Edison

Like Da Vinci, Thomas Edison was possessed of great genius, but the point Edmund Morris drives home so well is that Edison was also indefatigable. The Wizard of Menlo Park worked untold hours on end, often sleeping on a mat on the floor, hard by whatever his current project was. It’s such a simple concept—enormous work can lead to enormous accomplishments—and Morris gives us a living example of one man whose work ethic changed civilization.

Researching my Tesla biography forced me to reexamine Thomas Edison, who was Tesla’s opposite in many ways. Revealing different approaches to inventing, for instance, Edison’s trial-and-error approach contrasted with Tesla’s cerebral engineering. I was struck by how the two inventors competed, ferociously at times, yet how they could be kind to each other – with Edison offering Tesla his laboratory when his own burned down, and Tesla, who once worked for the Wizard of Menlo Park, regularly asking about Edison’s children. I liked Edmund Morris’ exposing Edison’s warts but also applauding the 1,093 patents that resulted from his “teeming brain… show more.