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

by Randall E. Stross

At the height of his fame Thomas Alva Edison was hailed as “the Napoleon of invention” and blazed in the public imagination as a virtual demigod. Newspapers proclaimed his genius in glowing personal profiles and quipped that “the doctor has been called” because the great man “has not invented anything since breakfast.” Starting with the first public demonstrations of the phonograph in 1878 and extending through the development of incandescent light, a power generation and distribution system to sustain it, and the first motion picture cameras—all achievements more astonishing in their time than we can easily grasp today—Edison’s name became emblematic of all the wonder and promise of the emerging age of technological marvels.

But as Randall Stross makes clear in this critical biography of the man who is arguably the most globally famous of all Americans, Thomas Edison’s greatest invention may have been his own celebrity. Edison was certainly a technical genius, but Stross excavates the man from layers of myth-making and separates his true achievements from his almost equally colossal failures. How much credit should Edison receive for the various inventions that have popularly been attributed to him—and how many of them resulted from both the inspiration and the perspiration of his rivals and even his own assistants? How much of Edison’s technical skill helped him overcome a lack of business acumen and feel for consumers’ wants and needs?

This bold reassessment of Edison’s life and career answers these and many other important questions while telling the story of how he came upon his most famous inventions as a young man and spent the remainder of his long life trying to conjure similar success. We also meet his partners and competitors, presidents and entertainers, his close friend Henry Ford, the wives who competed with his work for his attention, and the children who tried to thrive in his shadow—all providing a fuller view of Edison’s life and times than has ever been offered before. The Wizard of Menlo Park reveals not only how Edison worked, but how he managed his own fame, becoming the first great celebrity of the modern age.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Business, Science, Audiobook, Biography Memoir

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Harold · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Wizard of Menlo park is a bit about Edison the inventor, and a lot about Edison the public celebrity. His is an interesting story, but if you want to learn what really made him tick you won't get it here. In fact, it isn't clear how much he invented. Edison was part inventor, and part master of invention, in the sense that he created a major laboratory of invention, of which he was the maestro, but there were a lot of members in the orchestra. But the book,unfortunately, is more by the numbers than inventive.

If you want a really compelling book which covers some of the same territory (although not the invention of the phonograph or motion picture) I strongly recomment Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been many years since I have read about Thomas Alva Edison. When in elementary and high school I read all I could find about Thomas A. Edison, but in University I discovered Nicola Tesla and since then I read about Tesla. It was nice to revisit Edison.

I found this to be an entertaining biography. Stross approached this biography a bit differently than other biographers. Instead of writing about his technical career Stross presents him as a self-promoting celebrity who knows how to control the power of media. Stross did a brief review of Edison’s inventions but mostly he concentrated on the business aspect of Edison and his inventions. Edison was one of the first to use “branding.” It is commonly used today by celebrities.

The book is well written and researched. Edison’s inventions created our modern world. Stross did not cover much of this but covered his marketing skills. I do not think Stross was being negative about Edison and his inventions but was trying to reveal another aspect of the man. This should not be the first biography of Edison one should read; but if the reader is well versed about Edison this book will provide another aspect of the man.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Grover Gardner does an excellent job narrating the book. Gardner is an actor, voiceover artist and an award winning audiobook narrator. In fact, Gardner was chosen by Audiofile as a “golden Voice” narrator.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book-- great job of separating the man from the myth. Probably used the word "hagiography" more often than any book not talking about medieval saints. The upshot (and maybe spoiler alert) is that Edison was cranky, short-sighted stubborn, opinionated. He had one huge success that created the illusion that he had many, many more.

It would be a great exercise to read this and Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs one after the other. I was struck with the similarity between the two men. Henry Ford called Edison "the world's greatest inventor and the world's worst businessman." That could have been said of Jobs as well, at least until Jobs' second act as the inventor of the iPod. Both of them were masters of manipulating the press, and both were victims of buying too much into their own press. Both of them did their best work on the cusp of a technological revolution; and as a result, both were given too much credit for initiating said revolution. Both of them were bested in business by a competitor who made up in business sense what he lacked in originality (George Westinghouse for Edison, Bill Gates for Jobs). Both led by intimidation. Neither shied away from taking credit for the accomplishments of their subordinates. They both had weird diets that they were convinced would keep them alive forever. The biggest difference is that Jobs did indeed have a second act when he realized how his technology could revolutionize personal entertainment. Edison almost did. He realized, too late, that the machine he invented for office dictation could also play music. But by the time he realized it, the competition had cornered the market in popular music.

