I don't know much more about the history of the proof than this, but in the following talk, Malcolm Gladwell describes the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem as the work of 13 smart guys in collaboration, rather than one lone genius.
From what I know about the problem, his assertion that Ventris worked alone is not quite right, Alice Kober contributed significantly to the decipherment as well.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2007/gladwe...
From what I know about the problem, his assertion that Ventris worked alone is not quite right, Alice Kober contributed significantly to the decipherment as well.