Author: David J. Kent

David J. Kent is an Abraham Lincoln historian, a former scientist, and an avid traveler. He is the author of books on Abraham Lincoln, Nikola Tesla, and Thomas Edison. His website is www.davidjkent-writer.com.
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The Smithsonian Castle Was On Fire!

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1865 Smithsonian fireOne scientific institution that Lincoln had protected and advanced during the war took a major hit on the frigid winter’s afternoon of January 24, 1865. Joseph Henry sat in his third-floor office in the Smithsonian Castle, alternatively updating his notebook and staring out the great rose window squeezed between the two front towers. Stirring, he noticed a sooty burning odor. Likewise, his daughter Mary was reading in the library until she noticed the room darkening, a thick cloud of smoke obscuring the view. The Castle was on fire!

Rushing to save whatever they could, father and daughter managed to grab a few books, some papers, and a bit of clothing. Others arrived to help pull out furniture items. Flames poured out the tower windows and scorched the ornamental stonework. Mary described it as “a beautiful friend tasting to the utmost the pleasure of destruction.” Her poetical observation was interrupted as the flames reached the top of the tower, where Henry’s papers were kept, destroying a historical and scientific record that had taken a lifetime to build.

Investigations showed that the fire was accidental, a result of negligence. Men renovating the building had vented a stove exhaust pipe into an air chamber inside the wall rather than to an external vent. After smoldering for days, the heated wood had finally erupted into flames. Destroyed was the apparatus room, the picture gallery, the regents’ room, and the lecture hall. Among the treasures lost were all James Smithson’s personal effects, including the manuscripts, meteorites, and minerals that had seeded the new institution. Also lost were an extensive collection of scientific instruments and nearly a hundred thousand letters and reports documenting the founding of the institution and a decade of scientific research from all over the world. All of James Smithson’s unpublished scientific research was lost forever. It would take twelve years and $125,000 to repair the building and correct faulty construction. Indirectly lost was James Melville Gillis, chief astronomer and director of the Naval Observatory, who succumbed to exhaustion during the building evacuation and suffered a fatal stroke two weeks later. Saved was Smithson’s small personal collection of books. Only 115 volumes and never bound in leather covers, they at least provide some surviving connection to the man who made the Smithsonian possible.

Two days after the fire, Henry shambled to the White House. Lincoln “expressed much sympathy” and ordered the War Department to raise a temporary roof over the scorched portions of the Castle. Montgomery Meigs, a longtime friend of Henry and one of Lincoln’s favorite engineers, pulled together the needed materials and carpenters to build a roof designed by architect Edward Clark. Henry would spend the next several months organizing renovations, taking time out to attend Lincoln’s second inaugural on March 4. At his side was Mary Henry, who made a passing reference to seeing the famous actor John Wilkes Booth in the balcony above them.

Lincoln’s lifelong enthusiasm for science and technology, combined with his belief that the federal government should help the populace better their condition, made him an amenable partner of congressional efforts to institutionalize science. Once suspicious of scientists because of their overall elitism and the preponderance of con men, the national attitude toward science had begun to change. No longer the sole realm of a wealthy elite, technological advances were more and more affecting the masses, in part due to a refocusing on practical science rather than less publicly relatable theoretical research.

[Excerpted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America, available at all bookseller outlets]

NOTE: Not only is January 24th the anniversary of the fire, but there is significant current news regarding the Smithsonian Castle. The Castle will close on February 1, 2023, for renovations that are expected to take five years to complete.

[Check out my Media page for upcoming events and videos/audio of previous presentations and podcasts]

[Colorized photo of Smithsonian fire from Smithsonian Institution Archives. Full info here]

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Thomas Lincoln Dies, But Teaches Abraham Farming Science

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Abraham Lincoln’s father, Thomas Lincoln, died on January 17, 1851, at the ripe old age of 73. Abraham opted not to travel to see his father in his waning days, in part because they were no longer close, but also because Lincoln’s third son, Willie, had been born about a month before and his wife, Mary, was exhibiting significant post=partum sickness. I visited the Lincoln homestead and gravesite near Lerna, Illinois, a few years ago in order to learn more about Thomas and wrote about it here. While they may have had a difficult relationship, Thomas actually had taught Lincoln about farming science as he grew up.

