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21 People Who Died Thinking They Were A Failure, But Were Judged Otherwise By History
Michelle No
Sun, December 28, 2025 at 9:31 PM UTC
Innovative ideas are not always appreciated in their time. History is full of examples of people whose work was rejected, vilified, or simply mocked — only to reach notoriety shortly after the creator's death. Recently, redditor Bob_the_blacksmith asked, "Who died believing themselves a failure, but was judged otherwise by history?" and the answers will have you rethinking how you look at all the brilliant folks around you.
1. "Kotoku Wamura, the mayor of Fudai village, built a huge and expensive tsunami defense wall and gate system. In 2011, when the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit, Fudai was saved. Unfortunately, Wakura died in 1997, never knowing how many were saved by his flood defenses."
"He went way above budget to get the extra height for the walls, while all the townspeople were mad about the tax expenditure waste. Only one person died in 2011 — a fisherman who went out to check on his boat." —u/Sergovan
2. "Ludwig Boltzmann was a theoretical physicist who laid the foundation for statistical mechanics, essential to understanding fundamental physics today. He spent most of his life defending his theories, which were derided by his peers. He died by suicide before his work became generally accepted by the community and part of every undergraduate physics course. His equation defining entropy is engraved on his tombstone."
3. "Vincent van Gogh is a classic example. He thought he’d failed his whole life, sold almost no paintings, and struggled with mental health. Today, he’s celebrated as one of the greatest painters in history. Wild when you think about it."
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4. "Stieg Larsson (author of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) died suddenly before the books were published. Never saw them explode globally. Never saw the movies. Never saw the hundreds of millions of copies sold. He died thinking he was a journalist with a side project."
5. "John Kennedy Toole died by suicide after not being able to get his book published. A decade after his death, his book, A Confederacy of Dunces, was published and won the Pulitzer Prize."
6. "Alfred Wegener's continental drift theory was laughed at, because he was seen as an outsider to the scientific community. He died in an expedition without knowing if his theory was proven true or not."
7. "Ignaz Semmelweis came up with the brilliant idea that doctors should wash their hands before seeing patients, particularly before seeing women in labor. He figured this out before the inception of germ theory and was basically shunned and mocked by the medical community. He had a mental breakdown and ended up dying in an asylum, following an infection he received after being beaten by guards."
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8. "Robert E. Howard invented sword and sorcery fantasy and created Conan the Barbarian. He died by suicide at age 30."
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9. "Georges Bizet died at 36, thinking that his opera, Carmen, was a failure. After his death, it would go on to be one of the most frequently produced operas of all time."
10. "Confucius died believing his political and moral frameworks on how to live and govern harmoniously would die out with him. His students continued his legacy and Confucian ideas continue to deeply influence norms and values across East Asia."
11. "Jonathan Larson, the creator of the musical Rent, died hours before the show's premiere. It's not exactly the same thing, you might say, but he never lived to see his creation recognized as the most successful musical of his era and learn how many people were truly touched by his work."
12. "Emily Dickinson lived a reclusive life, thinking her poetry didn't matter. Today she's a literary legend."
13. "Bill Finger was cheated out of his artistic credit by Bob Kane and died penniless. He's now remembered as the co-creator of Batman."
14. "Egbert Sen was a Pakistani-born British musician who earned extra money by working as an extra in British-produced film and TV in the '70s and '80s. One of these minor roles was as a man in an orange jumpsuit evacuating Cloud City in a hurry in The Empire Strikes Back. He died in 2019, without ever having achieved fame. He was completely unaware that this one minor character would attain a massive cult following amongst Star Wars fans, purely because he ran holding an ice cream maker as though his livelihood depended on it. He was completely unaware that this character would have a trading card, action figure, be frequently cosplayed by fans."
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15. "Aaron Swartz co-founded Reddit and died by suicide after the federal government decided to press stacked charges against him for downloading JSTOR content.He's considered a martyr by many people today."
16. "F. Scott Fitzgerald died penniless, unaware that his novel, The Great Gatsby, would go on to become THE quintessential Great American Novel."
"One of the primary reasons The Great Gatsby DID become one of the Great American Novels is because the U.S. military included copies in GI rations during WWII, and suddenly everyone loved the thing."
17. "Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian revolution, didn’t necessarily see himself as a failure, but he didn’t live to see the results of the slave rebellion he led against France. He died in a French prison."
18. "Alan Turing was criminally persecuted, stripped of his dignity, and died thinking he was a disgrace, when in reality he basically helped save millions of lives and laid the groundwork for modern computing."
19. "Ada Lovelace was a genius mathematician who invented computer programming in her teens. She worked with Charles Babbage via correspondence on the designs for the first computer. Both of them died before the technology was developed to actually build a computer. Babbage had plenty of other accomplishments to his name, but Lovelace took up drinking and gambling and died without ever knowing how important her contribution to the world would become."
20. "Ralph Wood was the architect behind Causey Arch, completed in 1726, and the largest single-span bridge in the world at the time. It remained so for the next 30 or so years. At its peak, over 900 horse-trucks would cross it every day! However, Ralph believed the arch would collapse, and in 1727, he leapt to his death from the arch. It remains standing today."
21. "Wounded in the Civil War, Dr. John S. Pemberton became addicted to morphine while trying to treat his own illness. So, he invented a drink designed to help cure his addiction. He sold the formula to a business partner and died poor and in obscurity. His drink did not go unnoticed; today, it’s called Coca-Cola."
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Can you think of any other people who died before seeing their work appreciated by the masses? Share them in the comments or anonymous form below.
Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.
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