Customer Reviews

The American Leonardo: A Life of Samuel F. B. Morse

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I have sort of been trying to read the Pulitzer prize winning books. I have read all the fiction Pulitzer winners. This book won the Pulitzer prize for biography for 1944, and I have now read 60 of the Pulitzer biography prize winners, which leaves unread about 30 of them. Morse was born 27 April 1791 in Charlestown, Mass., and died 2 April 1882 in New York City. He was a noted painter but got to thinking about using electricity to send messages, and while not the first to consider that, he felt he was and had a major role in developing the electric telegraph. He scarcely made a living as a painter, but when his right to his patent for the telegraph was upheld by the Supreme Court in Reilly v. Morse, 56 U.S. 62 (1853) he had it made and lived well for the rest of his life. While not an outstanding biography it is well-reseaarched and reasonably well written and is worth reading. [The abbreviation for "mister" is often written in this book or in quotes from contemporary documents as "M.r" which I don't recall ever seeing before. Is that the way Mister was abbreviated in the past and when was that usage dropped? Doe anyone know?]