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  • Edison

  • A Life of Invention
  • Written by: Paul Israel
  • Narrated by: Raymond Todd
  • Length: 22 hrs and 33 mins
  • 2.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

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Edison cover art

Edison

Written by: Paul Israel
Narrated by: Raymond Todd
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Publisher's Summary

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.
©1998 Paul Israel (P)1999 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Historical Professionals & Academics
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What the critics say

"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)
"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)

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Profile Image for H. Tenenbaum

Sophomoric Sounding Reader

Although the story of Edison is no doubt compelling, I found that I simply could not listen to the reader. The reader did not seem to be able to read in an interpretive manner. The narration almost sounded like one is listening to a grade school student reciting an essay about what they did last summer.

The writing is excellent but the quality of the narration is such that I could not even finish listening to the book. I'll buy the hard copy!

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