This Child Prodigy Signed a Record Contract at Age 11

Some famous figures spend a lifetime cultivating their craft before reaching crowning achievements later in life. Others, however, show an almost uncanny ability in their chosen field long before they hit puberty. Child prodigies are a wonder to behold and have captivated the public imagination forever. The pressure can be too much, leading many baby geniuses to burn out by the time they reach maturity. Due to matters of circumstance, luck, or something else entirely, some child prodigies manage to keep fueling their genius fire well into adulthood.

It’s hard to say exactly what causes a child to become a prodigy. Some prodigies show a supernatural ability for math or music from an early age with little prodding, like poet Arthur Rimbaud or the human calculator Shakuntala Devi. Stevie Wonder, for example, used his natural music talent to score a major label record contract at the age of 11. Others, however, are treated to rigid formal training from an early age, enduring educational hardship for their entire childhood before becoming famous public figures like John Stuart Mill or Clara Schumann. In this article, we will explore some of the most well-known child prodigies who found success in their adult lives.

To compile a list of child prodigies who found success later in life, 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of historical, entertainment, and news publications including Smithsonian Magazine , CNBC, and Howstuffworks.com. From there, we selected child prodigies who advanced into further esteem upon reaching adulthood. After that, we confirmed aspects of each prodigy’s biography using sites like Britannica and Biography.com.

John Von Neumann

Born to a wealthy, non-observant Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary, John Von Neumann showed remarkable skills at an early age. By age six, Von Neumann could divide two eight-digit numbers in his head and speak conversationally in Ancient Greek. Two years later, he grew familiar with differential and integral calculus. Though undoubtedly a child prodigy, his father insisted he attend school at a grade level appropriate to his age. By age 19, he pushed two major mathematical treatises, the latter of which gave the modern definition of ordinal numbers.

While many child prodigies suffer under the weight of knowledge at an early age, Von Neumann took it in stride. During World War II, Von Neumann joined the Manhattan Project, where he developed the model behind the atomic bomb’s explosive lens. By the end of his life, many considered Von Neumann the most varied mathematician of all time. His contributions to math were legion.

Besides helping build the mathematical framework of quantum physics, he made major contributions to the fields of physics, statistics, economics, and computing. Plus, his structural analysis of self-replication heralded the discovery of DNA. For his unparalleled contributions to math and science, Von Neumann received the Medal of Freedom and a crater on the moon named in his honor.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

A composer like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart needs no introduction. Born in Salzburg (in what is now Austria), Mozart was taught music by his composer and music teacher father. His music education started at three years old with him watching on as his older sister Maria learned piano. Within a year, Mozart showed great aptitude for both the keyboard and violin, composing short pieces that he performed for his father. He showed such great skill in playing and composition that his father abandoned his own composing as he felt beneath his young son.

By age 17, Mozart became employed as a musician in the royal court at Salzburg. Soon, however, he grew restless with the position and searched for other musical jobs far and wide. This led him to gigs in Paris, Mannheim, and Munich. Though he eventually returned to Salzburg, he favored the nearby city of Vienna. There, he began composing music in earnest. Though he faced constant financial insecurity, his time in Vienna helped him achieve worldwide renown. During this time he composed nearly 20 piano concertos, many of which are considered his greatest achievements.

Not long after, Mozart composed his best-known works including his three final symphonies. He also wrote a noted clarinet concerto and four operas including “Le Nozze di Figaro,” “Don Giovanni,” and “The Magic Flute.” Tragically, Mozart came down with a mysterious illness and died young at age 35. Though he had fallen somewhat into obscurity by his death, Mozart’s reputation grew substantially in the wake of his passing.

Arthur Rimbaud

Born in Charleville-Mézières, a commune in northern France, Arthur Rimbaud’s mother pushed him toward scholastic excellence at an early age. First, she tutored him exclusively before sending him to school at age nine. For his part, Rimbaud disliked schoolwork and resented his mother’s constant supervision, which included walking him to and from school until he was 15 years old. Upon entering the Collège de Charleville, Rimbaud’s nascent literary talent grew to impressive heights. At age 15, Rimbaud composed several poems which future readers considered to be his best achievements.

Amidst the ongoing Franco-Prussian War, however, Rimbaud abandoned his formal education by running away to Paris. For the next few years, Rimbaud became something of a rebel, stealing from bookshops, drinking alcohol, and composing risque poems. A chance letter to the rising poet Paul Verlaine led to a torrid, tumultuous love affair between the pair. During their relationship, they led a vagabond lifestyle, indulging in opium, hashish, and alcohol as they traveled far and wide. Amid this period, however, Rimbaud also wrote the bulk of his poetry. At age 18, Rimbaud got into a horrific fight with Verlaine, which led Verlaine to shoot him in the wrist.