[Phil Sykora · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wizard of Menlo Park is unlike any other biography I've ever read in that the author openly hates the person he's writing about.

It's simultaneously fascinating and a little aggravating. For instance, at one point Stross is explaining how Edison proposed a (frankly ingenious) use case for his home projector:

"Edison, however, wanted to use his projector not for entertainment but for education. For preschoolers, his idea was nothing less than brilliant [wait on it]. For teaching the alphabet, Edison explained in an interview, 'suppose, instead of the dull, solemn letters on a board or a card you have a little play going on that the littlest youngster can understand," with actors carrying in letters, hopping, skipping, and turning somersaults."

This is so far ahead of its time it's difficult for me to even wrap my head around. This is a pitch for every kid's show we had growing up. 70-80 years before we had anything like that.

It's truly remarkable, but Stross doesn't really see it that way. Later on the next page:

"No critic at the time apparently commented on the outlandishness of Edison's carelessly announced ambition to radically remake American education -- and in his spare time."

Really? Not only did Edison not really make that claim, but it's an idea that probably could've radically remade American education. Credit attribution aside, what kind of scholarly report is that? "No critic at the time apparently commented on the outlandishness..." what? Who cares about what critics didn't comment about? How is that even a statement you felt justified making? What could you have possibly used as the reference?

Stross might as well have written, "I think that Thomas Edison is a douche for even trying to help little kids learn more quickly and effectively, and I would've written a hugely damaging expose on him, but I wasn't around back then."

I think other reviewers will probably agree: Stross' hatred for Edison is a little aggravating. It's a wonder how he summoned the willpower to write an entire book about him.

Just for that, I'd probably have given this book three stars. But, occasionally, Stross' hatred leads to some pretty hilarious tidbits. The type of thing no other biographer would write about. Here's an example: Henry Ford suspected that smoking cigarettes wasn't good for his employees, so he asked Edison for advice on how to get them to cut back. Edison responded:

"'The injurious agent in Cigarettes comes principally from the burning paper wrapper. The substance thereby formed is 'Acrolein.' It has a violent action on the nerve centers, producing degeneration of the cells of the brain...'

Later, Stross recalls Edison's response to reporters, when they questioned his research: "He explained, with the tone of a world-renowned expert addressing a lay audience, that poisonous cigarette papers dulled the mind, and that is why Mexicans, whom he had heard were heavy smokers, 'as a race are not very clear headed.'"

For someone so intelligent to come up with something so ridiculous -- that's hysterical. I literally laughed out loud. In the middle of a coffee shop. Like a madman.

Another funny anecdote: his theories on health. He switched over to a (mostly) milk-only diet the last couple years of his life, claiming it "throws off poisonous defective digestion." He also believed "clothing that pinched was literally a killer:

'Pressure ANYWHERE means that a certain part of the body is deprived of its natural flood. And starvation and death begin where the body is pressed and choked.'"

Stross comments, "The theories did not protect him from kidney failure."

And that's just flat-out hysterical. Again: the type of stuff no other biographer would write about.

In that way, The Wizard of Menlo Park is a breath of fresh air.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I selected this book back at the start of last year when compiling my reading list for the year. The main motivation was to learn more about the man who founded GE since I worked for GE at that time. Although I have since left that employer, I can see a whole lot of GE in Thomas Edison, which is amazing given that he lived about a century ago.

For one, Edison was always more show than substance. Sure, he is credited with introducing a number of technological marvels to the world and his list of patents is very extensive. But the vast majority of those patents were for minor improvements on previous inventions. That characteristic is very GE; the company encourages patents on every little thing and then aggressively defends their intellectual property rights in court.

Because Edison was more show than substance, he was always trying to sell his inventions before he actually had them ready to sell. This trait is so GE. The company is always quick to claim market share by announcing a new product or service, even if the product or service is not yet available. I never understood that mentality, so it's probably best that I parted ways with the company.

Edison was a creative genius, and this book provides some clues for tapping into that same creativity which all of us have as a human endowment. But it also shows Edison as a man like the rest of us. Stross's portrayal of the Wizard of Menlo Park is engaging and authentic. It was a marvelous read, although it felt a little jilted at times. Stross decided to proceed more or less chronologically, but his treatment focuses on specific aspects of Edison's life, such as his technical marvels or his relationships with people. Because the treatment is not strictly chronological, the overall feel of the book is slightly jagged.

