From School Library Journal
Grade 8-12-- Two excellent collective biographies. The 10-to-12 page chapter entries are informative, well balanced, and clearly written. They capture readers' interest by starting with anecdotal episodes regarding the individuals or their work. The ten featured personalities in each title are put into the context of the time in which they lived, with historical, political, economic, social, and personal influences considered. Black-and-white photographs and reproductions are both interesting and pertinent, with at least one likeness of the subject included. Chronologies, list of works (for authors), and suggestions for further reading follow each chapter. Inventors features less commonly known figures such as Leo Baekeland, Vladimir Zworykin, Ernest Lawrence, Chester Carlson, William Shockley, and Gordon Gould. Writers profiles literary greats such as Cooper, Poe, Melville, Thoreau, Twain, and Crane. Unfortunately, the two titles include only one woman, writer Emily Dickinson. Otherwise, they are fine books that should prove to be useful resources. --Kathleen L. Atwood, Pomfret School, CT
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Card catalog description
Provides accounts of ten significant twentieth-century inventions and the people behind them, including the Wright brothers and their airplane, Robert Goddard and his rocket, and Gordon Gould and his laser.
