List of autodidacts

This is a list of notable autodidacts which includes people who have been partially or wholly self-taught.

Historical education levels

Because of the large increase in years of education since 1800, especially during the early 20th century, it is difficult to define autodidactism and to compare autodidacts during different time periods.

Artists and authors

* Ellen Gould White, Adventist writer.
*Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a feminist writer, lecturer, and thinker at the turn of the 20th century
*Suzanne Valadon, self-taught artist of Bohemian Paris
*Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, self-taught scholar and poet of New Spain
*Benjamin Kidd (1858–1916), British sociologist, was not given a formal education.Henry Sturt, "Kidd, Benjamin (1858–1916), sociologist," ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 1927. As a working adult, he attended some evening classes and he read incessantly. Kidd gained worldwide fame by the publication of ''Social Evolution'' in 1894.
*Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine writer, essayist, and poet. Winner of the Jerusalem Prize.
*Machado de Assis, often described as the greatest Brazilian writer, never attended a university and taught himself four foreign languages (French, English, German and Greek).
*Hermann Hesse, Nobel Prize for Literature
*Knut Hamsun, Nobel Prize for Literature
*Camilo José Cela, Nobel Prize for Literature
*Eugene O'Neill, Nobel Prize for Literature
*José Saramago, Nobel Prize for Literature. His parents were unable to pay for his studies at early age, and he was forced to abandon the baccalaureate. At the age of 13, he began to study mechanics to repair cars. He continued the next thirty years working as a locksmith for a metal company, and in an agency of social services. His first novel (''Terra de pecado'') was published in 1947 without any success at all. He stopped writing for publication, although he continued doing manuscripts for himself. At the end of the 1960s, he joined the Communist party, and after the fall of the Fascist dictatorship in Portugal of 1974, he was the director of the nationalized newspaper ''Diário de Notícias''. Just a few years after the putsch of the left wing failed in 1975, he began to write again to survive. At this point, he began to receive more recognition for his work. In 1998 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
*Olavo de Carvalho, a philosopher with high political influence in Brazil, with works on religion, traditionalism, politics and culture.
*Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Prize for Literature . A Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of ''Gitanjali'', he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.
*William Blake was an English visionary artist and poet. He was initially educated by his mother prior to his enrollment in drawing classes but never received any formal schooling. Instead, he read widely on subjects of his own choosing.
*John Clare was self-taught and rose out of poverty to become an acclaimed poet.
*Charles Dickens' formal education stopped when he was fifteen years of age. He was an early supporter of self-education.
*Henry Miller was a writer, expatriated in Paris at his flourishing. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms, developing a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, explicit language, sex, surrealist free association, and mysticism.
*Truman Capote was a novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Many of Capote's short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized as literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966), which he labeled a "nonfiction novel". At least 20 films and television dramas have been produced from Capote novels, stories, and plays.
*Jack London was a novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer in the world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first writers to become a worldwide celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.
* Joseph Conrad, regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he was a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature.
*William Faulkner, Nobel Prize for Literature. Dropped out of college.
* Forensic facial reconstruction artist Frank Bender was self-taught. His forensic career started off with a day trip to a morgue, asked to try to put a face on the deceased, brought measurements home, created a successful facial reconstruction that led to his first (of many) IDs. He took only one semester of sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
* Harlan Ellison, multi-award-winning speculative fiction author and screenwriter. Ellison attended Ohio State University for 18 months before being expelled for hitting a professor who criticized his writing, and claimed that for over 20 years thereafter, he sent the professor a copy of every work he published. Ellison wrote screenplays for a wide variety of television series such as '' Star Trek'' and ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' and won dozens of awards in the science fiction and fantasy genres.
* Howard Phillips Lovecraft, weird fiction writer and primogenitor of modern horror fiction, was a self-taught writer, critic and commentator. A pronounced child prodigy by the time he was of primary school age, reading memorized verse not long after learning how to walk, and composing and writing his own poetry by the time he was six. Growing up, Lovecraft attended school only in brief stints, his ill-health ending all scholastic endeavors prematurely. During this time Lovecraft read constantly, gifted with an abnormal talent for reading comprehension. Some of his favorite subjects were astronomy and chemistry, about both of which he went on to write amateur pieces of commentary and criticism. Not long after developing a great interest in the pulp magazines of his day, he began writing fiction himself—eventually becoming a preeminent writer of weird fiction in the pulp press, his work appearing in magazines such as ''Weird Tales'' and ''Astounding Stories''.
*David Hume, philosopher, historian, economist and a prominent figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. Dropped out of college
*Maxim Gorky was a self-taught man who rose out of poverty to become a world-famous writer.
*Mukul Deva, a well-known Indian writer, keynote speaker and coach has been engaged in self-directed learning.
* Jose Carlos Mariategui, the most important Marxist thinker in Latin America due to a chronic illness was absent from a proper education, both school and university. However, he changed the lack of formal studies into an advantage and developed a self-taught capacity, which made him a voracious reader contributing to mature promptly, as he would later say, from an "ephemeral childhood" to a "premature adolescence".
* Nazir Naji, a top Pakistani Urdu news columnist and intellectual best known for his progressive writings has never attended any formal school because of the abject poverty of his parents. He has been in journalism for 50 years, started many popular magazines including '' Akhbar-e-Jehan'' and also served as the speech writer for the former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
*Sir Terry Pratchett, a writer of science fiction, fantasy and children's books, is quoted as saying "I didn't go to university. Didn't even finish A-levels. But I have sympathy for those who did."
* Julio Cortázar was a novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom. Cortázar influenced an entire generation of Spanish-speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe.
* Mark Twain, was a self-taught writer. Faulkner called him "the father of American literature."
*Herman Melville, a writer best known for ''Moby Dick'' engaged in self-directed learning through his life in literature, aesthetics, criticism and art.
*Playwright August Wilson dropped out of school in the ninth grade but continued to educate himself by spending long hours reading at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library.
* Playwright George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Prize for Literature. He left formal education while still in his mid-teens to become a clerk at an estate firm. He compared schools to prison and said that "I did not learn anything at school."
*Ernest Hemingway, Nobel Prize for Literature. The American novelist and short story writer, was primarily self-educated after high school. "... he read for hours at a time in bed", recounted his sister Marcelline. "He read everything around the house—all the books, all the magazines, even the AMA Journals from Dad's office downstairs. Ernie also took out great numbers of books from the public library." His father wanted him to go to Oberlin for college, but Hemingway decided to become a reporter for the Kansas City Star.
*Louis L'Amour, an author who left his home at the age of 15 to expand his horizons and worked many jobs while educating himself.
* J.A. Rogers, the Jamaican-American author, was able to educate himself after receiving only a few years' worth of primary education in Jamaica. He attended but never completed high school. While he was able to study commercial art at the Chicago Art Institute later in life, he got most of his knowledge in libraries and was able to produce many books based on race, history, sociology, and anthropology. He also mastered other languages such as Spanish, German, and French.
*Ray Bradbury, author of fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery novels, graduated from high school but did not attend college. In regard to his education, Bradbury was quoted as saying:

