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Lightning Man: The Accursed Life Of Samuel F.b. Morse | 
 enlarge | Author: Kenneth Silverman
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
Buy Used: $1.95
You Save: $18.05 (90%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 679527
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.6 x 1.4
ISBN: 0306813947
Dewey Decimal Number: 621.383092
EAN: 9780306813948
ASIN: 0306813947
Publication Date: September 21, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Crisp, clean, unread paperback with light shelfwear to the covers and publisher's mark to one edge - NICE!
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Product Description
This brilliantly conceived biography is the very American tale of a quiet man, raised by religious zealots, who became a gifted and prolific painter (more than three hundred portraits and historical canvases), became the first Professor of Fine Arts at an American college, and founded the National Academy of Design. A classic overachiever, this was simply not enough for Samuel F. B. Morse; he subsequently ran for Congress and mayor of New York. Lastly, in his most famous life's work, he invented a machine that was to transform commerce, communication, transportation, military affairs, diplomacy, and the course of the modern world. What invention could be so revolutionary? The telegraph, of course-and the eponymous Morse code. Here is the story of an incredible invention, and an engrossing life, by a Bancroft- and Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
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| Customer Reviews:
Excellent bio of telegraph inventor October 16, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Basically I agree with the reviews of Deborah Taylor, Charles De Fanti, Jr. and Matthew Wall. I had no idea that Morse was an accomplished painter and introduced daguerreotype photography to the USA and taught Matthew Brady. Thanks to Hollywood, I had no idea that one of the best features of the Morse telegraph system was automatic recording of the dot and dash signals, so no operator had to be present when they arrived. Or that he was involved with the trans-Atlantic cables. Or that he finally threw himself on the mercy of European governments in which the Morse telegraph system was being used and asked for an indemnity, one-time, saying he would be satisfied with whatever it was ($2 million in today's money).
We were never exposed to Morse's pro-slavery bible-based views, or his campaign support for General George McClellan in 1864 against Lincoln. The idea that English abolitionists were planted or encouraged to go to the USA to weaken us was there.
Silverman has provided a good index and astounding documentation of sources. Those of you who have looked at my other reviews and seen lists of errors will be impressed that I did not find a single one in this wonderfully readable book. My only wish is that there were a few more details of the telegraph devices. And why no table of the Morse code? No matter: this is one of the best books I have ever read on any topic.
 More relevant for the inventor today than you can imagine July 11, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I picked up this book on a whim, and found myself agog at Morse's veritable precognition about the telecommunication industry. I was quite unable to put the book down. This man may be long dead, but his ideas about leasing the right to use his telegraph, rather than opting to sell telegraph devices one-by-one, was a brilliant marketing decision on a par with today's great master's of business. The book is well-written and full of surprises, including what business decisions NOT to make. This is a great read for anyone who a)is in marketing; b) is in telecommunication; or c)mistrusts the Patent Office!
Fascinating Eye on the Early 19th C. & an American Original July 30, 2004
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
SFB Morse is hardly a forgotten figure in history, but neither does he have the stature of an Edison in terms of the industrial development. As Lightning Man ably describes, the telegraph itself was more an invention of an amalgamation of a variety of predecessor developments in science and technology. Morse deserves ample credit for putting the pieces together and, more importantly, having the drive and acumen to evolve the invention into a successful business model, which was the key for its transformative effect on world technology. Yet his life, before the appearance of this excellent biography, seems shrouded in the myth of the lone inventor.
What's truly fascinating about his story and this book is the tale of the transition from the idea of the lone individual genius to the research lab, the difference between a great idea and a useful product, the move from progress being measured by the fevered work of a single man to the joint efforts of the company and the corporation. The story is one of a transformation of a culture, but which stays firmly focussed on its subject, Mr. Morse, in telling the tale.
Morse's "early" years as a painter are covered extremely well, and while the transition between his career as a painter to one as an inventor may seem bizarre and abrupt to the modern conception, Silverman illuminates this strange career change in the light of the times. Morse himself was a bridge between early American puritanism and a more modern philosophy that was to come. His philosophy of human nature and of himself had all the prejudice, bravado, arrogance, hypocrisy, idealism, greed, and Calvinist self-loathing that made the first half of the 19th century such a dynamic period. That Morse had to travel abroad to study fine art painting, a field considered by many Americans of the time to be vile and barely a craft, and sought the approval of the Academy of the day in Europe also neatly encapsulates the love-hate relationship of the period with European culture and learning. (Morse's own tortured schizophrenia on European political institutions is a subtheme: he is quick to criticize the European political systems of the day in his younger years, and all too eager to accept the emoluments and honors of royalty in his later ones.) The treatment of Morse's early years and his relationship with his then-even-more famous geographer father is done very deftly, without resorting to facile Freudian psychobabble, as we see Morse attempting to simultaneously win parental approval, find his own way in the world, make a name for himself, and try to see his own importance.
There's an American tragedy within Morse's life story as well, in the way he bitterly fought -- perhaps too hard in some ways -- to get the sole credit for inventing the telegraph that he is popularly (and inaccurately) given in the one-line biographical entries of modern histories. This fight was done partly for ego and celebrity, and partly to protect his patents and late fortune. It's a sad and cautionary tale how Morse was never able to settle into any kind of self-satisfaction as he became obsessed with his own legacy.
Morse was an American original, and there's a fascinating pull to the story of a man never happy with himself despite having reached conventional success in two quite different professions.
Morse Rediscovered October 28, 2003
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
As he did with Houdini, Poe and Cotton Mather, Silverman peels away the tired skin of his subjects and reveals a person hitherto unknown to history. Never one to catalog facts, Silverman redefines not only the person but the era in which he lived. Morse's Calvinism, his passionate pro-slavery views, and his profound frustrations can be comprehended only in the context of his age, which Silverman portrays through dazzling research and exquisite prose. Harrowing Nineteenth Century sea voyages and the Puritan's love/hate relationship with Rome provide two of the many fascinating vignettes that invigorate this portrait.
Once again, Kenneth Silverman has proven himself the Dean of American biographers.
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