The Wizard of Menlo Park

Randall Stross's critical biography makes the case that the greatest thing Thomas Edison invented may have been his own fame. From the phonograph, first shown to the public in 1878, to electric light and early film cameras, Edison came to stand for the promise of a new technological age and was hailed as the Napoleon of invention. Stross strips away myth to separate his true achievements from failures that were nearly as large, and weighs how much credit belongs to rivals and to his own assistants. Henry Ford, Edison's wives and his children all appear as Stross follows the long years spent trying to repeat early success, and he portrays Edison as the first great celebrity of modern times.

Marc Andreessen wrote in his Pmarca Guide to Startups that he had been reading it and called it a marvelous book about Edison.