When Atlanta lawyer Jonathan Rapping got the call in early September informing him that he was one of 21 2014 MacArthur Fellows—a recipient of the so-called “genius grant”—he was instructed to tell only one person and that he would never know who nominated him. When we spoke two months after the award had been made public, Rapping had fielded requests from media outlets but hadn’t heard another peep from his new benefactor. “At some point,” he said, “I’ll get a check?”