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Nikola Tesla and the Ugly Aunts

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Nikola TeslaAs my book on Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity  continues to grow in volume and excitement I’ve had a chance to explore Tesla’s early life and family.  He adored his mother’s intellectual abilities, at one point declaring that she was “an inventor of the first order.”  And as might be expected from the son of a clergyman, his feelings for his father were a mixture of admiration, awe, and fear.  But overall, Tesla had an immense respect and esteem for his family.

Tesla’s memories of other relatives are not so admiring.  In fact, he tells a story of his two aunts that is downright irreverent. These two aunts were, well, not exactly the local beauty queens.  They were old, at least in young Nikola’s eyes, and quite wrinkled in their faces.  One of them had “two teeth protruding like the tusks of an elephant.”  That vision must have been ghastly enough, but she had a habit of burying these tusks in Tesla’s cheek every time she kissed him.  Which in traditional Serbian culture is a lot.  Certainly too often for Nikola’s liking.  Being quite affectionate and adoring of their young nephew the aunts kissed and hugged to their heart’s content.  To Tesla this was a fate worse than death.  “Nothing could scare me more,” Tesla later said, “than the prospect of being hugged by these as affectionate as unattractive relatives.”

One day an occasion arrived that likely brought Tesla’s family more than a modicum of embarrassment.  Tesla’s mother Duka was carrying Tesla in her arms, and perhaps not anticipating the lack of political correctness of the young lad, unfortunately decided to ask Tesla which of the two aunts he thought was prettier.  Already the diligent observer that would later became the famous inventor, Tesla studied the faces of the two aunts intently.  After careful thought he pointed to one of them and proudly declared, “This here is not as ugly as the other.”

While we don’t know their reactions, we can assume young Nikola was not so warmly hugged after that.

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Nikola Tesla chapter outline is now in the publisher’s hands!

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Nikola TeslaMy book chapter outline is contractually due May 1st and so I’m diligently adding the finishing touches so I can send it to the editor.  Meanwhile, the contract is finally finished and the first installment of the advance should arrive within 30 days. (Yay!)

Here’s a preview:

Chapter 1:           A Scientific Rock Star is Born

Chapter 2:           Coming of Age in Europe

Chapter 3:           The Odd Mr. Tesla

Chapter 4:           Of Edison and Westinghouse

Chapter 5:           A Man Always at War

Chapter 6:           Wireless and Wardenclyffe

Chapter 7:           Taking on Einstein

Chapter 8:           Beyond the Grave – Conspiracies and Pop Culture

Chapter 9:           A Lasting Legacy

It’s in!!  I sent the Chapter Outline in to my editor at Sterling Press tonight.  The signed contract gets put into snail mail tomorrow (yeah, snail mail, go figure).

Now back to the writing…

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Nikola Tesla is Born, Danilo Tesla is Killed – Who is Nikola Tesla?

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As my book on Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity slowly took shape, the question was begged – Who is Nikola Tesla? Of course, you’ll have to buy the book to find out all the interesting history of the man, but here’s a teaser to get you started. Nikola begins his life, and his brother loses his life.

Born in the small village of Smiljan in what was then the Austrian Empire but now is part of present day Croatia, Tesla was born “precisely at midnight” as July 9th rolled into July 10th in 1856. This led to some uncertainty as to what date his birthday should be celebrated, but in practice his birthdays rarely were celebrated much at all, at least until his later years when he was world famous.  Then his birthdays became celebrated affairs complete with press coverage. But that was much later.  For now the young Nikola lived the rather mundane life of the son of a Serbian Orthodox priest.

The fourth of five children, Nikola became the only male heir after the rather mysterious death of his older brother, Danilo. As Tesla later tells it, Danilo met his end at the hands, or rather the hoofs, of the family horse. The horse itself had actually been a favorite of the Tesla family as it had supposedly “saved my father’s life under remarkable circumstances.” A “magnificent” Arabian breed, Telsa relates the story:

“My father had been called one winter night to perform an urgent duty and while crossing the mountains, infested by wolves, the horse became frightened and ran away, throwing him violently to the ground. It arrived home bleeding and exhausted, but after the alarm was sounded immediately dashed off again, returning to the spot, and before the searching party were far on the way they were met by my father, who had recovered consciousness and remounted, not realizing he had been lying in the snow for several hours.”

And so his father was saved by the horse. Brother Danilo was not so lucky. Again according to Tesla, “this horse was responsible for my brother’s injuries from which he died.” Worse yet, young Nikola “witnessed the tragic scene” and the “visual impression of it has lost none of its force” over the 50+ years that had elapsed.

Others suggest that Nikola may not have been such an innocent bystander.

[More about Nikola Tesla]

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

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Tesla Book is Good to Go!

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The book on Nikola Tesla is a go!

I agreed this week to write the book on Nikola Tesla.  We’re finalizing the contract and the due dates, so start thinking about those Christmas present opportunities.

More details on my updated Nikola Tesla page.

My thanks to my literary agent, Marilyn Allen of Allen O’Shea Literary Agency LLC, for bringing me this amazing opportunity.  I also want to thank my senior editor, Chris Barsanti of Fall River Press, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

More updates periodically as the project progresses.

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Nikola Tesla book Update – Opportunity of Inventions

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I mentioned a while back that I was talking to an agent and a publisher about writing a book about Nikola Telsa, the great man of invention. Not the electric cars (though somehow it seems possible that he was behind the Tesla S model), but radio, alternating current (AC), the “Tesla coil,” guided missiles, wireless transmissions, polyphase power systems, a “death ray,” or two.  You know, the usual science geek stuff.  Add in his friendships with famous poets, business titans like George Westinghouse, and writers like Mark Twain…not to mention a few weird quirks about multiples of three and pigeons (long story)…and you have an eccentric genius of science.

Perfect topic for me to write about.

Today I received the initial offer from the publisher and agent to write the book about Tesla.  More details to come once they are finalized, but suffice to say that things have progressed quite nicely, thank you very much.  I’ll be getting back to the agent shortly and defining the book, the timing, and the all-important advance over the next few days or week.  Then it’s all about researching and writing.  Oh, and more researching and writing.

 

Did I mention writing.  🙂