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They lived as outcasts but became legends posthumously! Join us as we explore the brilliant minds who died in obscurity, dismissal, or even disgrace, only to be celebrated as visionaries long after their final breath. From cosmic horror to genetic foundations, these unsung geniuses changed our world without ever knowing it.
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00:00If there's any one single person who can be said to have created modern science, it's got to be Galileo.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at artists, scientists, and visionaries who died in obscurity, dismissal, or even disgrace,
00:13only to be hailed as icons long after their final breath.
00:16The ability to explain hereditary diseases and to engineer plants with desired properties are all consequences of the fundamental theory founded by Mendel.
00:25H.P. Lovecraft
00:28One whose name has become an adjective for the particular type of terror he inspired.
00:33Now considered the father of cosmic horror, H.P. Lovecraft was virtually unknown during his lifetime.
00:38Publishing most of his works in pulp magazines like Weird Tales, Lovecraft's unsettling vision of ancient gods, forbidden knowledge, and existential dread never reached a broad audience.
00:47He died in 1937, convinced he had failed as a writer.
00:50However, after his death, his mythos of Cthulhu, Arkham, and the Necronomicon was preserved and expanded upon by dedicated fans.
00:57He was widely dismissed as an untalented writer by critics and public audiences alike.
01:03His works were viewed as nothing more than fodder for young adults and eccentrics.
01:07Lovecraft's work would be a pivotal influence on writing giants like Stephen King and modern horror as a whole.
01:12Today, the Lovecraftian style is a genre of its own, proving that its founder's imagination was larger than the universe he created.
01:19Humanity has come a long way from what the world looked like when Lovecraft was alive, but the contemplation of our role in the universe, or lack thereof, is still at the forefront of our minds.
01:30Johannes Vermeer
01:31This Dutch master is now celebrated alongside greats like Rembrandt and Van Gogh, but Johannes Vermeer died nearly forgotten in 1675.
01:40Famed for his exquisite use of light in works like Girl with a Pearl Earring, Vermeer struggled financially.
01:45Throughout his life, he produced only around 34 paintings.
01:49His limited output and local reputation meant he faded into obscurity after his death.
01:53It wasn't until nearly three centuries later that art historians rediscovered the genius of his work.
01:58Stunned by his delicate brushwork and photographic realism.
02:01Every little thing in Vermeer's, every little point, every little mark, has a meaning and has a purpose.
02:08Nothing is left to chance.
02:09Vermeer's once forgotten canvases are now priceless treasures, exhibited in the world's greatest museums.
02:14A man who lived quietly painting domestic serenity became, centuries later, a titan of Western art.
02:20Part of the magic of Vermeer is to create more than he actually has put down.
02:26The sense of more there than there is.
02:29Srinivasa Ramanujan
02:30Born in India with no formal training, Srinivasa Ramanujan filled notebooks with equations,
02:50many of which he claimed were shown to him in his dreams by his family deity, Namagiri.
02:54His genius was finally noticed by British mathematician G.H. Hardy, who insisted that Ramanujan visit Cambridge.
03:00He was able to take a little that he knew, harder than most mathematicians would be able to take them.
03:08He had the vision to see what was important.
03:12However, even after reaching Cambridge, Ramanujan's work was so advanced that many mathematicians of his time struggled to comprehend it.
03:19Ramanujan would die at the young age of 32, his potential barely tapped.
03:22Decades later, mathematicians proved the depth of his discoveries.
03:26Many of his theorems now underpin foundational aspects of modern number theory and string theory.
03:31Ramanujan didn't just solve equations.
03:33He was the man who knew infinity, and it took the world generations to understand.
03:38Ramanujan's work has now formed the basis for super string theory and multidimensional physics,
03:45some of the most advanced math that all the high-end scientists are still using today.
03:50Ada Lovelace
03:51The pioneer who first saw the true power of the computer lived way back.
03:57Augusta Ada King, the Countess of Lovelace, contemplated computers that could go beyond calculation.
04:03Working with Charles Babbage's analytical engine in the 1800s, Ada wrote the first-ever computational algorithm.
04:10Unfortunately, she was dismissed as nothing more than a fanciful aristocrat dabbling in mathematics.
04:14The Victorian society couldn't fathom her vision that machines could compose music, create art, or think symbolically.
04:20She published the first computer program as long ago as 1843.
04:26It did not help her cause that she lived in an era where women were poorly represented in society.
04:31It wasn't until the rise of computing in the 20th century that Ada's insights were hailed and she was recognized as the first computer programmer.
04:37Today, her legacy lives on in programming languages, tech awards, and every device powered by digital thought.
04:43This was somebody with enormous talent in an extraordinary environment, hugely privileged, with a background that made her a celebrity from birth, struggling for balance.
04:52How could she make meaning of her life? And the meaning she sought was to be a savant.
04:56Franz Kafka
04:57He'd eked out an obscure and unexceptional life.
05:01But when the lawyer put pen to paper, the writer conjured a disturbing world where the absurd was commonplace and reality a nightmare.
05:11Franz Kafka died in 1924 with a peculiar set of instructions in his will.
05:15He wished for his unpublished manuscripts to be burned.
05:18His close friend, Max Broad, refused to follow his last request, and thankfully, literature was forever changed.
05:24Kafka's stories were surreal and disquieting, exploring alienation, absurdity, and bureaucratic nightmares.