It all started in Kentucky, where Lincoln was born and lived until he was seven. Their final year in the bluegrass state was beset with a climatic phenomenon referred to as “the year without a summer.” I discuss it in more detail in my book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, but it has to do with summer freezes and a volcano eruption half a world away. Taking the hint, the family moved to Indiana, where Lincoln later recalled that the family “settled in an unbroken forest” and that “the clearing away of surplus wood was the great task at hand.” Thomas took Abe into the forest and schooled him to recognize the types of trees. The exact species varied by local geography and climate, but one visitor described southern Indiana as “covered with heavy timber—comprising oaks, beeches, ash, three kinds of nut trees.” He also noted the presence of “gum trees, hackberry, sycamore, persimmons, wild cherries, apples and plums, also wild grape vines of enormous diameter and heights,” plus “a large number of maple and sugar trees . . . and a kind of poplar.” Other observers mentioned the presence of hickory, black walnut, locust, dogwood, cherry, sassafras, and elm. A variety of oak trees were present, including white, black, and Jack oak. The undergrowth was densely packed with spice wood, various briers, grape vines, sumac bushes, and dry brush, a diversity that is largely lost today.

Abe quickly learned the relevant ecology. Hickory, walnut, and white oak have taproot systems where large roots descend straight down deep into the earth. Red oak, locust, sycamore, and many pines have heart root systems characterized by many primary roots that may be visible on the surface and spread out below, with numerous secondary roots extending downward in search of water. Maples, hackberry, poplar, ash, gum, and dogwood have a flat root, one that spreads out in a shallow fan around the tree. Each of these required a different strategy for removal, with big hardwoods like oak or ash particularly difficult to remove. Abe became so knowledgeable that during his presidency he settled a dispute between visitors at the Soldiers’ Home. “I know all about trees in right of being a backwoodsman,” he said. “I’ll show you the difference between spruce, pine, and cedar, and this shred of green, which is neither one nor the other, but a kind of illegitimate cypress.” He had learned his lessons well.

Thomas also taught Lincoln the basics of agronomy (crop science), hydrology (the science of water movement), forest ecology (the variety and uses of trees), and even some civil engineering (building a log cabin that wouldn’t leak or flood). Then there was dealing with ever-present disease and weather. While their move from Kentucky to Indiana was in part encouraged by “the year without a summer,” their first year in Illinois was “the winter of deep snow,” which killed much of their livestock and nearly froze Lincoln himself to death.

Overall, Lincoln began his education in the sciences by learning from his father Thomas, who had learned it from his family history of farming. Lincoln learned well, even though he was eager to explore intellectual growth to escape the farming life. Later, Lincoln would read many scientific and mathematical books on his own, gaining an understanding of basic science and an appreciation for the role of technological advancement in helping all men – even frontier farmers – better their condition and gain an equal chance in the race of life.

[Adapted from Lincoln: The Fire of Genius and elsewhere]

I’ve been doing a lot of presentations on the topics found in the book, many of which were recorded on video and audio podcasts. Check out my Media page for upcoming events (and to see videos/audio links to previous events). 

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Join Me for Two Special Abraham Lincoln Presentations This Week (Plus a Bonus)

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This will be a busy week, with two special Abraham Lincoln presentations coming up on Wednesday and Thursday. Both will be virtual, so take a look at the info and links below and join me! 
Wednesday, January 11, 8 pm EST/7 pm CST: I will give a special presentation on Wednesday as part of the Looking for Lincoln conversations program based in Springfield, Illinois. The topic is “How Abraham Lincoln Institutionalized Science and Technology in the Federal Government,” which builds mainly off of one chapter in my recent book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America. This virtual program is free to all on January 8th beginning at 8 pm EST/7 pm CST. A Q&A will be open to all virtual attendees. See it live on the Looking for Lincoln Facebook or YouTube pages.
 
Watch live on YouTube: https://youtu.be/y48_SKeRfqM
Watch on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/523737299725293
 
 
Thursday, January 12, 6:30-7:30 pm EST: President Lincoln’s Cottage presents a series of Scholar Sessions. The virtual program will feature a conversation between the Cottage’s President/CEO Michael Atwood Mason and Lincoln Group president David J. Kent. They will discuss a wide range of topics including Lincoln’s commitment to modernizing American and other aspects of Lincoln’s life. Following their conversation, the event will be opened up to all virtual attendees for a Q&A period. Lincoln Cottage members can participate for free; there is a $10 fee for non-members.
 
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/scholar-sessions-david-j-kent-tickets-486902527567
 
And the bonus!
 
Tuesday, January 17, 6:00 pm EST: The Lincoln Group of DC holds its monthly Zoom meeting featuring Diana Schaub discussing her book, His Greatest Speeches: How Lincoln Moved a Nation. Dr. Schaub is a professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland and a member of the Board of Directors of the Abraham Lincoln Institute. The Lincoln Group’s study forum analyzed her book in the spring of 2021, so we can safely say that this presentation is not to be missed. This is a free virtual event.
 
More details and to register: https://www.lincolnian.org/event-details/lincolns-greatest-speeches-6-pm-zoom-only
 
With Lincoln’s birthday, the 160th anniversary of the final Emancipation Proclamation, major Civil War events, and the 160th anniversary of the assassination all coming up soon, I’ll be incredibly busy over the next few months. Check out my Media page for upcoming events (and to see videos/audio links to previous events). 