* Rudolph Dirks, one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists, was an autodidact. He sold his first cartoon to a local newspaper when he was 13. For a while, he mainly designed ads. At 17 years old, he sold cartoons to magazines like ''Life'' and '' Judge''. With jobs like cover images for pulp novels he made his living until the ''New York Journal'' hired him, where he earned fame as creator of ''The Katzenjammer Kids, creator of the graphic novels ''V for Vendetta'' and ''Watchmen''.
* Wally Wood, artist and comic book writer, best known for his work on EC Comic's Mad and Marvel's Daredevil. Dropped out of college
* Frida Kahlo, painter, who is best known for her self-portraits. After a bus accident she painted to occupy her time during her temporary immobilization; after this accident she abandoned the study of medicine to begin painting.
* Jean Michel Basquiat, painter and graffiti artist. At 15 ran away from home and in this time dropped out of school.
* L. Ron Hubbard, American author and the founder of the Church of Scientology. After establishing a career as a writer, becoming best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories, he developed a system called Dianetics.
* Gert Verhulst is a Belgian presenter, entrepreneur, singer, songwriter, autodidact, director, actor, screenwriter, composer, film producer, millionaire & business magnate. As a prominent figure within the children's entertainment industry in the Benelux, he is regarded as a Belgian cultural icon, known for his influence and contributions to children's entertainment in the Benelux and founder of Studio 100. In 1987, he applied at the "Koninkijk Conservatorium Antwerpen" (The Royal Academy of fine Arts Antwerp) where he was rejected. He would recall this as a gift from Heaven.
* Billy Corgan Wrote and performed the song "Half-Life of an Autodidact" on his album Ogilala, apparently referencing himself in the song.
* Vincent Willem van Gogh was a mostly self-taught painter.
* Clark Ashton Smith, self-taught poet and fantasy author
* George Orwell, English novelist, essayist and journalist
* Henk Ngantung (1 March 1921 – 12 December 1991), better known as was an Indonesian painter and politician of Minahasan descent. He was appointed Deputy Governor by President Sukarno and then became Governor of Jakarta briefly between 1964 and 1965, the first Christian of the Catholic faith to hold this important post in predominantly Muslim Indonesia.

