3.5/5

It has been done! This biography took me so long to read! I began in summer 2016 but couldn’t get into it. Picked it back up at the start of my fall semester this year but couldn’t get into it. Picked it up again at the end of the semester and forced myself to through.

All in all his was a fascinating book that did an incredible job capturing the complicated life of an American Immigrant icon.

While I was reading the book I struggled with how in depth and technical it got with his patents and his competitor’s patents at times but once I decided “it’s okay not to retain every word” and just kept reading, these tid-bits of information no longer slowed me down and by the end of the book I was excited to learn more. It almost read like it was letting you in on a secret, at times differentiating what the world saw at a given time and what actually happened (like with all of his feuds and how for decades those who pirated his work were rewarded).

What I enjoyed most about this tale was seeing how intertwined he was with the most powerful American families of all time. This was a man who worked with both JP Morgan and Jr. He was a direct rival of Edison and a pen pal of Elenor Roosevelt.

I am incredibly happy to have finally finished this book.