"Israel has done a remarkable job. Not only has he given us fresh insights into a complex
personality, but he has set this against the backdrop of a dramatically changing American society driven
on remorselessly by the second Industrial Revolution, in which Edison was a pivotal player."--Nature

"Exhaustively researched, with a strong emphasis on Edison's methods and achievements."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Israel draws on his subject's notebooks to provide an authoritative look into Edison's working methods,
here leavened by enough personal detail to give the achievements shape."--Publishers Weekly

This portrait of Thomas Edison, history's most prolific inventor, introduces us to a man of genius and
astounding foresight who established the prototype for today's think tanks and research firms.
Paul Israel's ambitious work brightens the unexamined corners of a singularly influential and triumphant
career in science.

Armed with unprecedented access to Edison's workshop diaries, notebooks, and letters, Israel brings fresh
insights into how the inventor's creative mind worked. For the first time, much attention is devoted to his
early family life in Ohio and Michigan, where the young Edison honed his entrepreneurial sense and eye for
innovation as a newsstand owner and editor of a weekly newspaper. These experiences underscore the
inventor's later successes with new resonance and pathos.