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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The Year in a Writer’s Life – 2022

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David J Kent Lincoln Memorial centennialThe year in a writer’s life was spectacular. My new book was released, I did tons of media, and wrote constantly, while also juggling my duties as president of the Lincoln Group of DC. Sometimes those two lives blended to the point where the line between them wasn’t so easy to determine. Adding in my year in a traveler’s life, my reading time, and my Abraham Lincoln book acquisitions, 2022 was a busy year. [See last year’s Life here]

Much of my writing activity this year was driven by the release of my newest book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, which came out in September. Feedback on the book has been universally positive, with the public and Lincoln scholars alike praising it as “a fascinating new perspective about Lincoln’s personality and mind” and “an enjoyable dive into the type of public leaders we used to have.” One Goodreads reviewer said that he “was truly fascinated by this aspect of Lincoln that has been overshadowed by his equally notable political and military activities.” Marc Rothenberg, former Editor of the Joseph Henry Papers and Historian at the National Academy of Sciences noted:

“This is the first in-depth study of Abraham Lincoln’s interest in technology and science and how that interest impacted his life and his Presidency. As Kent demonstrates, Lincoln was a catalyst for some of that transformation wrought by science and technology.”

Harold Holzer, perhaps the most prominent and respected Lincoln historian alive, added that:

“David J. Kent has melded deep research, genuine expertise, and a fine way with an anecdote to produce a study that fills a long-missing niche in the Lincoln literature.”

Others were equally effusive. I was honored by the reception the book received from both historians and the public. I’m a bit surprised that reviews and ratings have been slow to come, but I hope that all those reading the book will leave a short note on Goodreads and Amazon and other sites so that others can be encouraged to pick up the book.

Beginning in August I gave at least 18 presentations related to Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. Some were to Lincoln groups, others to Civil War Round Tables, one was to an Arts Club. In addition, I gave many presentations, moderated many meetings, and twice gave a course on Lincoln developed for Encore Learning, an adult continuing education program based in Arlington, VA. I also was interviewed in all media formats – print, radio, podcast, and video. You can read/listen/watch some of them via links on my Media page, plus see what events I have coming up. I already have 6 presentations related to Lincoln: The Fire of Genius scheduled for the beginning of 2023, so the coming year promises to be busy as well.

Unexpectedly, my writing life took me into the full breadth of the funeral industry in 2022. The year began normally with my representing the Lincoln Group of DC laying a wreath on Lincoln’s birthday in February at the Lincoln Memorial (which I plan to do again this year). The Memorial was also the site of the Lincoln Memorial Centennial commemoration in May, for which I was the primary organizer and served as Master of Ceremonies. Those were within the realm of activities that I’ve done before. But in June, I found myself in a funeral home hosting a special Lincoln Group meeting. There have been “presidents, vice presidents, Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, military leaders and foreign dignitaries who were honored at Joseph Gawler’s Sons,” and they have the original coffin in which Abraham Lincoln’s last direct descendant, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith was held in before his cremation in 1985. In September I was invited to give a presentation at the unveiling of a new monument at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC. The intricate memorial honored famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady with two large granite columbaria with inlaid photos related to Brady as well as life-size bronze statues of both Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, as well as a bronze replica of a Brady camera of the time period. Finally, in October I was in church, having been asked to give a eulogy at a memorial service for a long-time member and past president of the Lincoln Group who had passed away.

Outside of the Fire of Genius related activities, I continued to write for the quarterly Lincoln Group Lincolnian newsletter, for which I wrote eight book reviews and several shorter articles. I write constantly for the Lincolnian.org website, around 150 articles in the last couple of years. I also wrote an article for the Lincoln Forum Bulletin. Then there were dozens of articles each for this David J. Kent website and my Hot White Snow blog. Last year I mentioned that I planned to finish a Confederate Monuments book, but that took a back seat to other activities, so I’ll add it to this year’s list. There were also a couple of other writing projects I worked on, one or more of which should come out this year.

As with all writers, we survive on royalties for our work. I’m still getting royalties from my earlier traditionally published books on Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and Abraham Lincoln. The graphically oriented style made them popular with the general public and with younger adult readers (and even middle schoolers). The royalties aren’t making me rich, but it’s nice to see them still dribbling in. I also receive a little bit from the two specialty e-books on Amazon, both of which I make available for a low price to bring information on Tesla and Lincoln to a wider audience. You can see the previous books and directly order the two e-books on my Buy the Books page (scroll down to see them all). Since most publishers pay out royalties only twice a year and my Fire of Genius book was released in the second half of 2022, the first chance of receiving royalties will be in May 2023.

What is the plan for 2023?

