EDISON

Thomas Edison's daughter once said that biographies of her father focused on what he did, not who he was. This new audiobook portrait of the famed inventor seeks to rectify that. Arthur Morey offers an able narration, carrying listeners along despite the book's length and sometimes jarring jumps from one technological topic to another. The author relied on corporate archives and family papers to paint an intimate portrait, and Morey's tone suits this. Direct quotations are short, so Morey wisely chooses not to effect particular voices for the speakers. Some of the footnotes interrupt the narrative flow, but this is a small flaw that listeners can easily overlook. In all, this revelatory biography is narrated effectively. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2019]