Brief Bibliography of Works on Thomas A. Edison

Click here for a more extensive bibliography of works on Edison.

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.

Lawrence A. Frost

The Edison Album: A Pictorial Biography of Thomas Alva Edison (Seattle: Superior Publishing Co., 1969) contains a nice collection of images.

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.

Olav Thulesius

Edison in Florida: The Green Laboratory (Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida, 1997) discusses Edison in Fort Myers.

Robert Friedel and Paul Israel, with Bernard S. Finn

Edison's Electric Light: Biography of an Invention (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1986) 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 detailed history of the Edison motion picture business.