This year is set to begin as a continuation of the last with promotion related to Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. I have six presentations already scheduled for the next few months, with likely many more being added to my Media page soon. [You can also see previous videos/podcasts on the Media page]

I’ll continue to write book reviews for the Lincolnian newsletter and plan to submit to the Lincoln Herald, Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, and Civil War Times. There should be a review of Fire of Genius in the next issue of the latter, which also says they still want to do an excerpt. In addition to reviews, I have articles in preparation for the first two that I hope will be published this year. I’ll also be posting reviews at the Abraham Lincoln Bibliography Project.

Last year I thought I would be publishing a book related to the Confederate monument debate. It got pushed to the back burner then, but I hope to get it out this year. I’m also working on a new Tesla book that I’ll put out as a print volume on Amazon.

Of course, I’ll continue to write blog posts on Lincolnian.org, DavidJKent-Writer.com, and HotWhiteSnow.wordpress.com. And as time permits, I’ll write fiction pieces and enter writing contests.

Finally, the new work in progress I was researching last year seems to have been bumped by a new Lincoln topic. I had a conversation with my agent before the holidays who said the publisher of Fire of Genius was interested in working with me on a new book, and the ensuing discussion led me in a slightly different direction. The goal is to get a one-pager to the publisher this week so they can start doing market research, then get them a formal proposal with sample chapters this spring. Meanwhile, I have two (or even three) potential collaborations on books that may come to fore in 2023. Stay tuned!

[Photo by Bruce Guthrie, Lincoln Memorial Centennial, May 22, 2022]

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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The Year in a Traveler’s Life – 2022

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David and the Lion - TanzaniaSome followers will recall that my annual travel roundup has been called “The Year in Science Traveling” since its inception many years ago. I’ve decided to change it to “The Year in a Traveler’s Life” from this point forward to reflect my broader traveling experiences. Given my writing history, which I’ll capture shortly in my “writer’s life” annual post, much of my travel includes Lincoln-themed locations. That said, I still do a lot of science traveling and this year was no exception. In fact, it was almost a normal travel year after two-plus years of COVID travel restrictions. In 2022 I made my first overseas trips since I went to Cuba in May of 2019. It was nice to see more of the world again.

The travel year didn’t start well. We had planned a small ship cruise beginning and ending in Istanbul, Turkey. It would have taken us into the Black Sea with stops in Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine (Odesa), Russia (Sochi), Georgia, and a few additional spots in Turkey (including Cappadocia). Although it was scheduled for September, by March it was clear that was not going to happen. Not surprisingly, the cruise was cancelled soon after Russia invaded Ukraine and our attention switched to focusing on supporting a Ukrainian friend with whom we had traveled previously. With the Black Sea off the table, we looked for alternatives and found a quick booking for a tour of Iceland, a place that has been on my bucket list for many years. Iceland was a wonderful experience as we circled the island, stopping at a seemingly infinite number of spectacular waterfalls. We also saw volcanoes, luckily all dormant at the moment. Not long after getting home there was a volcano spewing ash and lava not far from the airport we had traveled from. While there I saw the Eyjafjallajökull volcano that had disrupted air travel for weeks in 2010 while I was living in Brussels. Iceland is known as the land of fire and ice, and this trip certainly proved that catchphrase true. A truly amazing experience, including hiking behind a large waterfall (and getting drenched) and seeing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that passes through the island.

Meanwhile, around the time of our Iceland trip we committed to a photo safari in Tanzania, which we took in late November into early December. This was our first time in Africa, our sixth continent (still working on getting to Antarctica). The trip came about through a friend we’ve traveled with two times before. I had met her in 2013 when my first Tesla book was coming out (we were both involved with the Tesla Science Foundation and her mother is from Serbia, like Tesla). Since then, we’ve joined her and her travel organization, EuroCircle, on two trips. The first took us to Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia, one of the highlights of which was meeting the Prince and Princess of Serbia in the Royal Palace. The second was to Australia and New Zealand. This time we flew for over 13 hours to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, then another 2.5 hours to Arusha, Tanzania. After a night in a small hotel outside the city, we spent the following week in the bush, living in different tented lodges each night (including the one where giraffes and wildebeests snorted and roamed outside our tent all night). We saw thousands of animals – elephants, lions, wildebeest, buffalo, zebras, antelopes, cheetahs, leopards, and tons of bird species – as we wandered through three national parks (Tarangire, Serengeti, Mt. Kilimanjaro) and the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, plus the rift valley. We even did some sunrise ballooning over the Serengeti. I’ll have more stories and photos as I get the time to sort through them.

