brontherun's review against another edition
4.0
Josephson wrote this biography in 1959, and it clearly stands the test of time. Thorough and well cited, it is a hefty biography of many details of his life, starting from a few generations prior to his birth through his passing. That being said, it reads like a traditional academic biography, and not the more narrative style that the current trend in biography/memoir.
I loved the book, but it brought Edison to life for me in a whole new, and quite disconcerting way. Essentially, he was a psychopath, although I'm not sure that term was used in 1959 much. And I'm pretty convinced he might have been a serial killer not unlike "The Man From the Train" that Rachel McCarthy James and Bill James document in their historical tale.
His "experiments" electrocuting first insects, then small rodents, and eventually mammals of all sizes were even considered sadistic by some historical accounts. From his youth in poverty on the rail lines through his race against Westinghouse to win the war of the Electric Chair for human executions, he is problematic. So the duration of these activities started in childhood and lasted through late adulthood. To understand the scope of them, I would point to this quote from Josephson: "The feline and canine pets of the West Orange neighborhood were purchased from eager schoolboys at twenty-five cents each and executed in such numbers that the local animal population stood in danger of being decimated." In Edison's own words, he has taken life "in the belief that the end justified the means." From a man striving to sell his electrical chair to the government, such a statement can hardly be surprising.
He did not see women as equal and stuck the first wife (many years his junior) out in Menlo Park until she died, where upon he promptly found an 18-year old replacement, closer in age to his 13-year old daughter than himself. He stuck her out in what was then the wilds of West Orange, conveniently *not* near the neighbors or people who were familiar with his first wife. In one of his imaginings about women, he dreamed up, "a preposterous machine, to be inserted into some unnaturally thing woman's joints to provide them with automatic lubrication, as with one of the steam generators." He journaled that, so it was obviously something he wanted to remember.
As for the children from those wives: "his children recalled that he could be both warmly affectionate and playfully, unconsciously cruel, but that most of the time 'he hardly ever saw us,' or 'he never thought of us.' Indeed, one of the very few days of the year he set aside as family time was the 4th of July, which he celebrated by having "us children run around barefoot and would throw those little Chinese firecrack3ers at our feet, enjoying himself hugely." Add to that a father who fought to prevent his wives from educating the children (successfully with wife #1 and unsuccessfully with wife #2) he presents anything but a caring father.
If you are all interested in inventors, New Jersey history, or Edison, this biography is well worth the time you invest reading it.
I loved the book, but it brought Edison to life for me in a whole new, and quite disconcerting way. Essentially, he was a psychopath, although I'm not sure that term was used in 1959 much. And I'm pretty convinced he might have been a serial killer not unlike "The Man From the Train" that Rachel McCarthy James and Bill James document in their historical tale.
His "experiments" electrocuting first insects, then small rodents, and eventually mammals of all sizes were even considered sadistic by some historical accounts. From his youth in poverty on the rail lines through his race against Westinghouse to win the war of the Electric Chair for human executions, he is problematic. So the duration of these activities started in childhood and lasted through late adulthood. To understand the scope of them, I would point to this quote from Josephson: "The feline and canine pets of the West Orange neighborhood were purchased from eager schoolboys at twenty-five cents each and executed in such numbers that the local animal population stood in danger of being decimated." In Edison's own words, he has taken life "in the belief that the end justified the means." From a man striving to sell his electrical chair to the government, such a statement can hardly be surprising.
He did not see women as equal and stuck the first wife (many years his junior) out in Menlo Park until she died, where upon he promptly found an 18-year old replacement, closer in age to his 13-year old daughter than himself. He stuck her out in what was then the wilds of West Orange, conveniently *not* near the neighbors or people who were familiar with his first wife. In one of his imaginings about women, he dreamed up, "a preposterous machine, to be inserted into some unnaturally thing woman's joints to provide them with automatic lubrication, as with one of the steam generators." He journaled that, so it was obviously something he wanted to remember.
As for the children from those wives: "his children recalled that he could be both warmly affectionate and playfully, unconsciously cruel, but that most of the time 'he hardly ever saw us,' or 'he never thought of us.' Indeed, one of the very few days of the year he set aside as family time was the 4th of July, which he celebrated by having "us children run around barefoot and would throw those little Chinese firecrack3ers at our feet, enjoying himself hugely." Add to that a father who fought to prevent his wives from educating the children (successfully with wife #1 and unsuccessfully with wife #2) he presents anything but a caring father.
If you are all interested in inventors, New Jersey history, or Edison, this biography is well worth the time you invest reading it.
More...