Lightning Man: The Accursed Life Of Samuel F.b. Morse (repost)
Lightning Man: The Accursed Life Of Samuel F.b. Morse By Kenneth Silverman
Publisher: Da Capo Press 2004 | 512 Pages | ISBN: 0306813947 | EPUB | 7 MB
Publisher: Da Capo Press 2004 | 512 Pages | ISBN: 0306813947 | EPUB | 7 MB
The New York Herald may have eulogized the inventor of the telegraph in 1872 as "perhaps the most illustrious American of his age," but Samuel Morse may have concluded otherwise: he thought his life a failure. Hence the subtitle of this painstakingly researched, gracefully and soberly told life. Silverman, who won the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes for his 1984 biography of Cotton Mather, presents us with a fool's progress of sorts. Morse seems to have fallen into inventing by way of a mediocre painting career. He was a disappointment to his pious Protestant parents, who envisioned a respectable career for their son but got a dreamer instead. By the age of 41, Morse was still dreaming of a commission from Congress to be hung in the Capitol dome and still undecided as to his calling in life.