Besides the two overseas trips, we made two road trips up to New England. The first in June was to celebrate my mother’s milestone birthday, while the second was actually my first time in many years visiting family for Christmas. I’ve taken to adding side trips to these visits. Last year I tacked on a mini-vacation on Long Island on the trip up and this year’s June visit included a one-night stop in Hartford, CT to see an Abraham Lincoln tribute river walk complete with sculptures of various styles. For the Christmas trip, because of traffic and some tentative weather forecasts, there was no overnight stop but on the way, I steered the car into Concord, MA. I had started reading a book called The People of Concord just before the drive and wanted to learn more about the vibrant writer community there in the 1800s. I also wanted to stop at the Concord Museum because the Lincoln Memorial Centennial special exhibit that I had missed earlier in the year when it was in western Massachusetts was resident in Concord only until February. The exhibit and the Museum were both fabulous and well worth the stop. A brief side trip on the way back involved Henry Wilson, a Senator during the Civil War that played major roles in at least two Lincoln achievements (later he was Ulysses S. Grant’s second vice president).

There was one more short travel event in November. I attended the Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg, PA, where I gave some presentations and accepted the prestigious Wendy Allen Award on behalf of the Lincoln Group of DC, of which I am currently president.

Overall, it was a good travel year despite the challenges (not mention being busy with my book release, which I’ll talk more about in my annual writer’s life post).

So, what’s up for 2023?

Fingers crossed that we don’t get a resurgence of COVID or some other pandemic-related restrictions. But assuming a year at least as available as this one, 2023 should be a good travel year. We’re already booked on a Windstar small ship cruise in April from Lisbon to Barcelona with many stops along the way, including Casablanca, Morocco. That will give us a second country in Africa and a far different experience than Tanzania. Earlier in the April I’ll be doing a road trip to New England that will combine my previously planned “Chasing Abraham Lincoln” stops plus some more related to a possible new writing project. November will have the annual Lincoln Forum. Beyond that, the travel schedule is still in flux. There are a couple of big overseas options I’m considering for late in the year, but I would like to get some sort of travel – either overseas or road trip – in during the summer. I’ll also plan on road tripping to see family at least twice more in the year, plus some shorter day-tripping to see key locations less far afield. And of course, there are all those plans that the “COVID era” put on the back burner, so we’ll have to see what fits into my schedule. Stay tuned!

[Photo credit: Ru Sun (See the lion outside the window?)]

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Abraham Lincoln Book Acquisitions for 2022

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Books 2019Even when I’m trying to reduce the number of books in my house I end up with more. My Abraham Lincoln book acquisition total for 2022 is 34, and that number includes some books that are Lincoln-ish. You can read about past years acquisitions by scrolling through this link.

Recall that in 2021 I acquired a ton of Lincoln books that weren’t actually mine but belong to the Lincoln Group of DC. I’ve been working since then to remove them from my office through a combination of donations to Lincoln Group members and libraries. As a group, we even donated a box to an organization that supplies prisons with reading materials for those incarcerated. I still have a lot left, but I’ve reduced the pile enough to move the remainder out of my office. I’ve also removed some duplicates from my own collection. I’ll celebrate reclaiming my office table by starting a Lincoln-themed puzzle over the holidays.

Ah, but no matter how many I removed, I added more. My biggest acquisition was my own book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, which was published in September. Mostly the sales are from the usual booksellers – Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Independent bookstores (including the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop in Chicago, with whom I did a release day video interview that you can watch here), and even places like Walmart, Target, Books-A-Million, etc. You can even find it in bookstores in Canada, the UK, Australia, and elsewhere. In addition to the stores, I acquired a few boxes of Fire of Genius for sale at in-person events. I have plenty of such events coming up, as well as recordings of past events, all of which are listed on my Media page.

One of the reasons I acquired fewer books this year was that I was not on the ALI book award review committee this year, mainly because I wanted Fire of Genius to be considered for the award. Nevertheless, I still acquired many of the key books that came out in 2022, including some by big name authors. Early in the year I purchased CNN commentator John Avlon’s Lincoln and the Fight for Peace. I enjoyed the book and to put an exclamation point on it I actually moderated a discussion with Avlon for the Lincoln Group in March. The biggest name in Lincoln books this year is clearly Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham, whose And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle topped the New York Times bestseller list. I had the privilege of meeting Meacham at a special event at St. John’s Church across the street from the White House, as well as a couple of other events. Another Jon (this was a big year for authors named John/Jon), Jonathan W. White also had a book come out that I enjoyed, A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the White House. When it comes to big names in Lincoln studies, there is of course Harold Holzer, whose 2009 book The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now has found a place on my shelves. All of these, by the way, also were signed to me by the authors. Being president of the Lincoln Group of DC and winning an award at the Lincoln Forum has its perks.

