This paperback addition to our Photobiography series, Inventing the Future, documents the life of Thomas Edison. This prolific American is recognised as one of history's greatest inventors

His 1,093 patented inventions include the light bulb, the phonograph, and the microphone. Young readers learn why Edison believed that "genius is one per cent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration." An inspiring lesson in the rewards of dogged perseverance, Inventing the Future also illustrates how Edison's greatest legacy is the research laboratory, where constant experimentation remains the necessary prelude to discovery. Marfe Ferguson Delano's portrait of this quirky original includes clippings from Edison's notebooks and images of the inventor at work-and occasionally at rest.