But that doesn't make the read less engaging or enjoyable. If you want a quick read that gives some depth into the history of one of this country's most iconic men, Stross delivers. Of all the stories in Edison's past, the one that interested me most was the one surrounding the development of the incandescent light bulb. Edison first tried what others had tried, only to see that it wasn't going to work. All the while, he is selling his hype that he is on the verge of making a great discovery, that the project was so simple to accomplish that other inventors will beat themselves senseless once they see the solution. Yet in reality Edison was beating himself senseless to find a solution. We have all heard about how Edison tried thousands of different materials until he found the one that worked. What surprised me is that Edison continued trying other materials once he found one that would work.

Edison was also stubborn as a mule, and it was this propensity more than any other that made him a horrible businessman. He had a vision of centralized control and distribution (oh, still ever so much GE) for his ideas of direct current power production. DC current of course doesn't travel far, but he was so stubborn that he could not bring himself to adopt the better technology. And it was this stubbornness that saw him eventually alienated from GE, the company that he and his ideas were so instrumental in starting. What fascinates me is that so much of the way this man was is still present in the culture of GE today, even after about a century that he was outed.

Overall, the book is great read and well worth the time for anyone with even a casual interest in learning more about Edison's life. Stross has done his homework; his notes to research into original documents is extensive, and he makes those references often. Yet his style is engaging and welcoming, making the read overall enjoyable. If you want to know more about Edison, you can't go wrong with this tome.

[Rich Mulvey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Essentially 300 pages describing how Edison was a really, really bad businessman. The book could have salvaged with some inspired writing, but the author's style is relatively dry and tedious.

[Henrik Haapala · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense."

"Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward!"

/Edison

Utility = success
Anything that doesn’t sell I don’t want to invent

Total 1093 patents with help of assistants and many for slight variations of electric light, power, phonographs and recording.

Work: “For the last ten years, Johnson said in 1878, Edison had averaged 18 hours a day at his desk. So immersed in works demands he does not go home for days, either to eat or sleep, even though his house was only a few steps away.” 66

“Well I worked 122 hours in six days last week, hence I must feel fine - and do. The next month, he had a time clock installed in the laboratory, which permitted him to document his hours and call in reporters to let the world know that he outworked everyone. The first week the clock was in operation, Edison logged 95 hours and 49 minutes, or as one story put it, “nearly twice as long as any of his 5000 employees who enjoyed an 8 hour day.” His recorded hours would have been longer had he been able to log in properly on the first day, as he had been working all night and left the building at 8:15 AM.” 229

Ford: “At one point, a young man stepped up to Ford to introduce himself and ask for Fords recipe for success. “Work” was Fords not-so-helpful answer.” 245

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though Stross is a technology writer, this book focuses not so much on Edison's career as an inventor but on his celebrity and the effort "The Wizard of Menlo Park" put into managing his image; if we believe Stross, Edison spent more time maintaining his persona than he spent inventing, a problem that led to a wealth of failed or incomplete creations. In fact, this belief is a major drawback of the book. Stross diminishes a number of Edison's accomplishments based largely on the fact that a significant percentage of his creations never made money or failed all together. However, this is often the case with inventions. You invent forty or fifty things in the hopes that one has a life or that something will grow out of a less effective device; this seems like something a writer familiar with technology should know. In addition, Stross attributes Edison's fame more to his ability to work the press than the fact he ran the labs that invented the phonograph, and the electric light and a system to power it. Granted, Edison did work closely with his associates and likely took credit for their work in his many patent applications, but to ignore the fact that Edison directed much of this work is to ignore how R and D occurs. Edison was certainly no saint, but this book seems more intended to present a contrary take on a much revered figure than an accurate representation of a complex historical figure.

[Will Herman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprisingly, the book does more to disparage Edison than to praise him, IMO. It details how he failed as a commercial product creator and emphasizes how he was a brazen self-promoter of his real product, the Edison name, often at the expense of delivering decent products to his customers. For example, while Victrola and others agreed on a common and interchangeable recording format, Edison refused, just as he refused to adopt AC current when most systems were going that way. The same things were true for his motion picture setup. He believed that there wasn't a market for more than a handful of projected motion picture theaters in the country and balked at doing more than a single person box for watching.

