The man behind the curtain
NewMexiKen finished The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World
The book, published just two weeks ago, attempts to discuss Edison as the first great American celebrity who was not a politician or military leader. In that regard it pretty much succeeds; as a full-scale biography, however, the book falls short. We get nearly day-by-day discussions of the important inventions — though no real technical details — then skim through the last 50 years of Edison’s life in a couple of chapters. (Edison was 32 when he invented the incandescent light bulb. He lived to be 84.)
Stross writes well and he does make the case that becoming famous contributed to Edison’s limitations as a businessman, which were well known even then. Indeed, Edison was a fairly one-dimensional human being — but it was an important dimension.
Aside: When Edison died in 1931, much of the country — including the White House — turned off the lights for a minute the evening of his funeral as a salute.
Further aside: Here’s the recommended biographies from The Edison Papers. (The first item is by the managing editor of those same Papers, so take that for what it’s worth.)
The standard biography is Paul Israel, Edison: A Life of Invention (New York: John Wiley, 1998). A good older biography is Matthew Josephson, Edison: A Biography (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959; reprint New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1992). Two other biographies that focus on Edison’s personality and family relations are Robert Conot, A Streak of Luck (New York: Seaview Press, 1979) and Neil Baldwin, Edison: Inventing the Century (New York: Hyperion, 1995). A short biography is Martin V. Melosi, Thomas A. Edison and the Modernization of America (Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman/Little, Brown Higher Education, 1990).