By age 20, he ceased writing completely. He spent the rest of his life traveling, mostly by foot. These adventures led him as far as East Java and Abyssinia. At age 37, Rimbaud became sick and died, from what is now considered to be bone cancer. Though his literary output lasted for a few short years, Rimbaud contributed heavily to poetry. Besides his contributions to Symbolism, his poem “A Season in Hell” is considered a precursor to Modernist literature.

Blaise Pascal

Born in France’s Auvergne region, Blaise Pascal lost his mother by the time he turned three. A few years later, his father Étienne Pascal moved the family to Paris and decided to educate his children by himself. At an early age, Pascal showed incredible aptitude for science and mathematics. For some reason, however, his amateur mathematician father prevented Blaise from learning math. At age 12, however, Pascal rediscovered Euclid’s first thirty-two geometric propositions on his own by drawing with charcoal on a tile floor.

Within four years, Pascal wrote a short treatise on conic sections. Upon sending the theorem to mathematician and philosopher  René Descartes, Descartes scoffed at the work assuming it had been written by his father. By age 19, Pascal created a mechanical calculator capable of addition and subtraction called Pascal’s Calculator or the Pascaline. Though they were unwieldy and failed to achieve commercial success, Pascal’s Calculator pioneered both modern calculators and computer engineering.

After that, Pascal made notable contributions to the fields of natural and applied sciences. Besides writing controversial defenses of the scientific method, he also devised important contributions to the study of fluids. Later in life, Pascal underwent something of a religious awakening. This turned his attention toward philosophy, and caused him to write his two most important philosophical works, the “ Lettres Provinciales” and the “Pensées.” All the while, he continued his scientific contributions with a standout treatise on the arithmetical triangle and the use of cycloids in calculating the volume of solids.

Shakuntala Devi

Shakuntala Devi was born into something of a circus family in Bangalore, India in 1929. Her father worked as a lion tamer, trapeze artist, and circus magician. While teaching three-year-old Devi a card trick, her father discovered her uncanny ability to memorize numbers. With an entertainer’s spirit, he abandoned his career and took Devi on the road to showcase her instinctual calculation abilities. These mathematical performances took her around the world. She traveled to the University of California Berkeley where a professor tested her calculation skills. As the story goes, he asked her for the cube root of 61,629,875 and the seventh root of 170,859,375. Remarkably, Devi provided the answers before the professor could write them down in his notebook.

From there, Devi continued her travels, shocking even the most esteemed mathematician with her superhuman calculation abilities. Upon invitation to the Imperial College London, Devi solved the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers in less than thirty seconds, an event which was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. Upon reaching adulthood, however, Devi turned her sights to more unexpected interests.

In 1977, she published “The World of Homosexuals,” which became the first academic study of homosexuality in India. Though some criticized her for the work, the book is now considered a pioneering study as it called for the full decriminalization of homosexuality. Later in life, Devi contested the Lok Sabha elections in India, running against former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Besides her incredible calculation abilities, Devi became a notable astrologer, writing several books on the topic before her death.

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was born to a well-to-do family in central London in 1806. His father, James Mill, was a prominent Scottish philosopher, historian, and economist. Mill was educated solely by his father. As a follower of philosopher Jeremy Bentham and an adherent to associationism, Mill explicitly intended to create a genius intellect in his son. By age three, John Stuart Mill knew Ancient Greek. Within five years, Mill had read the great Greek works in their original language. Simultaneously, Mill learned Latin, advanced geometry, and algebra, and was appointed schoolmaster of his younger siblings.

His precocious childhood gave way to more formal education, often at the hands of notable thinkers from the time like George Ensor, Jean-Baptiste Say, and Henri Saint-Simon. Though his father intended Mill to carry on his economic torch, the rigid, uninterrupted schooling had profound effects on Mill. At age 20, Mill fell into a serious, months-long depression which almost led him to suicide. The poetry of William Wordsworth, however, imbued Mill with a renewed sense of purpose of finding joy in the pursuit of creating a just society.

After that, Mill continued his economic and political philosophy work. During his middle period, Mill became a proponent of Utilitarianism and contributed to the investigation of scientific methodology. He also wrote an early pro-feminist work called “The Subjection of Women.” By the time of his death, many considered Mill to be one of the most influential figures in the history of liberalism. Long before others, Mill advocated for progressive ideas like freedom of speech, liberty, women’s rights, and democracy.

Clara Schumann

It seems like since birth, fate had music in store for Clara Wieck. The daughter of a famous singer and music teacher, Schumann remained with her father after her parent’s divorce. For his part, Wieck’s father planned her young life down to the smallest detail. He instructed her in music and composition for hours each day, often at the expense of other educational subjects. At age nine, she made her professional debut at the Gewandhaus concert hall in Leipzig, Germany. During this time, she met an older male pianist named Robert Schumann. Impressed with Clara’s father’s teaching, he abandoned his law studies to focus solely on music by moving into the Weick household.