Other notable books acquired this past year include some related to my own book research topic, including Carol Adrienne’s Healing a Divided Nation: How the American Civil War Revolutionized Western Medicine and Kenneth Noe’s The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil War. I also picked up The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, with Nikole Hannah-Jones as project leader. The book is a much-expanded version of the original New York Times series of essays that garnered a Pulitzer Prize despite (or perhaps because of) the raging controversy over misrepresentation/misinterpretation of the founding fathers’ motives and of Lincoln’s views on race. Hannah-Jones tweaked her lead essay in an attempt to correct unsupportable positions even as she stood by them, which unfortunately distracts from the rest of the book, which is a worthwhile, and largely fact-based, discussion of systemic racial discrimination that continues to this day.

I acquired two special books from Lincoln Group members. Ross Heller produced by Abraham Lincoln: His 1958 Time Capsule, which faithfully captures a campaign notebook he provided to a colleague in the year he ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senate. The book adds in the intriguing history of the notebook’s travels and reproduction. The second is by Daniel R. Smith, Sr., whose Son of a Slave: A Black Man’s Journey in White America is a memoir of the life of a man whose father was born enslaved in 1863 and who sired Dan at the age of 70. Dan, who has been called the Black Forrest Gump because of how often he was a part of historical events, was a long-time member of the Lincoln Group until he passed away at the age of 90 just two weeks before the book was released. His widow Loretta Neumann, also a long time Lincoln Group member, was gracious enough to inscribe my copy of the book yesterday during the Group’s annual holiday luncheon. I’ll have reviews of both these books in the next Lincolnian newsletter.

As can be seen in the list below, my definition of “Lincoln” books is a bit fuzzier in some cases this year. Some are more Civil War-centric than specifically Lincoln, but nevertheless are Lincolnesque. Others may be more obliquely related to future book projects. One interesting book I picked up is called The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power by Jules Witcover. Published in 2014, it gives fairly short (several pages) overviews of the lives of all the vice presidents up through Biden (as VP). Some VPs became president either by the death of their predecessor (e.g., Andrew Johnson, Lyndon Baines Johnson) or future election (e.g., Nixon), but their vice presidency is often overlooked. I fortuitously came upon this book just days after deciding to look deeper into a particular VP for a likely future project. Funny how that works. And of course, I also acquired books that are not at all Lincoln-related that I do not put into my spreadsheet. The spreadsheet itself is now 1639 lines, with some of those lines being multiple volume books such as the 10-volume Nicolay and Hay series.

In anticipation of 2023 acquisitions, it’s time to make some more space on the shelves.

See the 2022 list showing author/title/publication date below my signature blurb below.

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

 

Here is the 2022 list! [Author, Title, Date of Publication]

Abraham Lincoln: Selected Writings 2013
Adrienne, Carole Healing a Divided Nation: How the American Civil War Revolutionized Western Medicine 2022
Alford, Terry In the Houses of Their Dead: The Lincolns, The Booths, and The Spirits 2022
Avlon, John Lincoln and the Fight for Peace 2022
Ballard, Colin R. The Military Genius of Abraham Lincoln 1952
Brewster, Todd Lincoln’s Gamble: The Tumultuous Six Months That Gave America the Emancipation Proclamation and Changed the Course of the Civil War 2014
Brooks, Paul The People of Concord: American Intellectuals and Their Timeless Ideas 1990
Conner, Jane Hollenbeck Lincoln in Stafford 2006
Eggert, Gerald G. The Iron Industry in Pennsylvania 1994
Escott, Paul D. “What Shall We Do with the Negro?”: Lincoln, White Racism, and Civil War America 2009
Goodwin, Cardinal John Charles Fremont: An Explanation of His Career 1930
Hannah-Jones, Nikole and many others The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story 2021
Heller, Ross E. (editor) by Abraham Lincoln: His 1858 Time Capsule 2022
Henson, D. Leigh Inventing Lincoln: Approaches to His Rhetoric 2017
Holzer, Harold (Ed,) The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now 2009
Hord, Fred Lee and Norman, Matthew D. Knowing Him by Heart: African Americans on Abraham Lincoln 2023
Kent, David J. Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America 2022
Lewis, Lloyd Myths After Lincoln 1973
Manning, Alan Father Lincoln: The Untold Story of Abraham Lincoln and His Boys-Robert, Eddy, Willie, and Tad 2016
Martin, William The Lincoln Letter: A Peter Fallon Novel 2012
McCormick, Anita Louise The Industrial Revolution in American History 1998
Meacham, Jon And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle 2022
Mearns, David C. Largely Lincoln 1961
Nelson, Megan Kate The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West 2020
Noe, Kenneth W. The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil War 2020
Rubenstein, David M. The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream 2021
Schwartz, Barry Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of National Memory 2000
Smith, Daniel R. Sr. Son of a Slave: A Black Man’s Journey in White America 2022
Taaffe, Stephen R. Commanding Lincoln’s Navy: Union Naval Leadership During the Civil War 2009
Trachtenberg, Alan Lincoln’s Smile and Other Enigmas 2007
Walker, David and Smyth, Damon The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of a Slave’s Journey from Bondage to Freedom 2018
White, Jonathan W. A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the White House 2022
Willis, Deborah The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship 2021
Witcover, Jules The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power 2014

 

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Tanzania and Fire of Genius for the Holidays

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The end of November and beginning of December has been a whirlwind of traveling and Fire of Genius activities. I went to Tanzania, and now suddenly it’s time to order your signed copy of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius for the holidays.

