Edison
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Edison Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Edmund Morris (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,292 ratings
Editors' pick Best Biographies & Memoirs
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New York Times best seller

From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edmund Morris comes a revelatory new biography of Thomas Alva Edison, the most prolific genius in American history.

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Time Publishers Weekly Kirkus Reviews

Although Thomas Alva Edison was the most famous American of his time, and remains an international name today, he is mostly remembered only for the gift of universal electric light. His invention of the first practical incandescent lamp 140 years ago so dazzled the world - already reeling from his invention of the phonograph and dozens of other revolutionary devices - that it cast a shadow over his later achievements. In all, this near-deaf genius ("I haven’t heard a bird sing since I was 12 years old") patented 1,093 inventions, not including others, such as the X-ray fluoroscope, that he left unlicensed for the benefit of medicine.

One of the achievements of this staggering new biography, the first major life of Edison in more than 20 years, is that it portrays the unknown Edison- the philosopher, the futurist, the chemist, the botanist, the wartime defense adviser, the founder of nearly 250 companies - as fully as it deconstructs the Edison of mythological memory. Edmund Morris, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, brings to the task all the interpretive acuity and literary elegance that distinguished his previous biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Ludwig van Beethoven. A trained musician, Morris is especially well equipped to recount Edison’s 50-year obsession with recording technology and his pioneering advances in the synchronization of movies and sound. Morris sweeps aside conspiratorial theories positing an enmity between Edison and Nikola Tesla and presents proof of their mutually admiring, if wary, relationship.

Enlightened by seven years of research among the five million pages of original documents preserved in Edison’s huge laboratory at West Orange, New Jersey, and privileged access to family papers still held in trust, Morris is also able to bring his subject to life - the adored yet autocratic and often neglectful husband of two wives and father of six children. If the great man who emerges from it is less a sentimental hero than an overwhelming force of nature, driven onward by compulsive creativity, then Edison is at last getting his biographical due

Previous page
  1. Listening Length
    25 hours and 5 minutes
  2. Author
    Edmund Morris
  3. Narrator
    Arthur Morey
  4. Audible release date
    October 22, 2019
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B07VLBRWY8
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 25 hours and 5 minutes
Author Edmund Morris
Narrator Arthur Morey
Audible.com Release Date October 22, 2019
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B07VLBRWY8
Best Sellers Rank #40,022 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#92 in Biographies of Science & Technology Leaders
#262 in Entrepreneurship (Audible Books & Originals)
#284 in Scientist Biographies

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
1,292 global ratings
Informative and interesting!
5 Stars
Informative and interesting!
Edison by Edmund Morris is an interesting read and engaged me easily with the history of Thomas Alva Edison. This fascinating man was so much more than just an inventor and the author conducted extensive research to bring Edison to life for us! I just wish the book had an index for research accessibility because this is the main reason for wanting this biography of Thomas Alva Edison, using it for research that our library students have to conduct to complete their annual research paper. All-in-all, a great read because the author has taken the facts about Edison and made them appealing and compelling!
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Top reviews from the United States

Andrew Baron
5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of new and engaging, historically-footnoted information
Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2019
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As a frame of reference, over the past four and a half decades I've read all of the Edison and Tesla biographies, going back to the first "Edison & His Inventions" of 1879. I was delighted to learn much more from this new biography than I have from the others, with much new and enriching material presented, all carefully footnoted and referenced. Of particular interest are several pieces of communication and comments that Edison and Tesla made to and about each other, which cast a very different light on the popular conception of their relationship.

Most of the Edison biographies (and Tesla's as well) have been highly derivative of content from prior published work, and if footnoted sources were given at all, they often led to a source that itself was not footnoted or was absent of any referenced primary historical data at all. Other biographical work that has done a fine job of maintaining professional and historical integrity, has nonetheless been of a scholarly bent and might not appeal to a general audience. I am giving Edmund Morris's book 5 stars because he not only provides voluminous original source material references, but because he writes as a mature author who knows how to put the pieces together, and when he does editorialize it is with unusual insight that rings true to this seasoned reader. Morris knows and portrays his subject and his subject's personality traits unusually well, and does not shy away from conveying the personality flaws that make Edison such a complex character. This is not a hagiographic account, so those looking for hero worship of a saintly personality may be disillusioned.

What does come through however, in addition to the flaws, are those aspects of the man that are honorable and noteworthy. Those for whom Edison has had enduring appeal will likely come away with a deeper appreciation of the inventor's personality and its influences, shaping the man he ultimately became.

