Edison - A Biography

I primarily read biographies and find that this one is particularly good in that it is very detailed and complete. It's fascinating story of a very unusual man. I highly recommend it.

First: How re-affirming it is, is it not, when one comes to the biography of a man like this, and we find out his great afflictions and handicaps, and see the unbelievable heights he arose to in spite of these! Simply Inspiring, for sure. Of late (last 10 years, roughly) I have been on a great "feeding" of history and historical stuff...I hated it in school, and now, I simply cannot get my fill of ALL things historical, especially of the biographical nature...I have spoken with others, and they tell me the same thing in many cases. What is this, that we, apparently with age, wish to come to know more about those that came before us??? If anyone has ideas or suggestions, I certainly would appreciate their contacting me and letting me know. I read this book (just finished, actually) in a special reprinted edition from History Book Club, which I bought last winter. I must say that I was simply blown away to actually read all the accomplishments of this Great Great Man, and not just the "verbally-quipped stuff", that of the "legends" and the "stories", but the true, hard-copy, black and white, sweat and toil, frustrating, but to him infinately fascinating and challenging quests to solve "the problem" at hand at any given moment in his long and certainly illustrious career. And, of course, to see the integrity of the man, also behind the "legend". No crooked, attention-getting theatrics from this down-home, quiet spoken, simple man...by that I do not mean simple minded, but the every-day man that he was. To see the way this man began to plan the invention of the electric light, not with an end-result (the light), but with the planning of the system that would have to deliver the power to it, based on something he knew about first hand (where NOBODY before him had gone, and thus, failed), the trunk-lines of the telegraph, and the delivery system of natural gas for the gas lights that were in use at that time. This, truly, is amazing, breath-taking stuff...a kind of thinking that is truly rarely seen, maybe once in a hundred or two hundred years. And, later, the phonograph, his many episodes of "losing it all" and "building it up again", the motion picture, how many things he had "invented" or "discovered" while trying to do something else, some, not realizing their unbelievable potential. This book is simply one of the most fascinating reads I have had in a very long time. I could go on, but that would lead me to telling you the whole book, because it is so great, and that would defeat the purpose of this review. I heartily suggest, if you are interested in "How" and "Why" things are, today, the way they are, and work the way they do, that you check out this great biography, about one of the Chief Reasons for our current world of wonderful, electrical appliances, illumination(s), audio/visual toys, etc. If ever there was a Man who Changed the World, this little deaf man, Edison, certainly was the leader of them All! ~operabruin

This was an awesome book! Very well written and keeps you interested. I read it in a week and would recomend it to anyone. Matthew Josephson is an excellent writer who gives a wonderful account of Edison's life and his character. The life story of Edison is just amazing. The challenges that he had to overcome where incredible. His persistance to keep trying and never give up is one of the many great lessons we can learn from his life that are in this book. Absolutly one of the best biographies I have read. His struggles over electricity and what brought him into partnership with JP Morgan are very interesting. The mistakes that he made are also detailed here so the reader can see the full scope of Edison's life. This book also covers the business aspects of Edison and all of his major inventions. This book shows the great triumph that one can attain when believing that one can make their dreams a reality with some hard work and persistance.

This is really a fantastic book. It's extremely well-written. From what I've seen, it's by far the best, most readable Edison biography. The author does a very good job of cutting through the legends and rumors to report accurate facts... always in such an inviting manner that it's very hard to close the book and take a break from reading. Buy it, you won't be disappointed. I'd give it six stars if I could.

Written 45 years ago, this biography is still the best we have on the great inventor. Josephson focuses as much on Edison's work as he does on the man, and the book can be somewhat technical at times. It is natural to compare it to Neil Baldwin's EDISON: INVENTING THE CENTURY, written in 1995, and Josephson's Edison is much more solid than Baldwin's. Baldwin sacrifices the inventions while dealing mainly with the man; Josephson is much more rounded and deals with all aspects of Edison's life. Highly recommended.