Actors, musicians, and other artists

* Eddie Van Halen "He was an autodidact who could play almost any instrument, but he couldn't read music. He was a classically trained pianist who also created some of the most distinctive guitar riffs in rock history. (One cannot be both trained classically in piano AND not know how to read music, as all classical piano is lengthy sheet music)"
*Claudio Arrau 20th-century virtuoso pianist. He was highly regarded as an intellectual despite his lack of formal education outside his musical training. Arrau spoke five languages, four of which he learned on his own in addition to his native Spanish: English, German, French, and Italian.
*Feodor Chaliapin
* Frank Zappa Musician noted for his exhortation, "Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you've got any guts. Some of you like Pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read."
* Arnold Schoenberg called himself an "autodidact" in an interview. Other largely self-taught composers include notably Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, Havergal Brian, Nobuo Uematsu, Joachim Raff, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Bohuslav Martinů,
* Heitor Villa-Lobos, a prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2000 works by his death in 1959.
*Stephen Foster, American songwriter. He has been nicknamed the "Father of American music."
*Jesper Kyd, composer and sound designer. He's mostly self-taught.
*Many successful filmmakers did not attend, or dropped out of, college and/or film school. These include Luis Buñuel, Ingmar Bergman, Peter Jackson, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, John Huston, Woody Allen, Dario Argento, Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith and Jim Jarmusch.
* Mikhail Krichman Russian cinematographer. Taught himself cinematography through reading technical magazines, books and watching films.
* Craig Ferguson Host of TV's The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS. He first rose to fame in America as Nigel Wick on The Drew Carey Show, quit high school in native Scotland at the minimum legal age to do so, 16. He continued his education, "haphazard and informal", through American, European and Russian literature. In his autobiography, "American on Purpose", identifies himself as an autodidact—although a dilettante one (see the article on Jean-Paul Sartre's ''Nausea'').
*Penn Jillette, a member of the comedy and magic duo Penn & Teller, declared both he and his partner Teller to be autodidacts in an episode of their television series, '' Penn & Teller: Bullshit!''.
* Keith Moon, the drummer for the rock band The Who. The only training he ever received was at 16 years old when he had 3 or 4 drum lessons with Carlo Little (an early member of the Rolling Stones), who was also a self-taught drummer.
*Mark E. Smith
* Christopher Hughes, the winner of ''Mastermind'', ''International Mastermind'', ''Brain of Britain'', and a current member of crack TV quiz team the '' Eggheads'' is almost entirely self-educated. After leaving Enfield Grammar School at 15 he spent all his life working on the railways in the capacity of driver or station master. He is one of only four people ever to have won both ''Mastermind'' and ''Brain of Britain''. On a couple of occasions on "Eggheads" he has referred to himself as "The Autodidact's Autodidact".
* Ameer Hamza Shinwari Modern Pashto poet. Though not educated in the regular manner, was able to establish his career through self-education.
* Robert Lewis Shayon, early radio producer, author, television critic for ''Christian Science Monitor'' and ''The Saturday Review'', and Ivy League professor, never had a college education.
*David Bowie, singer, musician, multi-instrumentalist, actor, and painter, only received a few singing lessons in the 1960s (as reported by his former manager, Ken Pitt). As a teenager he took some lessons on saxophone by Ronnie Ross. All other instruments (including piano, keyboards/synths, electric/acoustic guitar, harmonica, koto, limited bass, and percussion), he taught himself. His paintings and sculptures were created (and exhibited) without any formal art school training. He took a few lessons in movement and dance with the Lindsey Kemps Dance company but trained himself in mime.
* Jimi Hendrix was an influential self-taught electric guitarist and singer-songwriter.
* Kurt Cobain, lead singer and guitarist for Nirvana, was self-taught on guitar.
*Noel Gallagher, singer, musician, multi-instrumentalist. At the age of thirteen, Noel received six months probation for theft from a corner shop. It was during this period of probation, with little else to do, that Noel first began to teach himself to play a guitar his father had left him, imitating his favourite songs from the radio.
* Andy DiGelsomina, composer and lead guitarist of the rock opera Lyraka. When asked in an interview whether he'd taught himself music composition DiGelsomina replied "Yes. I first taught myself the music reading, harmony, and fugue basics, then found myself especially motivated to read full orchestral scores because of (Richard) Wagner."
* Charles G. Dawes was a self-taught pianist and composer and a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music. His 1912 composition, "Melody in A Major", became a well-known piano and violin piece, and was played at many official functions as his signature tune. It was transformed into the pop song, " It's All in the Game", in 1951 when Carl Sigman added lyrics.
* Errol Flynn
* Django Reinhardt was a highly influential jazz guitarist and composer, regarded as one of the most virtuosic and revered guitarists of all time despite a permanent injury of his left hand, limiting the use of two of his fingers.
* Jeff Loomis Guitarist and composer, known from the band Nevermore, is a self-taught guitarist. He has stated in interviews that he took few lessons in his youth but "didn't do much".
* Erroll Garner jazz pianist and virtuoso, who never learned to read music.
* Dave Grohl drummer and guitarist from Nirvana stated he never took music lessons, for drums nor guitar.
* Nasir Jones Hip-hop legend, better known as Nas, dropped out of school at seventh grade. Born and raised in the Queensbridge Houses in Queens, New York City, Nas is self-taught in all the major academic areas of history, philosophy, science, math, English.
* Marshall Mathers Hip-hop superstar better known as Eminem, dropped out of high school at age 17 and had to repeat ninth grade multiple times. He has gone on record as saying that his ability of rhyming comes from his love of studying other hiphop artists ( Such as Beastie Boys, L.L. Cool J., Dr. Dre, and several other artists), as well as reading the dictionary front to back multiple times to expand his vocabulary and use of multi-syllabic words.
* Noël Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer.
* Paul Gray, bassist, co-founder and songwriter for the Grammy Award-winning band Slipknot stated "I am self-taught, never took any lessons".
* Henri Rousseau