According the book I am reading, Where the Heart Beats (Larson, pg 46-47), Duchamp was a "little known light-weight" all the way to the 1950s.
There is an interesting pattern-similarity here with Son House, who I was interested in late last year. What we know about is filtered through the next wave of people who were seeking to re-discover, piece together, and collect what they could about another time.
