February 2008
Intermediate to advanced
192 pages
4h 1m
English
During the first period of his astounding inventive fertility, the press dubbed Edison the "Wizard of Menlo Park," and reporters avidly sought stories that would give readers a glimpse into his mysterious genius. Valuing publicity as an indispensable adjunct to winning financial backing and building markets, Edison often obliged the newspapermen who routinely visited him at work by favoring them with elaborate progress reports and predictions. Nevertheless, the reality of creation was far more prosaic. Writing in 1914, Edison blandly reported that "When I want to discover something, I begin by reading up everything that has been done along that line in the past—that's what all these books in the library are for." ...