EDISON: The Inventor of the Modern World

In July 2013 Fall River Press published my book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. Now in July 2016 they will publish the follow up book, EDISON: The Inventor of the Modern World.

The writing was finished last September and since then the book has been in the production phase – cover design, layout, and tons and tons of photos. I should have an image of the cover in the near future. Meanwhile the book is off to the printer for the expected July release.

There is also the back material. Most books have a summary on the back cover and the following is the draft that went to the publisher. What do you think?

Thomas Edison is well known to everyone. Or is he? We know that Edison was one of the most productive and influential inventors of all time and helped usher in the modern world. But while it makes for an impressively heroic tale, the full story of Edison the man is much more complex. He played an unsurpassed role in improving telegraphy; inventing the telephone, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera; and developing a more reliable electric lighting system and lightbulb. Edison also less famously explored iron ore mining and milling, concrete building materials, and storage batteries for electric cars, and even launched the search for a domestic source of rubber for automobile and bicycle tires. Along the way he found time for two wives and six children, although more often than not he neglected them as he worked through the night on his latest distraction. He also befriended Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone, battled Nikola Tesla in the war of the currents, and became synonymous with the art of invention.

This impressively illustrated book takes us on a complete tour of this great man’s inventions, private life, personal struggles, and enduring legacy. Through fascinating anecdotes, illuminating stories, and many photographs, cartoons, and caricatures, this book brings to life one man’s amazing career and incalculable contributions to humanity.

Tesla and Edison were two very different men of invention, so it was a great honor to be able to examine both of their lives in successive books. If you haven’t already, check out my Tesla book now and then watch for the Edison book to come out in July.

David J. Kent has been a scientist for thirty-five years, is an avid science traveler, and an independent Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (now in its 5th printing) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His book on Thomas Edison is due in Barnes and Noble stores in spring 2016.

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