Wizard the Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius

As you'd expect from a psychology professor, this biography is an extremely good biography of Tesla as a person, and a very good biography of his life and times. As with most scientific prodigies, the biographers are not equal to their subjects' scientific accomplishments, which leads to a certain amount of benign neglect. The book would not suffer under a few more historical mises en scène. All in all though, it is an extremely good book.

I value this book highly because of its even-handedness in its treatment of Nikola Tesla. Virtually every thing stated by Mr. Seifer is documented. After all, this book is the result of his doctoral dissertation. The subject of the book is treated as a believeable human being. Assuredly, he was a genius; but the author fairly points out when Tesla may have missed the mark. The author neither blindly worships nor blindly condemns Nikola Tesla. Because this is a biography, it does not go into depth about Nikola Tesla's inventions; Enough information is presented as is necessary to the story. I am thankful that I have encountered this book because it is based upon truth.

Seifer expresses that the key reason he wrote Wizard was to try and answer many of the questions left unanswered by the other authors. In particular he focuses in on why Tesla's name dropped into obscurity, whether or not he really received signals from Mars, how his magnifying transmitter really worked, what exactly happened to cause his failure with JP Morgan,what happened to his top secret papers and also the book explains exactly how his particle beam weapon have really worked. One of the book's strengths is that it is set up completely chronologically. Thus you can cue into any year and oftentimes particular months of Tesla's life. Every chapter also begins with a neat quote. I turned to the back and counted over 1400 endnotes including 400 personal letters. This is the real deal, much of it in Tesla's actual words. One of the neatest sections was a discussion of of how Tesla's early lectures in the 1890's pre-dated Rutherford, Bohr and Einstein in theories on the structure of the atom and on what came to be called Quantum physics. Jumping ahead 20 years, Seifer reveals that during WWI, Franklin Roosevelt, as Secretary of the Navy, used Tesla's priority patents in wireless to combat Marconi's contention that the Navy was stealing Marconi's invention. Seifer goes on to show that Tesla was selling wireless technology to the Germans during WWI and that this apparatus was used to coordinate submarine movements at that time. Later, during WWII, Tesla also apparently worked with the US war department to give them the invention of the particle beam weapon. The focus of the book, however, is Wardenclyffe, Tesla's world wireless communication system that was backed by JP Morgan, who at the time, was the most powerful man on the planet. Every other biography that I read on Tesla leaves it as a mystery as to why Morgan pulled funding of this venture. Seifer paints almost a day by day account of the partnership, explains exactly what happens, and backs his findings with something like 40 letters between Tesla and Morgan. The story is dynamite, because had Tesla succeeded in harnessing the enterprise, we would have had wireless and cellular technology by 1905 instead of 20 to 90 years later. This has to be one of the most amazing books I have ever read. I didn't just learn about Tesla, but also about the rise of corporate America, the role of technology in shaping social events and about many of Tesla's friends, enemies and colleagues like Tom Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, JP Morgan, Stanford White, John Jacob Astor and Franklin Roosevelt. But what sets this book apart is how well all this information is conveyed in narrative form. This is a biography, mystery, and electrical engineering book all in one. Very entertaining.

Seifer's comprehensive look at Nikola Tesla is unexpected. It is neither dry, formulaic or predictable - even for those familiar with the enigmatic genius. Simply put, it is fascinating, exciting reading. Tesla was credited with the invention of modern AC power generation, remote control, fundamental advances in radio, wireless voice- and data-transfer, the first laser, advanced flight concepts, and a myriad of other inventions. Yet he died without ever achieving the financial rewards one would expect for a man who was truly ahead of his time.Taking advantage of ill-defined intellectual property laws and the vagaries of international court systems, other well-known inventors such as Pupin, Marconi, and Steinmetz either "borrowed" his discoveries or helped write him out of the history books. While many rode Tesla's coattails to public recognition and, often, staggering financial success - the great man was left penniless and alone.Seifer pulls no punches. Tesla made a series of startling gaffes. From ill-conceived contracts with Westinghouse (leaving him with no ongoing revenue from his discovery of the AC polyphase system) to poor management of critical projects backed by J.P. Morgan, Tesla disappointed his financiers time and time again. Lack of prioritization, spinning off in too many directions simultaneously, poor project management - all contributed to Tesla's inability to achieve the breakthrough he needed (and deserved) for true financial independence.Seifer covers Tesla's life in exceptional detail. His bizarre work habits (often sleeping only two hours a night), his odd social life (never married and apparently a lifelong celibate), and his many other idiosyncrasies are described with fascinating anecdotes. You don't need to be an Electrical Engineer, or a Scientist, or even technically savvy to thoroughly enjoy _Wizard_. In a nutshell: superb.

Marc did great job covering life and work of Nikola Tesla, a serbian-american inventor who made great contributions to modern science and engineering. Book covers all of the important aspects of Tesla's inventions and scientific discoveries. It covers the broader historical background and explains the importance of Tesla's work to a great detail. It is also very good at explaining "mysteries" surrounding Tesla's personal life. It presents Tesla both as one of the greatest scientist ever as well as a human being. This book is so good since it makes the right balance between technical information (very accurate, with rich bibliography) and Tesla's personal life and social interactions. Therefore it is interesting for both serious scientists who would like to learn from Tesla's work as well as for general population who would like to learn about this extraordinary personality.Overall, this is the number one book on Tesla so far. The best starting point and reference regarding Tesla's life and work.