The author also implies that Edison got way too much credit for his inventions and didn't give credit to the engineers who worked for him.

The author also comes back to his anti-Semitism frequently. While he wasn't as bad as Henry Ford, who admired and respected Edison completely, he was pretty bad in this regard.

[Kristi Thielen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, readable book about the inventor who played a role in the creation of the electric light, the phonograph and films, although the book candidly reveals that each of these inventions should be followed with an asterisk: Edison is confusedly thought to have been the sole originator on inventions when he in fact created a well-documented improvement on a pre-existing concept. (He also was happy to take credit for work done by subordinates in his laboratories.)

His lack of any business skill and financial savvy plus his strangely obstinate refusal to see his inventions for their true use (he was convinced the phonograph would be a businessman's dicating device) blighted his career and he is, in truth, fortunate to be remembered as fondly as he is, when you consider all the above AND his ugly anti-Semitism and indifference to family.

Warts and all, though, he remains a fascinating American worth reading about.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Normally I'm a big fan of biographies, but The Wizard of Menlo Park was painfully dull and repetitive. Thomas Edison was a towering genius, but there was no analysis of him, and no effort to engage the reader in Edison's personality or thought processes. The book failed him in favor of describing, at great length, the forgettable minutiae of his patents and rivalries. I didn't care about those things, and they got in the way of the information. There were indicators of a truly sociopathic, maybe psychotic, personality, but the book failed on that account. If Edison's lab existed today, he'd be arrested for his methods of electricity experiments. This made me wonder if Edison was truly unaware of what he was doing, or if he knew he had a destiny and cared nothing for common morality or decency. Again, the book lacked answers.

I'm still interested in learning about Thomas Edison, because I didn't get a satisfying reading experience. Eventually I'll find a better book.

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the book insightful and well researched. I found the tone of the book, however, to be decidedly negative. It seems as though the author wanted to make sure the reader was well informed of all Edison's faults and failures and paint a clear picture about why many of his accolades we're undeserved. He even ended the book on a somewhat sour note by using an anticodital quote from Edison that had a negative overtone. Maybe I'm niave but when I read a biography about a notable person I want to be inspired. I want to learn how they overcame challenges and were able to carry on through difficult times. I didn't expect to have someone I've admired not just knocked off the pedestal but to have the pedestal torn down and torched in my mind as well. I really can't recommend this book.

[Omar · Rating 4 out of 5]

بعيداً عن التمجيد وخيالات الكمال التي تغري بعض المؤلفين للمبالغة أحياناً وتجنب بعض الحقائق أحياناً أخرى يبحث المؤلف للمخترع الذي كان عمله نقطة تحول في حياة البشرية , كان أديسون نجماً في زمانه وقابله الجمهور بحفاوة تتوقع منه اختراع جديد في كل لحظه, فقابل الحفاوة بقلق مستمر لتكرار الإنجاز وإبقاء صورته الإعلامية والذي كان مرهقاً له بالنظر لأنه عاش خمسين سنة بعد اختراع المصباح الكهربائي الصالح للاستهلاك بشكل عملي وأضاف إليه الكثير من الاختراعات إلا أنه ظل أسير انجازه الأول

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take. Some mention of but not a lot of focus on contributions of his employees. I had no idea he was a virulent anti-Semite.

Always fascinating to read about these mythical figures. Really shows why the Silicon Valley model of a business guy and a tech guy works... The skill sets do not often overlap.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, this is an absolutely fascinating read. Not only does this book cover Thomas Edison's history, but really delves into the culture of inventors during that time. I'm loving it.

[Alasdair Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Competent retelling of Edisons life and work, useful and insightful but not as much as I was hoping.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fascinating subject but an unfortunately wandering and slow narrative.

[Daniel Ragsdale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it but I'm not sure why Stross believed that telling the story in reverse chronological order was the right approach.

[Danny Hui · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I liked:
The story of Thomas Alva Edison was amazing. His hustle from his early days, such as selling food on passenger trains, to his time as a telegrapher, to his final place in history as the greatest inventor of all time, was very inspiring.

I really enjoyed the story about a gentleman who was essentially homeless, but was so inspired by Edison, he smuggled himself on a train just to meet him. When he finally met Thomas, the man announces that he wouldn't leave until he became partners with Edison. Yet Edison didn't turn him away. He let that man join his company, and that man eventually became highly successful.

