The Last Lone Inventor: Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television - Hardcover

Schwartz, Evan I.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0066210690 ISBN 13: 9780066210698

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2002

Synopsis

Traces the invention of the television by Philo T. Farnsworth, an eccentric, self-taught engineer, and the determined but losing battle he fought with David Sarnoff, the head of RCA and founder of NBC, to hold onto his creation in the face of corporate competition.

About this title

Review

."Compelling.Strong, dramatic prose." -- Kirkus Reviews

."A lively and engaging account." -- Library Journal

."Fascinating. A riveting American classic of independent brilliance versus corporate arrogance. I found it more fun than fiction." -- James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers

." The fascinating inside story of how this eccentric loner invented television and fought corporate America." -- Walter Isaacson, chariman, CNN

."..Compelling...Strong, dramatic prose..."--Kirkus Reviews

."..A lively and engaging account."--Library Journal

"[A] gripping and eminently readable saga of the birth of television and the death of the Edisonian myth."--Darwin magazine

."..Fascinating... A riveting American classic of independent brilliance versus corporate arrogance. I found it more fun than fiction."--James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers

.".. The fascinating inside story of how this eccentric loner invented television and fought corporate America."--Walter Isaacson, chariman, CNN

..".Fascinating... A riveting American classic of independent brilliance versus corporate arrogance. I found it more fun than fiction."--James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers

About the Author

To write THE LAST LONE INVENTOR, Evan I. Schwartz spent two years researching the life stories of Philo T. Farnsworth and David Sarnoff. He interviewed surviving Farnsworth family members, including Farnsworth's 93-year-old widow, and he visited document archives in six states.

As a journalist, Evan has been covering information technology for 15 years. He is a former editor at BusinessWeek, where he covered software and digital media and was part of teams that produced 12 cover stories and won a National Magazine Award and a Computer Press Award. In recent years, he has written for The New York Times, WIRED, and MIT's Technology Review.

Evan's first book, titled WEBONOMICS, published by Broadway Books, a division of Random House, has ranked as Amazon.com's #1 bestselling business book and was chosen as a finalist for two major awards: The Global Business Book Award as well as the Computer Press Award. International editions have been published in eight countries.

Evan's second book, DIGITAL DARWINISM, from the same publisher, also hit #1 on Amazon's business list shortly after its release, in June 1999. Now in its twelfth hardcover and first paperback printing in the U.S., it is available in the U.K., from Penguin, and has been translated into eight other languages. It too was named a finalist for the Computer Press Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year.

Evan holds a B.S. in computer science from Union College in Schenectady, New York, and lives with his family in Brookline, Mass.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0066210690
• ISBN 13: 9780066210698
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 322