One word I heard a lot in Tanzania was “Awesome!” Our small group visited several of Tanzania’s National Parks including Tarangire, Serengeti, Mt. Kilimanjaro, and the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation area. There were all the big animals you expect to see on a photo safari, visits with three different indigenous peoples (including a morning hunt with the Hadzabe), and some of the most incredible vistas on the planet. There was even an unforgettable sunrise balloon ride over the Serengeti. I’m still digging out, but I’ll have more details and photos shortly. Here’s a taste:

Because of the trip, the timeline has jumped from Thanksgiving to the beginning of the December holidays. Which means time is getting short to buy copies of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius. You can order or pick up at all the usual booksellers – Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart, and ideally, your local independent bookstore. [If they don’t have it, ask them to order it] I also have first edition copies you can order direct from me if you want a signed book. I’ll even inscribe it the way you want, either for you or to whomever you plan to gift it to for Hanukkah or Christmas or the holiday (or birthday) of your choice. Want more information on the book? Check out the videos and podcasts on my Media page. More events are being added daily.

Order here for signed copies. Want a copy sooner – check out Barnes and Noble or your local independent bookstore.

The reception for the book has been wonderful, with many people reaching out to say how much they liked it and its unique view of Abraham Lincoln. In fact, one person in my Tanzania group said they had started reading it just before heading on the trip! As always, if you like the book, please leave a rating/review on Amazon, Goodreads, and similar places.

The holidays are coming quickly, and this time of year is notorious for heavy traffic by the usual shipping companies, so ORDER NOW to ensure you receive the book in time, either for yourself or as a gift for your loved ones.

Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Lincoln: The Fire of Genius on C-SPAN

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C-SPAN was present at my official book launch held on September 13, 2022, in conjunction with the Lincoln Group of DC dinner meeting. C-SPAN finally premiered the program on November 19, 2022, the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Appropriately enough, I was in Gettysburg all week attending the Lincoln Forum. It turned out to be an eventful week, including accepting an award.

The C-SPAN recording is now available for everyone to watch for free.

Fire of Genius on C-SPAN

You can click on the photo above or the link below to go to the video.

Fire of Genius on C-SPAN

I’ve been doing quite a few interviews and podcasts lately, some of which are already online while others should be shortly.

Listen to me on the Civil War Center’s podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-civil-war-center-podcast/id1620393643?i=1000585125550

Watch the interview with Daniel Weinberg at the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imIn8goWjBQ&t=1s

A live presentation I gave at Fort Myer for the Civil War Round Table of DC should be posted here shortly: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA6lRYb3u2qCsCwEe3xukHg

I was also interviewed for a nationally syndicated radio program called Our American Stories to be aired at some point in December. I’ll have more details on that when available.

You can check out more upcoming and past events on my Media page.

And if you missed it, you can watch the full C-SPAN video of the Lincoln Memorial Centennial celebration from May 22, 2022, which I emceed.

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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An Award, A Breakout, and A Feature at the Lincoln Forum in Gettysburg

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November 19, 2022 marked the 159th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. As is traditional, a commemoration is held on that date, along with a remembrance of “these honored dead.” The three days leading up to the event is also the annual Lincoln Forum, one of the premier Abraham Lincoln conferences in the nation. This year was special because I accepted an award, ran out breakout session, and in addition to a short presentation, was featured in the Lincoln Forum Bulletin. If that wasn’t enough, my book launch presentation from September also premiered on C-SPAN, appropriately enough on the morning of the Gettysburg remembrance.

Wendy Allen Award 2022 Let’s start with the award. As president of the Lincoln Group of DC, I was honored to accept the prestigious Wendy Allen Award given to the group by the Lincoln Forum. The annual award is given “to a Lincoln or Civil War institution or organization that has achieved widespread recognition for bringing learning, scholarship, and enlightenment to a wide public. The award comes in the form of a framed color print of an original Lincoln painting by acclaimed Gettysburg-based artist Wendy Allen, who generously makes her work available for the honorees.”