05:30After his passing, Kafka's writing struck a nerve with the modern world drowning in systems and searching for meaning.
05:35Yet during his lifetime, Kafka was largely unknown and deeply convinced of his own failure as a writer.
05:40Today, the phrase Kafkaesque is found in dictionaries and his style is a pillar of existential literature.
05:46The man who feared being misunderstood became the author of an era's most haunting truths.
05:51Since his death, Franz Kafka's work has become enormously influential.
05:56It remains unrivaled for its intensity, modernity, and prescience.
06:01Johann Sebastian Bach
06:02First and foremost, Bach was a brilliant musician.
06:05A virtuoso such as the world had never seen before.
06:09Although admired by some experts, Johann Sebastian Bach's complex Baroque compositions were mostly overshadowed by his skill as a performer.
06:17After his death in 1750, his works remained forgotten, surviving mostly his teaching exercises.
06:22It wasn't until 1829 when Felix Mendelssohn revived Bach's St. Matthew passion that the world rediscovered his immense genius.
06:29From the Brandenburg concertos to the well-tempered clavier, Bach's music became the foundation of Western classical theory.
06:35Now revered as the father of harmony, the composer once dismissed as old-fashioned, is immortal and recognized as the silent architect behind centuries of music.
06:45His attitude to composing was that of a medieval craftsman.
06:49He believed that everyone has his place in the world, where he should humbly work to God's greater glory.
06:55Emily Dickinson
06:56She is as beloved as ever, and now the poet Emily Dickinson is getting even more attention and a new look in books, online, on film, and in a major museum exhibit.
07:08Emily Dickinson spent most of her life in seclusion, writing nearly 1,800 poems that she never intended to publish.
07:14During her lifetime, fewer than a dozen of her pieces saw print, and even those were heavily edited to conform to the poetic norms of the day.
07:20Emily's stark dashes, unconventional capitalization, and raw, introspective voices were considered too strange, too fragmented.
07:28She wrote on just about everything, including death, eternity, faith, and longing, with unsettling clarity.
07:33She is a constant summons to me to think about language and its preciseness.
07:41And not only its preciseness, but its power.
07:44Still the world outside her, Amherst Holmes barely had any clue of her works.
07:48After her death in 1886, her sister discovered her handwritten bundles, which revealed a poetic revolutionary.
07:54Today, Dickinson is hailed as one of America's greatest literary voices, the recluse who quietly reinvented poetry.
08:00She broke the glass ceiling in poetry.
08:05And Emily Dickinson is like a beacon of verbal power that will not be silenced.
08:14Vincent Van Gogh
08:15You probably know me already.
08:18I'm famous the world over.
08:20But do you know my story?
08:22Vincent Van Gogh lived a life defined by struggle.
08:25He was plagued by financial hardship, mental illness, and artistic rejection.
08:29In just a decade, he created more than 2,000 works.
08:32These were paintings with bold colors and emotional intensity that confounded critics of his time.
08:37Despite his massive resume, Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime.
08:41His turbulent friendship with fellow artist Paul Gauguin, his infamous self-inflicted ear injury, and his death at the young age of 37 painted the tragic portrait of a man unseen.
08:57But after his death, his brother's widow, Joanna Van Gogh-Bonger, championed his legacy.
09:02Today, Van Gogh's starry night sunflowers and self-portraits are cultural treasures.
09:07The man who felt he was forgotten now lives forever on campus.
09:10That strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world's greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived.
09:23Gregor Mendel
09:23In a quiet monastery garden, Gregor Mendel conducted meticulous experiments on pea plants, uncovering the fundamental laws of heredity.
09:31Mendel set us straight on the fundamental properties of inheritance, which eventually paved the way for the development of modern genetics.
09:38Using his pea plants, Mendel would discern dominant and recessive traits, segregation, and independent assortment.
09:44Publishing his groundbreaking findings in 1866, Mendel's work would unfortunately be ignored by the scientific community, who would dismiss it as a botanical curiosity.
09:53Mendel returned to clerical duties, never realizing that he had founded the field of genetics.
09:57It wasn't until 1900, when three scientists independently rediscovered his results, that Mendel's genius was finally realized.
10:04Mendel died in obscurity, but his once-overlooked ratios became the blueprint for much of modern biology, medicine, and DNA research.
10:12Every Punnett square genetic test and gene therapy now traces back to his monastery garden.
10:17The ability to explain hereditary diseases and to engineer plants with desired properties are all consequences of the fundamental theory founded by Mendel.
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10:43Galileo Galilei
10:44In an era when the church held immense power, Galileo Galilei dared to aim his telescope at the heavens and challenge the belief in an Earth-centered universe.
11:02He discovered moons orbiting Jupiter, observed the phases of Venus, and proved that the Earth was not the center of the universe.
11:08Instead of praise, Galileo faced the Inquisition.
11:11Under the threat of torture, Galileo was forced to recant his beliefs, spending his final years under house arrest.
11:17Dialogue on the two chief systems of the world was added to the Index of Prohibited Books.
11:24It would remain banned for the next 200 years.
11:28His work was banned.
11:29Centuries after his death, the Catholic Church acknowledged his insight.
11:33Galileo's defiance gave birth to astronomy, physics, and the scientific method itself.
11:38Galileo died silenced, but his vision echoed across the stars.
11:43Which Overlook genius do you think deserves recognition the most?
11:46Let us know in the comments, and don't forget to subscribe for more content.
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