Edison - by Neil Baldwin (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The genius of America's most prolific inventor, Thomas Edison, is widely acknowledged, and Edison himself has become an almost mythic figure. But how much do we really know about the man who considered deriving rubber from a goldenrod plant as opposed to the genius who gave us electric light? Neil Baldwin gives us a complex portrait of the inventor himself--both myth and man--and a multifaceted account of the intellectual climate of the country he worked in and irrevocably changed.

From the Back Cover

The genius of America's most prolific inventor, Thomas Edison, is widely acknowledged, and Edison himself has become an almost mythic figure. But how much do we really know about the man who considered deriving rubber from a goldenrod plant as opposed to the mastermind who gave us electric light? In this fascinating biography, Neil Baldwin gives us a complex portrait of the inventor himself-both myth and man-and a multifaceted account of the intellectual climate of the country he worked in and irrevocably changed.

Review Quotes

"Baldwin has demythologized the man and left the genius bigger than life."--David Gates, Newsweek

-- "Newsweek"

"Edison has been the subject of many earlier biographical studies, yet Mr. Baldwin sees more clearly than the rest how Edison's life was his greatest invention."--G. Pascal Zachary, Wall Street Journal

-- "Wall Street Journal"

"In this scrupulously detailed, thoroughly captivating biography, Neil Baldwin presents America in a man--as strange, obsessed, and tangled and brilliant as the age he literally illuminated. After reading Edison, you wonder how it is possible to understand the country without him."--Roger Rosenblatt

About the Author

Neil Baldwin is an executive director of the National Book Foundation and coeditor of The Writing Life. He is the author of critically acclaimed biographies of William Carlos Williams and Man Ray, as well as Legends of the Plumed Serpent: Biography of a Mexican God.