Edison [a life of invention]

"Paul Israel's ambitious biography brightens the unexamined corners of a singularly influential and triumphant career in science. Thomas Edison, history's most prolific inventor who received an astounding 1,093 U.S. patents, comes to life. Armed with unprecedented access to Edison's workshop diaries, notebooks, and letters, Israel brings fresh insights into how the inventor's creative mind worked."@en
"The conventional story of Thomas Edison reads more like myth than history: with only three months of formal education, a hardworking young man overcomes the odds to become one of the greatest inventors in history. In this biography, Paul Israel exposes the man behind the inventions, expertly situating his subject within a thoroughly realized portrait of a burgeoning country on the brink of massive change. For the first time, much attention is devoted to Edison's early family life, where the young man honed his entrepreneurial sense and eye for innovation as editor of a weekly newspaper. Armed with unprecedented access to Edison's workshop diaries, notebooks, and letters, Israel brings insight into how the inventor's creative mind worked, brightening the unexamined corners of his triumphant career in science."@en