If I'm not mistaken, Paul Lockhart was also self-taught. If I recall correctly, he met Ernst Strauss at some point, who introduced him to Erdos who then somehow

If I'm not mistaken, Paul Lockhart was also self-taught. If I recall correctly, he met Ernst Strauss at some point, who introduced him to Erdos who then somehow managed to get him admitted to the graduate program at UCLA (he dropped out of undergrad). He had published before being accepted to graduate school.