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Edison (2019)

door Edmund Morris

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Biography & Autobiography. Business. Science. Nonfiction. HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER �?� From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edmund Morris comes a revelatory new biography of Thomas Alva Edison, the most prolific genius in American history. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time �?� Publishers Weekly �?� Kirkus Reviews Although Thomas Alva Edison was the most famous American of his time, and remains an international name today, he is mostly remembered only for the gift of universal electric light. His invention of the first practical incandescent lamp 140 years ago so dazzled the world�??already reeling from his invention of the phonograph and dozens of other revolutionary devices�??that it cast a shadow over his later achievements. In all, this near-deaf genius (�??I haven�??t heard a bird sing since I was twelve years old�?�) patented 1,093 inventions, not including others, such as the X-ray fluoroscope, that he left unlicensed for the benefit of medicine. One of the achievements of this staggering new biography, the first major life of Edison in more than twenty years, is that it portrays the unknown Edison�??the philosopher, the futurist, the chemist, the botanist, the wartime defense adviser, the founder of nearly 250 companies�??as fully as it deconstructs the Edison of mythological memory. Edmund Morris, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, brings to the task all the interpretive acuity and literary elegance that distinguished his previous biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Ludwig van Beethoven. A trained musician, Morris is especially well equipped to recount Edison�??s fifty-year obsession with recording technology and his pioneering advances in the synchronization of movies and sound. Morris sweeps aside conspiratorial theories positing an enmity between Edison and Nikola Tesla and presents proof of their mutually admiring, if wary, relationship. Enlightened by seven years of research among the five million pages of original documents preserved in Edison�??s huge laboratory at West Orange, New Jersey, and privileged access to family papers still held in trust, Morris is also able to bring his subject to life on the page�??the adored yet autocratic and often neglectful husband of two wives and father of six children. If the great man who emerges from it is less a sentimental hero than an overwhelming force of nature, driven onward by compulsive creativity, then Edison i… (meer)

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Arthur Morey (Narrator)
Just too much technical information for me to enjoy the story
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cfulton20 | Nov 13, 2023 |

Wow. A biography told in reverse chronological order. What an idiotic idea. I can't believed I slogged through this much, much too long "story". Edison's life and work encompassed the unique era when electricity went from quirky carnival trick whose only useful application was the telegraph to perhaps the best mathematically described (via Maxwell) physical theory whose applications -- phonographs, telephones, electric light, movies, radio, television -- were in virtually all homes in America and Europe. I can't imagine a worse way to see how Edison's inventions fueled this as they became more sophisticated and build on his and others works. Meeting people, like his children, wives, colleagues, investors and workers, first as their relationship with Edison ended and then in a later section where the relationship was fine and even later just beginning was confusing. (

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Castinet | Dec 11, 2022 |

If you're vague about who Edison was and what he did read this, it's pretty comprehensive. The science was really beyond me and the unorthodox working from his death backwards left me impatient. (

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charlie68 | Apr 13, 2021 |

Any person who can accomplish the accomplishments of greatness is of interest to me. To consider that individuals accomplish for the masses is a consideration of the fortune that many are given by the work and dedication of others. Therefore, Edison presented itself to me as an opportunity to learn about the individual and an individual of greatness. I'm certainly grateful that the author could provide so much detail about Edison. It's one thing to know the name, but another to know more about the man. No matter what we think we know, it's always a fundamental understanding that this was a man with tremendous drive. And yet, a normal man with judgment and feeling. You might think that the electric light was an invention that occurred and was shared. But in reality it was an on-going process; burdensome with failure and success and repeated attempts to improve. (

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MikeBiever | Aug 8, 2020 |

I read a lot of biographies, being of the opinion that, in many cases, history is best learned by study of the people who make it. Certainly, Thomas Edison, one of the most prolific inventors in history, is deserving of study as relates to the technological advancements that occurred throughout the years of the late 19th and early 20th century. Having recently read a biography of Nicola Tesla, a little balance was also in order.

