The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World

It was okay. Easy to read, perhaps at the 5th grade level. I did not like the style. The author seems out of breath all the time, as if he wants us to believe that a bomb will drop in the next paragraph. I probably learned more about Edison by reading Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, and the historical novel called "The Last Days of Night," by Graham Moore. I gave this book away.

I've read a number of biographies and biographical sketches of Thomas A. Edison. Most of these concentrate on the man's inventive genius and often provide many interesting technical details on his inventions and on the related technical problems. However, this biography has a rather different twist: it focuses mainly on Edison the businessman and his many shortcomings in this aspect of his life. He is portrayed as a genius with an insatiable passion for laboratory work but desperately lacking the necessary flair for how to succeed in the business world. Edison's private life is briefly discussed, including his relationships with his wives and his sons. The writing style is clear, friendly and engaging, thus making this book difficult to put down. This book is quite successful in depicting the ways in which Edison's instincts were often seriously at odds with the public's way of thinking during these times of mind-boggling new technological innovations. This book can be enjoyed by anyone. But those with a passionate fascination for this period and its greater-than-life figures are in for a particular treat.

Thomas Alva Edison was probably the greatest inventor of all time. However, he was also one of the worst businessman to ever run a business. Yes, he invented the phonograph, but then was beaten in the market by the Victor company because he micromanaged the decisions for the selection of the artists to record. In fact, initially, he wanted to use his invention as a dictation device. Many consider him to be the inventor of electricity and the light bulb, and yet, many inventors were working on this at the same time. And, ultimately, Westinghouse beat his company in the market because he pursued the more costly direct current while they pursued the more cost efficient alternating current. Alternating current is what is used today. His life was that of a creative genius who pursued what he was interested in and not what was important to the market, thereby missing many opportunities. However, pursuing what he was interested in resulted in great advances in many fields that were important in the development of the modern world. I think the most important statement of his importance to our world was provided when the US government requested that all people turn off their lights at the time of his funeral in 1931. He was very important to the modern world, but the myths that arose since his death, that resulted in him being close to a deity, were not correct. This book provides the man behind the myth, doing in a very credible and readable fashion. Consequently, I highly recommend this book.

The Wizard of Menlo Park is an reexamination of the life and career of one of the most famous American inventors, Thomas Alva Edison. It is a myth that Thomas Edison is the sole inventor of the lightbulb. In any event, it was not even his most famous invention. That honor goes to the phonograph that singlehandedly set the stage for the development of the modern music insustry. Thomas Edison lacked the kind of business acumen that was needed for him to capitalize on his being the pioneer of sound recording. Edison failed to capitalize on his fame. He allowed himself to be distracted from his work to the point that he allowed his lab to become a popular tourist destination. Although Edison was a remarkable man who was rightfully credited with many useful inventions, the hype surrounding him has actually obscured his real creativity. This is an excellent book.

The greatest American inventor, most would agree, was Thomas Alva Edison, but it may be that his greatest invention was himself, as image in the newspapers and as "Thomas A. Edison", a phrase that was an important addition to any marketable gadget. In _The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Edison Invented the Modern World_ (Crown), Randall Stross has looked at the mechanical and electric inventions, few of which Edison single-handedly originated or developed, but has concentrated mostly on his fame. "Once brought into being," Stross writes, "Edison's image inhabited its own life and acted autonomously in ways that its namesake could not control." Stross, a historian who is a professor of business, makes the case that Edison discovered the importance of the application of celebrity to business. We had celebrities before, of course, presidents and generals, and contemporary with Edison were famous figures like Mark Twain and P. T. Barnum. Edison's celebrity exceeded them all, and oddly, he was famous because he was an inventor. When celebrity came to him, he was not an inventor who had made a practical gadget like a cotton gin, a telegraph, or an elevator; he had invented (and had come far short of perfecting) the phonograph. It was the celebrity from this particular machine that carried him through many ups and downs in his long life. This is not a complete biography, but a welcome look at particular qualities of Edison's celebrity and its effects on his life and business practices. Edison jumped from the most modern technology of the time, telegraphy, and was working on improved telephones, not on voice recording in 1877. The world was dazzled by the prospect of a machine that could talk, but the phonograph sat in its unperfected form for another ten years as he went about other projects, and this was despite a clamor for the machine and an elevation of Edison in the public mind to "mythic inventor hero". Edison was happiest when he was tinkering wherever his whimsy carried him; he was good at coming up with new ideas, bad at working on perfecting them, and terrible at making them pay. He understood the importance of his fame, and used it, although he could not control all the ways others put it to use or all the ways that it took time out of his other activities. He made himself available to the press, and reporters loved interviewing the plain-talking inventor who would chew tobacco throughout such visits. He loved the role of wise advisor, and the press liked him to pontificate on all sorts of matters that had nothing to do with his areas of expertise, like diet. Edison was no charlatan. Even though he took credit when it actually belonged to those who worked for him, and even though the public insisted on crediting him for inventions others had perfected, he did have a real role in innovating gadgets. As time went on (he lived until 1931) and his public persona as a wizard continued, people tended to forget his many failures

The author brings Thomas Edison to life in these pages exposing all of his brilliance, ineptness, and stubborness. No one can doubt the genius that is Edison, while at the same time appreciating all of the business opportunities lost due to his quirks of personality and failure to recognize them when they are right before his eyes. It is a fascinating look at someone who I have admired for years from reading about his accomplishments, but now I feel I know him as a person. I had a hard time putting the book down. A must read for anyone and especially people who are innovative and entrepreneurial.