A few years later, Wieck embarked on a multi-country music tour through Europe, stopping in cities like Paris and Weimar. This period marked her transition from a child prodigy to a successful adult performer. At age 18, she performed a series of standout recitals in Vienna. There, she played to sold-out crowds and earned critical success. Legendary composers like Franz Schubert and Franz Liszt gave laudatory reviews of her playing. That same year, she married a former associate and boarder in her house Robert Schumann.

Together, the pair formed a strong relationship with burgeoning composer Johannes Brahms, with Schumann giving many premieres for Brahms’ new compositions. After the death of her husband, Schumann continued her European concert tours for decades. Later in life, she took up music teaching, attracting legions of international students to Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium in Frankfurt, Germany. Though she died over a century ago, her face still graces a German banknote, and her story has been adapted into multiple films.

Pablo Picasso

Much like Mozart, Pablo Picasso needs little introduction considering he is one of the most prominent artists of all time. Born in October 1881 on the southern coast of Spain, Picasso learned art at an early age from his father who was a naturalist painter and a professor of art at the nearby School of Crafts. No doubt influenced by his father, Picasso showed an aptitude for art at an early age. According to his mother, his first words were “piz, piz,” a shortening of the Spanish word lápiz, which means pencil. Starting at age seven, Picasso received formal artistic training from his father in oil and figure drawing.

After the death of his seven-year-old sister Conchita, Picasso and his family relocated to Barcelona in 1895. Upon taking a position at the School of Fine Arts, his father persuaded the administration to let Picasso take the entrance exam for advanced classes. Though this process often took aspiring students months to complete, Picasso finished it in a week and was admitted at age 13. Eventually, his family sent him to Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, Spain’s premier art school. During this time, Picasso earned a bit of status for his expertly drafted naturalistic paintings.

During the first few decades of the 20th century, Picasso’s style underwent a profound transformation. Inspired by the Fauvist expressions of painters like Henri Matisse, Picasso explored a variety of different styles including cubism and surrealism. Thanks to his relentless reinvention and imagination, Picasso became one of the best-known figures in modern art. Many still consider him the greatest artist of the 20th century.

Stevie Wonder

From the outset, it seemed like Stevie Wonder had the cards stacked against him. Born Stevland Hardaway Morris, six weeks premature in the oxygen-rich environment of the hospital resulted in blindness. A few years later, his parents divorced. After his family moved back to Detroit, Morris sang in the church choir and became a soloist at age eight. Before that even, Morris showed great aptitude for music, playing a range of instruments including piano, harmonica, and drums. Around this time, he began composing music as well.

At age 11, Morris sang his song “Lonely Boy” to Ronnie White of the Miracles. Impressed by the child’s ability, White took Morris to an audition at Motown Records. This led to an instant contract with the record label, and Morris adopted the stage name Little Stevie Wonder. After being put under the tutelage of producer Clarence Paul, Wonder and Paul composed two albums worth of music in a little over a year. At age 13, Wonder released his single “Fingertips,” which rose to number one on the Billboard Charts, making him the youngest solo artist to ever top the charts. His musical prowess and recognition continued to grow until the 1970s when he released albums like “Innervisions,” “Fulfillingness’ First Finale,” and “Songs in the Key of Life.” Each album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, making him the only artist to win the award with three consecutive releases.

From there, Wonder’s fame increased further. Throughout his long and illustrious career, he has won an astounding 25 Grammy Awards, and an Academy Award, and was inducted into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Even today, Wonder remains one of the best-selling artists of all time, with over 100 million records sold worldwide.

Srinivasa Ramanujan

From an early age, mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan showed a profound aptitude for numbers. Right before he turned 10, Ramanujan passed his primary school examinations with the best scores in the district. Upon entering secondary school, he encountered formal mathematics for the first time and he became obsessed. By age 11, Ramanujan was effectively a child prodigy. He mastered advanced trigonometry while simultaneously formulating advanced theorems on his own accord. A year later, he often completed mathematical exams in half the allotted time. As Ramanujan progressed into adolescence and adulthood, he effectively mastered different schools of mathematics.

After developing mathematical theories in isolation, Ramanujan attempted correspondence with leading European mathematicians to show them his work. Due to their unusual presentation and novel insights, however, many mathematicians failed to understand the genius of his work. Eventually, he came into contact with G.H. Hardy, a mathematician at the University of Cambridge. Immediately, Hardy recognized his brilliance and arranged for him to travel to England where Ramanujan further expounded on his mathematical ideas.

Despite having almost no formal training, Ramanujan independently compiled 3,900 mathematical results. Novel theorems like the Ramanujan prime and the mock theta function opened up entirely new areas of mathematics. Furthermore, Ramanujan made notable contributions to number theory, infinite series, and mathematical analysis, often providing solutions to problems previously considered unsolvable. Tragically, Ramanujan died in 1920 at the age of 32.

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