Reviews have commented on the author's peculiar choice of telling the story chronologically backwards. This does take some getting used to and can be momentarily disorienting, but I think I understand the author's intent. As each layer of Edison's challenges, his reactions to them and their consequences gets peeled away, the more clearly and plainly we comprehend how his personality evolved. There is something uncannily effective about the journey toward a greater innocence and naivety, as we gradually come to understand how these traits became leitmotifs in Edison's life, as others came to be added, along the way to a long and remarkable life.
8 people found this helpful
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Kevin Quinley
4.0 out of 5 stars Benjamin Button-esque, Unorthodox Biography, Exhaustive and Exhausting
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2021
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The book is an exhaustive -- and at times exhausting -- treatment in detail of Edison's life. Large sections of it that are so technical and detailed that my eyes glazed over and I skimmed over the material. You will get a deep dive into electricity and various engineering minutiae of Edison's prolific inventive mind.

What comes through was Edison's almost superhuman, inexhaustible, indefatigable energy and intellectual wattage. He would work for long stretches of time without sleeping or eating, so focused on his experiments, inventions and projects. His mind was constantly churning with ideas as he filled notebooks with future visions and projects. He would try hundreds, thousands of methods and experiments until he found a solution to the problem that he was tackling. His intellectual persistence seems superhuman. It is hard to think of another individual who was his prolific and productive through sheer output of ideas and ingenious inventions.

This is not a hagiography, however, that lionizes Edison. Feet of clay show through. The book shows him, warts and all. He seemed to lack business savvy and flirted with financial problems despite the massive financial windfalls available from his various inventions, patents and products. He wed twice, but one gets the impression that he essentially lived a life separate from his wives, so absorbed was he with his work. His children became afterthoughts as well; it is hard to say that he had any relationship with them other than monetarily. He fathered children, but did not seem to be much of a Dad to his children, many of whom suffered from lacking much other than a genetic/biological relationship with him.

The curious feature of this book is its unorthodox structure and organization. I am a huge fan of Edmund Morris and -- in particular -- his three-volume opus on the life of Theodore Roosevelt. Unlike those books, however, Morris opts for a weird organizational structure to this biography. Essentially, he begins the book at the end of Edison's life and then works backwards in roughly ten-year chunks from the end-of-life, ending with Edison's boyhood in Ohio. It is a Benjamin Button-esque approach to biography. It is not reader-friendly and evokes some head-scratching.

One might expect that, in a Preface/Foreword, either Morris or his Editor posthumously would have provided context for the unorthodox, counterintuitive anti-chronological approach used here. It's almost as though Morris was saying, "I did it because . . . well, I can!"

As other reviewers have correctly noted, one workaround is to simply read the chapters in reverse order. I chose not to do that, but why not make the manuscript as reader-friendly as possible or provide context for the unorthodox biographical approach? A rhetorical question but a legitimate one nonetheless.

Ultimately, this was a detailed biography of perhaps America's most prolific inventor. The technical details and approach to the narrative however at times tested my willpower to grind on through to the very end. Your mileage may vary.
13 people found this helpful
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5.0 out of 5 stars Edison Descendent Brief Comment
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2023
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This is the best detailed history of Edison I have ever read. The writing is smooth and conversational. The research is well-targeted and thought-provoking. Telling Edison's story backward from the end of his life allowed me to jump into the middle of major events rather than having to plow through a lot of childhood stories as background before getting to the really big public, economic, industrial, and scientific events. The format worked very well for me as a reader.
Morris's interpretation of a number of events corresponds to my perceptions based on family letters and conversations with my grandmother Madeleine Edison [Sloane]. I think she would have liked this book.
David Edward Edison Sloane
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Top reviews from other countries

MP
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Book
Reviewed in India on May 15, 2023
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This book is totally awesome, the writing style is such a high standard, good illustration, the page quality is high (paperback). I recommend to everyone to read this book and happy reading....
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Don
5.0 out of 5 stars The best biography of Thomas Edison, detailed and documented.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 20, 2021
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As much about business as invention. An implicit guide to life: Half what to do and half what not to do. Edited, you might say, by Sigmund Freud.
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WF van der Hart
3.0 out of 5 stars Annoying reversed chronology of his life
Reviewed in Germany on May 8, 2021
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Impressive inventor and the book is filled with lots of historic fragments of his life. Just don't get why the writer decided to reverse the order of the biography. So annoying to read from his older years to the younger years, what a waste of an otherwise good book.
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Arend Smid
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a book.
Reviewed in Canada on December 18, 2019
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Educational..?
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read, well structured
Reviewed in Australia on November 3, 2021
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Loved the book
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