Notoriously reclusive comic book creator Bill Watterson recently drew a 15-panel comic strip to promote the 2015 Angoulême International Comics Festival. Watterson, incidentally, is the same man who gave us Calvin and Hobbes and grateful promoters announced: "Watterson sets here, with pleasing humour and expression, what we know as a fundamental principle: Comics, beyond the contingencies and uncertainties of life, can be read anytime and anywhere, and nothing in the world can prevent it!"
We will never know what drives Watterson and his ilk to shun the media spotlight. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the only thing they care about is their craft and constant media attention is hardly conducive to the thinking process. Or it might just be something that makes creative geniuses anti-social and leads them to not craving attention like us mere mortals. In this age of social media, where mediocre books have trailers and movies mint millions simply because of clever marketing, it's heartening to look back on individuals who cared about nothing more than their craft. Here are 10 of the greatest reclusive literary geniuses:
1. Bill Watterson
Stopped in 1995, the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip about a precocious six-year-old and his stuffed tiger is still one of the best anyone has ever seen. Despite the juvenile setting, the comic touches upon a variety of philosophical and ontological issues. The strip ran for 10 years and was more profound than most novels written in this century. Named after a 16th century theologian and a 17th century philosopher, Calvin and Hobbes introduced many people to thoughts and processes that normal comic readers would never encounter.
For his part, Watterson always opined that art shouldn't be judged by the medium in which it is created - there is no high art or low art, just art. He fought hard to make sure Calvin and Hobbes didn't become merchandised because he didn't want to cheapen his characters by seeing their faces on mugs and t-shirts. He stopped drawing when he felt he had done all he could with the strip. He added in his last letter to the readers: "My interests have shifted, however, and I believe I've done what I can do within the constraints of daily deadlines and small panels. I am eager to work at a more thoughtful pace, with fewer artistic compromises."
2. Harper Lee
Harper Lee wrote one novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which is now considered standard reading for schoolchildren around the world. Dealing with issues like racial inequality and sexual abuse, but viewed through a child's eyes, the book would go on to win the Pulitzer and become an Oscar-winning movie starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. It is in fact, one of those rare cases where the movie is as good as, if not better, than the book. So amazing was Peck's performance that Atticus Finch was voted by the American Film Institute to be the greatest hero in American film.
Lee would go on to befriend Gregory Peck but completely disappeared from public life. She never granted any interviews over the years and according to her friend Rev Dr Thomas Lane Butts, she had two reasons for never writing again: "Two reasons: one, I wouldn't go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To Kill a Mockingbird for any amount of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say and I will not say it again."
3. JD Salinger
One can't even imagine how angry JD Salinger would have been to find out Chris Cooper will be playing him in an upcoming film called Coming Through The Rye. Written in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye literally invented Western adolescent angst and Holden Caulfield continues to be an icon of teenage rebellion. One of the most banned (ergo read) books in the world, the book became imprinted in public consciousness when John Lennon's murderer Mark David Chapman appeared to be reading it after shooting the former Beatle.
For his part, Salinger was an extremely interesting character who fought in World War II, impressed Ernest Hemingway with his works and dated Oona O'Neil, who left him for a much-older Charlie Chaplin. He dropped out of public consciousness after the success of The Catcher in the Rye and fought very hard to deny anyone the right to make it a film. Later details on his life suggested that he immersed himself in Sufi mysticism, Taoist philosophy and also become a big fan of Swami Vivekananda, Vedanta and yoga. He eschewed the spotlight throughout his life, and died in 2010 at his home in New Hampshire.
4. Ruskin Bond
To a generation that has grown up on instant social media updates, Chetan Bhagat novels and 24/7 news, Ruskin Bond will seem like a rather quaint figure. India's most prolific children's storyteller stays tucked away in Landour, Mussoorie, at Ivy Cottage, which has been his house since 1964. Educated at Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, every Indian schoolchild must have read his books at one time or another. He has undeniably shaped literature for children with tales from varying genres including fictional accounts of his struggles as a writer.
You'd be surprised to know that Vishal Bhardwaj's Saat Khoon Maaf was actually an adaptation of Bond's short story Susanne's Seven Husbands and Bond even had a cameo. But other than that, Bond loves to stay out of trouble and the public eye.
5. Marcel Proust
One of the greatest French novelists of all time, Proust disappeared from French high society in his mid 30s. An asthmatic, he spent his time in a soundproof bedroom and avoided any sort of human contact. An eccentric genius who spent his days sleeping and nights writing, he would at times stay up for days, working on his masterpiece In Search of Lost Time. He died of pneumonia and a pulmonary abscess in 1922 and rarely left his apartment for the last three years of his life. His friend and fellow writer Leon-Paul Fargue described him saying: "He looked like a man who no longer lives outdoors or by day, a hermit who hasn't emerged from his oak tree for a long time."
6. Emily Dickinson
Proust might have eccentric but he can't hold a candle to Emily Dickinson who didn't leave her family compound for 20 years! Why she chose to live such a secluded life is unknown. According to the website of the Emily Dickinson Museum, "No one knows why Emily Dickinson, later in her life, lived reclusively at her family's Homestead. As a young girl, she frequented social events, enjoyed school, and had many friends. As she grew older, she saw people less and less but remained open to visits from close friends and family. Whether she suffered from a medical condition that made her uncomfortable around people or whether she chose to separate herself from society is not known."
And no one had any reason to care for her eccentric ways, until it became clear after her death that she was one of the most talented American poets of all time. Very few people actually saw her and she had acquired some notoriety for her ways. She was also always seen in white and this gave her the nickname 'Lady in White'. Literary critic, author and mentor Thomas Wentworth Higginson, one of the few people to have seen her as person, described her as "a little plain woman with two smooth bands of reddish hair... in a very plain and exquisitely clean white pique and a blue net worsted shawl".
Why she never got any of her poetry published is still unknown, though some of her works did appear in newspapers. It was only when her sister Lavinia discovered a large collection of manuscripts and got them published, the rest, as they say, became history!
7. Syd Barrett
Should a musician be considered a literary genius? We will leave that debate to armchair critics. But Pink Floyd's founding member was musically active for only 10 years before disappearing. Initially the lead vocalist, frontman, guitarist and principal songwriter, Barrett left Pink Floyd in April 1968 and many believed he had been hospitalised due to mental health issues, which were probably caused by drug use.
He met the members of the band one last time in 1975, when he turned up at Abbey Road for the recording sessions of the album Wish You Were Here and watched the band record the amazingly trippy Shine On You Crazy Diamond, which was about him. No one recognised him because he had shaved off all his hair and he was quite overweight. When they did and asked him what he thought of the song, he said, "Sounds a bit old."
After his death from pancreatic cancer in 2006, his sister revealed he had written a book and read a lot on the history of art. She added, "He found his own mind so absorbing that he didn't want to be disturbed."
8. Thomas Pynchon
One of the most prolific authors of fiction and non-fiction, there are very few known photos of Thomas Pynchon. So little is known about him, that at one point, people thought he was a bag lady called Wanda Tinasky. Book critic Arthur Salm best described him in the 1990s, saying, "The man simply chooses not to be a public figure, an attitude that resonates on a frequency so out of phase with that of the prevailing culture that if Pynchon and Paris Hilton were ever to meet-the circumstances, I admit, are beyond imagining-the resulting matter/antimatter explosion would vaporize everything."
Interestingly, he did appear on The Simpsons (his character had a bag over his head to hide his face), because his son was apparently a big fan. Describing Marge's book, he says: "Here's your quote: Thomas Pynchon loved this book, almost as much as he loves cameras!" He then starts yelling at passing cars: "Hey, over here, have your picture taken with a reclusive author! Today only, we'll throw in a free autograph! But, wait! There's more!" And the author even refused to say anything bad about Homer Simpson because Homer was his role model and he refused to speak ill of him.
9. and 10. The Wachowski Siblings
Hardly anyone knew anything about Lauren (now Lana) and Andy Wachowski before The Matrix (screenplay and direction) entered our lives in 1999 and changed it forever.
The sci-fi/action/philosophical/any-other-genre-you-can-think-of film changed cinematography forever. How they convinced a big studio to finance a film which draws from elements of the Bhagavat Gita, Nietzsche, Alice in Wonderland and cyberpunk sci-fi is anybody's guess. In fact, no other film probably explains so wonderfully so many different aspects of the Gita.
The mind-blowing cultural inferences along with hitherto unseen action sequences would go on to re-define filmmaking. The movie's cult following, however, only made the Wachowski siblings recede into their shells.
In fact, the longest anyone has seen them was Lana's acceptance speech at the Human Rights Campaign's Visibility Award in 2012. Explaining her appearance she said: "There are some things we do for ourselves, but there are some things we do for others. I am here because when I was young, I wanted very badly to be a writer, I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I couldn't find anyone like me in the world and it felt like my dreams were foreclosed simply because my gender was less typical than others. If I can be that person for someone else, then the sacrifice of my private civic life may have value."
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