The Lincoln Group of DC was honored for its 87 years (and counting) contribution to Abraham Lincoln scholarship and public education. I was happy to acknowledge that long history and our most recent presidents going back a dozen years: John O’Brien, the late John Elliff, Karen Needles, and the late Buzz Carnahan, as well as at least a couple more former presidents present in the room. As one might expect from a group based in Washington, D.C., our membership has included congressmen and other key figures in government. But the group itself goes way beyond the district. Our members are located nationwide and have had far-reaching influences. Among our many accomplishments is the official naming of the old post office room in the U.S. Capitol the Lincoln Room,” complete with a bipartisan resolution, a sign, and a ceremony. We also organized in collaboration with the National Park Service and with co-sponsorship by the Lincoln Forum, the Lincoln Memorial Centennial commemoration in May 2022 (watch the C-SPAN recording of the event here). The group has done much, much more over the years. Membership is open to everyone interested in Abraham Lincoln, with local dinner meetings and monthly Zoom presentations. Our website is Lincolnian.org.

In addition to accepting the award on behalf of the Lincoln Group, I was kept busy with several personal and professional events during the three-day Forum. I participated in the book signing for my new book, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius, along with other Forum presenters. I found myself seated in between two of the great Lincoln scholars of all time: Frank Williams, the past chairman of the Forum, and Harold Holzer, the current chairman of the Forum. Also at my table was prolific Lincoln and Civil War author Jonathan W. White (vice chairman of the Forum), and Forum presenters/authors John Rhodehamel and Michael Green.

Lincoln Forum Lincoln Memorial articleI also led a breakout session about my book. About thirty people gathered to discuss Lincoln’s interests in science and technology. Joining me was Ed Steers. Like me, Ed had a full career as a scientist (he was at the National Institutes of Health) before turning to Lincoln scholarship. He is a renowned expert on Lincoln’s assassination as well as his early life and ancestry. Questions from the participants led us into discussions not only about my book, but also the broader issues of how scientific and historical research are similar and dissimilar, a topic I wrote about back in June in a post called “The Science of History.”

Like the scientific conferences I used to attend (SETAC was going on in Pittsburgh when I was in Gettysburg, with my book raising money for students in their silent auction), much of the benefit of in-person conferences like the Lincoln Forum is the chatting with other researchers about history in the hallways. This year led to some interesting new ideas for future research, plus a couple of invitations to present about my book in the spring. On Thursday night, immediately after accepting the award, I gave a brief recap of the Lincoln Memorial Centennial program we organized in May.

And that wasn’t everything that happened last week. I’ll have more on recorded presentations in the next post.

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Lincoln and the Leonid Meteor Shower

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On November 13, 1833, Abraham Lincoln was awoken to the Leonid meteor shower, which is again happening now in 2022. Preachers thought it was the end of the world, but Lincoln knew better.

I briefly mentioned this incident in my earlier post, Abraham Lincoln’s Interests in Astronomy, but since this is the anniversary of that event wanted to dig deeper. The story comes to light by way of Walt Whitman, who worked in Washington as a nurse during the Civil War. He remarked that he routinely saw Lincoln riding to and from the Soldiers’ Home (now called President Lincoln’s Cottage) during the hot and pestilence-filled summer months. In a reminiscence written in 1882, Whitman provides an anecdotal recounting of a meeting Lincoln held with bank presidents during a time of great uncertainty in the Union war effort. There was great concern that the Union would fail.

After the meeting, one of the bankers gloomily asked Lincoln if his confidence in the permanency of the Union was not beginning to be shaken. Lincoln reassured the men, as he so often did, by telling a little story:

“When I was a young man in Ilinois, I boarded for a time with a Deacon of the Presbyterian Church. One night I was roused from my sleep by a rap at the door, & I heard the Deacon’s voice exclaiming ‘Arise, Abraham, the day of judgment has come!’ I sprang from my bed & rushed to the window and saw the stars falling in great showers! But looking back of them in the heavens I saw all the grand old constellations with which I was so well acquainted, fixed and true in their places. Gentlemen, the world did not come to an end then, nor will the Union now.”

Now known as Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle after the two astronomers who independently discovered it (officially) in 1865, we experience the Earth’s passage through the debris of the comet’s tail every year as meteor showers due to the way the tiny particles burn up in our atmosphere. In Lincoln’s time, such fiery showers created widespread panic as “the very heavens seemed ablaze.” The Lakota people saw it important enough to reset their calendar to commemorate it, while the Mormon leader Joseph Smith saw it as a sign of the Second Coming. It took astronomer Denison Olmsted to scientifically investigate the event, calling for the public across the country to report their observations, noting that “As the cause of ‘Falling Stars’ is not understood by meteorologists, it is desirable to collect all the facts attending this phenomenon, stated with as much precision as possible.” After evaluating the incoming data and publishing his results, Olmsted rapidly advanced the knowledge of comets and birthed meteor science. Two years after the Leonids, Olmsted and his colleague Elias Loomis became the first American investigators to observe Halley’s Comet.

Lincoln continued his interest in astronomy throughout his presidency, inspiring his son Robert to become an amateur astronomer himself.

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius

 

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

You also follow my author page on Facebook.

David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.