Biographies About
Outstanding Inventors

From famous innovators to unsung trailblazers, meet the creative forces
behind everyday conveniences and modern marvels.

Edwin Grosvenor writes of Bell's other extraordinary inventions: the first transmission of sound over light waves, metal detector, first practical phonograph, and early airplanes....

I Invented the Modern Age reclaims from history Henry Ford, the remarkable man who, indeed, invented the modern world as we know it....

Now a docuseries from Ken Burns on PBS! The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and...

The electrifying, forgotten history of Robert Heath's brain pacemaker, investigating the origins and ethics of one of today's most promising medical breakthroughs: deep brain stimulation The technology invented by psychiatrist Robert G. Heath in the 1950s and '60s has been described as among the...

Why should anyone who is not interested in aviation or history be interested in the Wright brothers? What do their life and struggle have to add to the lives of the common person out there? Listen to learn more....

In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character. Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made...

What do Hedy Lamarr, avant-garde composer George Antheil, and your cell phone have in common? The answer is spread-spectrum radio: a revolutionary inven­tion based on the rapid switching of communications sig­nals among a spread of different frequencies. Without this technology, we would not...

Nikola Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily life at the turn of the 20th century....

A “fascinating slice of rarely considered American history” (Booklist)—the story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison—whose annual summer sojourns introduced the road trip to our culture and made the automobile an essential part of modern life. In 1914 Henry Ford and naturalist John Burroughs...

Here's a biographical profile of Charles F. Kettering, a man who always sought solutions to great problems....

Henry Hemming is the first reporter to sift through extraordinary new information and finally tell Pyke's astonishing story in full: his brilliance, his flaws, and his life of adventures, ideas, and secrets....

NATIONAL BESTSELLER “It was an honor to play Joy on the big screen—she’s such a fearless woman, an incredible business force and an inspiration to everyone she meets.” —Jennifer Lawrence From Joy Mangano, self-made millionaire, entrepreneur, inventor of the Miracle Mop and inspiration...

Explorer and inventor, soldier and poet, archaeologist and diplomat, Richard Francis Burton (1821-90) was the most versatile and remarkable man of his age....

As Marc Raboy shows us in this enthralling and comprehensive biography, Marconi was the first truly global figure in modern communications....

A New York Times Bestseller In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley’s most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs—a real-life Tony Stark—and a fascinating exploration...

In this New York Times bestselling “imperative how-to for creativity” (Nick Offerman), Adam Savage—star of Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters—shares his golden rules of creativity, from finding inspiration to following through and successfully making your idea a reality. Every Tool’s a...

The New York Times bestselling author of Bitter Brew chronicles the birth and rise to greatness of the American auto industry through the remarkable life of Harley Earl, an eccentric six-foot-five, stuttering visionary who dropped out of college and went on to invent the profession of automobile...

Johannes Gutenberg was our first geek, the original technology entrepreneur, who had to grapple with all the challenges a Silicon Valley startup faces today....