After reading this book, I feel that Edison was very human. We read now how he was cruel to Tesla or wasn't that smart, but that's all just noise. Here's a man with enough drive to overcome countless obstacles. In fact, there is a story in this book about how his main factory caught on fire. The chemical fire was so great it burnt down his entire campus, several buildings, destroying everything. Yet even in the face of complete ruin, he has the humor to say, kid's go get your mothers, they are never going to see a fire that big again. Even after the fire, he was such a positive guy that he said, he's lost everything, but it's never too late to start again. He was 67 when he said this!

This journey of his reminds me that everyone has the potential for greatness, very few people get up out of bed and reach that potential. Even when you do reach that greatness there is still life and life is full of trials. This book shows us Edison's private life as well. It's full of drama, yet despite this, he is able to invent again and again.

The book does a great job highlighting that Edison never did anything alone. All of his inventions were in collaboration with his workers. He just gave them the space to invent and helped market the ideas. No different than Steven Jobs or Elon Musk. But this doesn't make him any less special. We often forget that it doesn't matter that you have the greatest gadget, if no one knows about it, it's as if you didn't invent it in the first place. In a sense, Edison's character and leadership allowed for these inventions to happen. He was the platform which gave these items a space to perform.


What I didn't like:
At first, I was a bit disappointed to see so little about Edison's feud with Tesla, but then I realized it was such a small moment in Edison's life. Also, the book is about Thomas, not Nikola. Partly I was hoping to see more of Edison's viewpoint of the situation as we have basically vilified Edison in modern time. Many claimed he stole Tesla's idea or that he wasn't that smart. But these people fail to take into account the amount of initiative, leadership, and endurance it takes to bring products to market and succeed. All of these traits were very much Edison.

The funny thing is, Edison never claimed to have invented the first lightbulb, or any of his inventions for that matter. It seems like the press just assigned him that title, and it just stuck.


What could be improved:
I can't think of anything else, the book was very enjoyable to read and was very complete.

[David Crawley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Thoroughly Researched and Documented Biography of Thomas Edison ... When I was in grade school, I learned that Thomas Edison was the inventor of the incandescent lightbulb. In this biography of the quirky genius, who truly was a wizard, I learned details of his life and about his many other electrical and mechanical inventions resulting in ownership of over 1,000 patents. I found it interesting that Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone (of Firestone Tire and Rubber fame) became two of his best friends, and the threesome often vacationed together and went on camping trips in the Adirondacks. On one of their trips together, they attended the International Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. As the three toured the fairgrounds, at one point a visitor ran up the Henry Ford and asked him his secret to success. Henry answered the question with one word: “Work.”
As a lifelong tinkerer and lover of all things mechanical (and electrical), I found this book fascinating and historically educating. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the American industrial revolution in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. - David B. Crawley, M.D. – Author of “Steep Turn: A Physician's Journey from Clinic to Cockpit” and “A Mile of String: A Boy's Recollection of His Midwest Childhood.”

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. I really thought there would be more to this, something really in depth about his life and such. I listened as an audiobook and his life before being an inventor and proposing to his first wife all happened in about the first 40 minutes. It just wasnt enough.

Nikola Tesla was only mentioned one time and not until towards the end of the middle of the book. I was under the impression there was more drama to the relationship they had, specifically with Edison stealing his inventions or something.

There wasnt enough overt mention of Edison stealing from others, it was somewhat offhandedly mentioned a few times and it would have been more satisfying if there was more about the inventions he stole.

This focused on the phonograph, dedicated a little bit of time to the light bulb, and then other affairs. The end of the book was more about his family and what became of them than I thought was necessary. However, his excursions with Ford and Firestone were what I wanted to know more about.

Overall a good book, but I couldve taken more depth.

[Alex Devero · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a good biography of Thomas Alva Edison. It shows Edison in a different light than many other books. In this book, Randal Stross presents Edison as much as inventor as one who knows how to promote himself and his work. He also shows many ways in which Edison was able to control his image so the public and media showed him mostly as he wanted. In this sense, Edison did a lot to turn himself into a celebrity. And he was successful in this pursuit. The downside of this biography is that it is focused mostly on Edison's business ventures (and the business of his inventions), rather inventions. The upside of the book is that well researched. Randall Stross did put together a lot of materials and did a good job writing this book.

