Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World Book

The Wizard of Menlo park is a bit about Edison the inventor, and a lot about Edison the public celebrity. His is an interesting story, but if you want to learn what really made him tick you won't get it here. In fact, it isn't clear how much he invented. Edison was part inventor, and part master of invention, in the sense that he created a major laboratory of invention, of which he was the maestro, but there were a lot of members in the orchestra. But the book,unfortunately, is more by the numbers than inventive.

If you want a really compelling book which covers some of the same territory (although not the invention of the phonograph or motion picture) I strongly recomment Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes.