “pay for her ‘big days’ at the typewriter?”

  Follett authored follow-up The Voyage of the Norman D. the next year (“a fine, sustained, and vivid piece of writing”—The Saturday Review), but the week before publication, her father left her and her mother to live with a younger woman. Follett found work as a typist to make up for the income her father took with him. By age 20, she had written two more books, but had no editor and no high school diploma, making it hard to find work.

  Follett married outdoorsman Nickerson Rogers in '34, and found happiness backpacking through Europe and taking dance classes. But in 1939, she wrote to a friend that Nick was cheating on her. On December 7, she disappeared forever, just the character Eepersip from The House Without Windows. Rogers later said he expected her to return, which is why it took him weeks to tell police. The media didn’t learn about Follett’s disappearance until 1966, because Rogers didn’t list her maiden name in the missing person report.
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  (#10) Genius Chef Nick Gill Decided to Disappear

  At just 21, Nick Gill was the youngest-ever British chef to win a Michelin star. He seemed destined for a life of fame and fortune, and was hailed as a culinary genius. By the time he disappeared, at 42, he had been jailed for attacking his ex-wife and lost contact with his two young children. He was also, reportedly, a “heavy drinker and drug user.”

  In 1998, he told his older brother, writer and critic AA Gill, “I’m going to go and disappear. Please don’t look for me.” The elder Gill obliged, and Nick hasn’t been seen since. Strangely, a pencil sketch of Nick done by AA showed up for auction at Christie’s in 2014, but AA says it’s not a sign. “I don’t know where it came from. I didn’t pursue it. If Nick wanted to get in touch with me, I’m not hard to find.”

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