Edison : Inventing the Century

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but probably not *the* biography of Edison
Review: "The electric light is the light of the future- and it will be my light, unless some other fellow gets up a better one." - Thomas A. Edison

The author of lives of artist Man Ray and poet William Carlos Williams, Neil Baldwin chose to devote his third biography to a practical-minded genius: Thomas Alva Edison, one of America's most venerated icons. Beginning with the history of Edison's ancestors in the new world, this thick, 500-page volume has its subject come to life on page 17, and chronicles his prodigious accomplishments until his death in 1931, with numerous highlights on his two wives (the first of whom, Mary Stilwell, died at 29), children and in-laws.

The tone of the book is generally sympathetic, though Baldwin deliberately attempts to eschew the hero-worshiping of some earlier works in order to achieve a more "balanced" and sober view of the man. A lot of stress is laid on the consequences of Edison's incredible working habits on his family life and the emotional development of his children, and one cannot help thinking that the author blames him for his single-minded devotion to the pursuit of technological progress. Indeed, the metaphors used to describe Edison's industriousness and concentration are often borrowed from the vocabulary of pathology: he is presented as a "workaholic" rather than a hard worker, with "obsessions" rather than ambitions or passions. Even the division of labour in Edison's West Orange research center, says Baldwin, "physically epitomizes the schisms in Edison's psyche".

The book is not overladen with technical minutiae, as the author seems to be more attracted to period detail than to hardware. His understanding of the science underlying Edison's experiments and theorizing did not strike me as particularly deep, anyway. Quoting Edison's speculations about the origin of the solar system, for instance, Baldwin exclaims that he was "tantalizingly close to the fringe of a Big Bang theory". Of course, one should not demand too much from a PhD in Modern American Poetry.

The author's political philosophy is not too intrusive, but it annoyingly crops up at some points. For instance, he says that the great industrialists of the late nineteenth century might as well be called robber barons, "depending on which side of the dialectic is preferred". His presentation of Edward Bellamy's utopian novel, *Looking Backwards*, as part of his attempt to convey the intellectual flavour of the age, is extremely positive: Bellamy's society is described as "a place of abolished inequities and cultural efficiency, not wasteful production and underconsumption" where "the venerated 'unremitting toil' so characteristic of the competitive, unorganized and antagonistic 1880s would be supplanted by a commitment to equal sharing of the nation's wealth". This is more than slightly disturbing, considering that what Bellamy had drawn was a communist blueprint for America (see for instance Clarence Carson's *Flight from Reality* for an interesting analysis.)

But whatever the author's biases, they are completely overshadowed by the brilliance of his subject. Edison is simply a delight to read about, forcing admiration from his early childhood exploits to his discovery of an indigenous source of rubber in his seventies.

Everybody should read at least one biography of Edison, to acquaint himself with the possibilities open to man. Having only read this one, I cannot say whether it is the best choice. Edwin Locke, the author of *The Wealth Creators*, seems to favour Matthew Josephson's *Edison: A Biography* (1959), which is apparently less ambivalent in its admiration for its subject. As for the ABC-Clio CD-Rom on *American Business Leaders*, it also lists Ronald William Clark's *Edison: The Man Who Made the Future* (1977); Robert D. Friedel's *Edison's Electric Light: Biography of an Invention* (1986); Ray Phillips's *Edison's Kinetoscope and Its Films: A History to 1896* (1997) and Wyn Wachhorst's *Thomas Alva Edison, An American Myth* (1981).

Edison has been an inspiration to many, including the greatest of all businessmen, his friend and admirer Henry Ford. But perhaps the most significant tribute that was ever paid to him, and the best characterization of his personality, was Ayn Rand's. In a letter to Tom Girdler dated 1943, she wrote: "No humanitarian ever has [equalled n]or can equal the benefits men received from a Thomas Edison or a Henry Ford. But the creator is not concerned with these benefits; they are secondary consequences. He considers his work, not love or service of others, as his primary goal in life. Thomas Edison was not concerned with the poor people in the slums who would get electric light. He was concerned with the light."

Rating:
Summary: Great read on the great inventor
Review: Background into this important American figure in our century. So much of what we now have came from this man. His connections to Ford and the whole electric industry are monumental. This book describes the unfolding of this giant's life in witty, easy-to-read style. His emphasis on all the elements of the man's life without too much detail of the technical, kept me captivated.

Rating:
Summary: Edison not the man he's told to be
Review: Edison may very well be on of the best business men of his century but he certainly did not "Invent the Century". His inventions are already being made obsolete by others. The light bulb is second to the flouresent light, the phonagraph was bettered several times, and also Edison took a lot of others ideas and called them his own. He was a cheat and a liar and this book very poorly described him.

Rating:
Summary: Edison not the man he's told to be
Review: Edison may very well be on of the best business men of his century but he certainly did not "Invent the Century". His inventions are already being made obsolete by others. The light bulb is second to the flouresent light, the phonagraph was bettered several times, and also Edison took a lot of others ideas and called them his own. He was a cheat and a liar and this book very poorly described him.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent description.
Review: Great representation of ideas. Reflects Edison as "the" personality of the century. Genius as he was, all his geniosity is brought out in the creation. Great work by Baldwin.

Rating:
Summary: There must be a better Edison book
Review: I stopped reading this book after about 150 pages, and resolved to find a better Edison biography. I had two problems with the book:

1. The writing is a bit muddled. For example, we find Edison at age 23 running an "invention factory" with 50 or so employees housed in a four story building in Newark. There is almost no explaination of how he got the backing to set up such an enterprise.

2. The author does not seem to have much understanding of the science behind Edison's work. He makes no attempt to explain how any of Edison's inventions operated - no diagrams or drawings, and he seems confused about the difference between electricty and magnetism.

The author's background is in poetry. At the risk of sounding mean-spirited, I think that an Edison biography is not a good fit for him.

Rating:
Summary: Z-zzzzz
Review: If this is your first look into Thomas Edison, find a different book. It was a constant struggle to finish this one, I had to force myself to go on. A cure for insomnia

Rating:
Summary: Better on personality than science
Review: This book does a good job of explaining Edison's personality, but a not-so-great job of explaining his achievements. The book is obviously carefully researched, but it would have been better if Baldwin had a deeper technical understanding is of Edison's inventions. Most of the invention description of his seem to be extracted from notebooks and patent disclosures with little insight into what is essential and what is incidental. Edison's wedding is described is greater detail than his phonograph, and his domestic problems are explained more clearly than his problems with the electric light bulb. The book is well written, and I enjoyed reading it, but a reader looking for an understanding of Edison's inventions will be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: he is a genius
Review: thomas edison is more than the incandescent lamp. his methods, work ethic and achievements reach across the spectrum of american culture. the author leaves no event undocumented, depicting a wonderful account of an amazing individual.