Edison: Inventing the Century [Paperback]

Neil Baldwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1996

Exploring the life and personality of one of America's greatest twentieth-century innovators, this unique biography examines the ambitions and obsessions that inspired the genius. Reprint. PW.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931), who introduced the light bulb and the phonograph to a startled world from his pastoral New Jersey retreat, strides across Baldwin's engrossing epic biography as a complex, contradictory figure. The hearing-impaired inventor was a visionary inclined "to think globally long before achieving success locally," a cranky, authoritarian businessman, a daredevil entrepreneur pathologically addicted to work, a metaphysical thinker who practiced automatic writing and who, inspired by Madame Helena Blavatsky's theosophical/mysticism, postulated that intelligence pervades every atom of God's creation. To Baldwin (Man Ray: American Artist), the Ohio-born genius, who pioneered the microphone, the motion-picture camera and the world's first central electric-light power plant, embodied the American experiment in industrial civilization and the potential of technological change. By charting Edison's relations with venture capitalists, unsung collaborators and competitors, Baldwin spins an inspirational American saga of titanic determination and protean imagination. Edison's later projects-his decade-long, abortive iron-ore milling and smelting operation, and his return to the soil, at age 80, in search of a natural source for rubber in his own herbarium-take their rightful place in the story. We also meet the torn family man whose neglect of home and hearth contributed to the death at age 29 of his chronically ill, emotionally troubled first wife, Mary Stilwell. His second wife, heiress Mina Miller, by this account became his subservient helpmeet, while his domineering, impossible-to-please ways drove his six children into convoluted patterns of dependence and alienation. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Thomas Alva Edison, an icon to millions, was a prodigious inventor and emblem of the American entrepreneurial spirit. His impact on our century via the electric light, the phonograph, the movie, and even Portland cement truly transformed the American experience. Capturing not only the creative and inventive thrust of Edison's life but its personal aspects, Baldwin offers first-rate writing. Baldwin, author of Man Ray: American Artist (LJ 10/1/88) and executive director of the National Book Foundation, describes with care the family and business milieu Edison fostered and lived in. He also gives generous treatment to the important people in Edison's life. The story is fascinating. Highly recommended for all libraries. [For more on Baldwin and Edison, see LJ's Behind the Book interview, "Biography of an Inventive Life," on p. 116.-Ed.]-Michael D. Cramer, Virginia Polytechnic & State Univ. Libs., Blacksbur.
--Michael D. Cramer, Virginia Polytechnic & State Univ. Libs., Blacksburg
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 351 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Books (Adult Trd Pap) (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786881194
• ISBN-13: 978-0786881192
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,225,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but probably not *the* biography of Edison, February 13, 2001

By 

Jean-Francois Virey (59500 DOUAI France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Edison: Inventing The Century (Audio Cassette)

"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."

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There must be a better Edison book, September 23, 2002

By 

Larry Phillips (Decatur, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Edison: Inventing the Century (Paperback)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read on the great inventor, January 23, 2001

By 

rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Edison: Inventing the Century (Paperback)

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.