I would recommend this to someone who already read some of Edison's biographies. This book will show Edison more the from business side. It might not be the best choice for someone who wants to learn about Edison as inventor. Still, it is a good book.

[Heep · Rating 3 out of 5]

My appreciation of this book may have been influenced by the narration - it was passably good but certainly not excellent. The comparison of Jobs and Edison seems reasonable in that both were outsized egos who changed their times by their ideas, risk-taking and flourish. In the end, Jobs was more practical, more esthetically-minded, and evidently, a much more successful businessman. Edison was much more proximate to the nuts and bolts of invention whereas Jobs was strong on concepts and commercializing. Both had very unenviable personal qualities - often treating others abhorently. Somehow, this book failed to bring Edison to life for me and really grasp Edison's feelings and motivations. Edison understood "persona" and perhaps that explains why the historic record leaves us with a bit of a caricature - making it difficult for chroniclers to piece together an authentic picture of the man.

[Luke Landis · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 / 5

Thomas Edison lived a life so large that he left a goldmine behind for biographers. He had hands in the invention of multiple civilization steering technologies, worked tirelessly if in vain toward his vision of their adoption, and capitalized on the constant media attention that followed. Driven by a similar ambition to discover solutions, and thus truth, through iterative tinkering (and deployment of capital), he is still less like the members of The Lunar Society than he is today’s visionaries in his courting of the press. Perhaps he is simply the product of his time, which necessarily includes his own contributions. This is the story that Stross aims to tell, recounting Edison’s life beyond the inventing through an early case study in branding. While it brings an interesting perspective to what I’d guess is an already saturated topic, it comes across as flat, occasionally incoherent, and with a little too much of that modern nonfiction gloss.

[Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sure I'm somewhat jaded against this book as I grew up with Edison as sort of a hero, and though I'm sure the adolescent-geared biographies I read as a youngster give a false sense of his "wizardry," this book seems like it mostly wants to say Edison was a bumbling idiot who got lucky. Though there may be some truth to that, the way the book goes about it seems to have a goal of downplaying him almost entirely. As a person who enjoys biographies, I just didn't think it was well-written at all. It bounced around a lot and didn't really focus on day-to-day events after his major work with the phonograph and light bulb.
I'd recommend finding another book and would enjoy other Edison biography recommendations.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

My biggest issue wit this biography is the lack of personality given to Edison. It touched on how stubborn he was, what a bad businessman, and to a small degree what a lousy parent and typical industrial revolution racist and anti-Semite.

You get a feel of the scope of his accomplishments but it’s more inline with, “Here’s the facts without any serious commentary.”

More and more I realize what a talent Walter Isaacson is as a biographer because you finish them with a sense that you understand the human being behind the actions.

I now know more about Edison and Ford and the times they lived in but beyond that I can’t say this was an engaging read.

[Joe Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

An informative and easy reading biography that gets behind the myth of Edison. The author follows Edison's life by focusing on Edison's inventions and the impact of his celebrity status. I think the author does a fine job in exploring Edison's successes and failures, his strengths as an inventor and his weaknesses at managing his businesses, and the conflict between being a celebrity and wanting privacy. This is a fair biography in that the author is careful not to place Edison on a pedestal above reproach and does not bury Edison with his faults.

[Studvet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well - written and informative but essentially a bit boring as Edison does not live up to the hype. He made some monumentally bad decisions, both scientifically and business - wise, and was his own worst enemy. He also took more credit than deserved for certain inventions. He was a hard worker and certainly had an enquiring, innovative mind but his fixated and inflexible approach resulted in many blunders and an inability to capitalise on revolutionary new ideas and develope them. His iconic reputation exceeds the reality

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edison was an extraordinary inventor whose actual impact was compromised by his stubbornness to seek help on the business side of his ventures and rigid thinking that he always knew best, including about customer preferences. Riding the wave of popularity from his numerous inventions, Edison was given credit not only for bestowing light upon benighted humanity, but also for making life worth living. A 1922 poll found that Edison was voted as the “greatest man in history,” edging out Theodore Roosevelt and Shakespeare, a sentiment confirmed by close friend and auto pioneer Henry Ford.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and an interesting description of Edison's invention process, but most striking, a revelation of his lack of business skills and hubris. I would have liked more - there are many elements missing to complete the Edison story. I am reading the Last Days of Night next as I am intrigued to hear more about the roll out of the electrical street light.