Brief Bibliography of Works on Thomas A. Edison

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Paul Israel
Edison : A Life of Invention (New York: John Wiley, 1998) is the standard biography.
Martin V. Melosi
Thomas A. Edison and the Modernization of America (Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman/Little, Brown Higher Education, 1990) is a good short biography.
Theresa M. Collins and Lisa Gitelman
Thomas Edison and Modern America: A Brief History with Documents (New York: Beford/St. Martin's, 2002) is an excellent collection of documents with a brief biography of the inventor.
Thomas E. Jeffrey
From Phonographs to U-Boats: Edison and His "Insomnia Squad" in Peace and War, 1911-1919 (Bethesda, Md.: LexisNexis, 2008) examines a period in Edison's career largely neglected by biographers and historians.
William S. Pretzer, ed.
Working at Inventing: Thomas Edison and the Menlo Park Experience (Dearborn, Mich.: Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village, 1989) provides an introduction to the Menlo Park laboratory.
Andre J. Millard
Edison and the Business of Innovation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1990) discusses Edison's work at the West Orange laboratory.
Michele Wehrwein Albion
The Florida Life of Thomas Edison (Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida, 2008) is the best book on Edison in Fort Myers.
Michele Wehrwein Albion, editor
The Quotable Edison (Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida, 2011) provides a guide to Edison quotations.
Robert Friedel and Paul Israel, with Bernard S. Finn
Edison's Electric Light: The Art of Inventionn (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2010) is the best book on Edison's invention and development of the DC electric light and power system.
Charles Musser
Thomas A. Edison and His Kinetographic Motion Pictures (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Univ. Press for the Friends of Edison National Historic Site, 1995) provides a short overview of Edison's work on motion pictures. His Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991) provides a concise history of the Edison motion picture business.
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