It has become fashionable to inflate the achievements of Tesla while downplaying those of Edison, which is absurd. While Tesla was certainly a genius, Edison was without peer in his ability to suit his many inventions and patents to practical application.

In a decision that I cannot reconcile with good judgment, the author of this book elected to write his biography in reverse chronological order. It makes no sense whatsoever and creates difficulty as the author frequently has to refer to past events by directing the reader forward within the book. The author breaks Edison’s life into ten year time frames, each focusing on a particular area od scientific study (magnetism, telegraphy, electricity, sound, botany) as though each chronological decade matched perfectly Edison’s scientific inquiry; “Well, it is December 31, 1889, I’d better stop working on electricity and begin working on the phonograph for the next ten years.”

This decision of the author to break up Edison’s life into arbitrary blocks of time, and then proceed to investigate them backwards detracts from what could have been a better reading experience. For anyone interested, I would strongly suggest reading the chapters in reverse order, so that some type of chronological flow can be maintained.

The other criticism I would have was the highly technical explanation of many of his inventions. Of course, the 99.9% of the readers that have no inclination or training to understand them can skim over these sections, as I did. Where possible, a simpler description would have been helpful. Highly technical specifics could have been included in an addendum for consumption by electrical engineers. (

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santhony | Jul 17, 2020 |

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Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Biographies – 2019)

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Thomas Edison

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I do not find it so easy to talk about my father. . . . I have yet to find a biography of him that satisfies me as a picture of the whole man. The emphasis is so much on what he did that few people know what he was. I have been astonished at times to find the general impression is that he was a sort of superhuman lightning rod, pulling down inventions from heaven at will --a miraculous robot who never got tired --a disemboweled brain whose success, bringing fabulous riches, was effortless and assured, in spite of a background of abject poverty, almost total lack of education, and no personal life at all. I may say that the picture is not quite accurate. - Madeleine Edison Sloane

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(Prologue) Toward the end, as at the beginning, he lived only on milk.

At seventy-three, with his wartime career as president of the Naval Consulting Board behind him, Edison tried to make sense of a new intellectual order that challenged everything he had learned of Newtonian theory.

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Biography & Autobiography. Business. Science. Nonfiction. HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER �?� From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edmund Morris comes a revelatory new biography of Thomas Alva Edison, the most prolific genius in American history.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time �?� Publishers Weekly �?� Kirkus Reviews
Although Thomas Alva Edison was the most famous American of his time, and remains an international name today, he is mostly remembered only for the gift of universal electric light. His invention of the first practical incandescent lamp 140 years ago so dazzled the world�??already reeling from his invention of the phonograph and dozens of other revolutionary devices�??that it cast a shadow over his later achievements. In all, this near-deaf genius (�??I haven�??t heard a bird sing since I was twelve years old�?�) patented 1,093 inventions, not including others, such as the X-ray fluoroscope, that he left unlicensed for the benefit of medicine.
One of the achievements of this staggering new biography, the first major life of Edison in more than twenty years, is that it portrays the unknown Edison�??the philosopher, the futurist, the chemist, the botanist, the wartime defense adviser, the founder of nearly 250 companies�??as fully as it deconstructs the Edison of mythological memory. Edmund Morris, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, brings to the task all the interpretive acuity and literary elegance that distinguished his previous biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Ludwig van Beethoven. A trained musician, Morris is especially well equipped to recount Edison�??s fifty-year obsession with recording technology and his pioneering advances in the synchronization of movies and sound. Morris sweeps aside conspiratorial theories positing an enmity between Edison and Nikola Tesla and presents proof of their mutually admiring, if wary, relationship.
Enlightened by seven years of research among the five million pages of original documents preserved in Edison�??s huge laboratory at West Orange, New Jersey, and privileged access to family papers still held in trust, Morris is also able to bring his subject to life on the page�??the adored yet autocratic and often neglectful husband of two wives and father of six children. If the great man who emerges from it is less a sentimental hero than an overwhelming force of nature, driven onward by compulsive creativity, then Edison i

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