I couldn’t have written this book without the help of Elma G. “Pem” Farnsworth, the widow of Philo T. Farnsworth. After reaching her by telephone, I first met her in person at the Farnsworth family’s home in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in December 1999. Her recollections were remarkably vivid, especially given the fact that she was close to her ninety-second birthday. She has since shared her story with me in dozens of hours of interviews, many of which were taped. As her husband’s closest confidant and companion during his entire career, Pem Farnsworth not only was able to provide firsthand accounts of many events but also enabled me to get inside the head of my main character in a way that would not have been possible otherwise. She also granted me permission to draw quotes from her self-published memoir, and she read my manuscript for accuracy.
The book also benefited greatly from the assistance of Alexander Magoun, director of the David Sarnoff Library in Princeton, New Jersey. This facility, located within the former RCA Laboratories (since renamed Sarnoff Corporation), was designed late in life by Sarnoff, the longtime president of RCA and the founder of its NBC network, as the main repository for his papers, correspondence, awards, photographs, and other corporate and personal possessions. As an employee of the Sarnoff Corporation, Alex Magoun has been loyal to the legacy, but as a historian, he has been forthcoming about providing an accurate rendering of events, hosting me on visits, supplying his own analysis, and opening up the RCA document and photo archives for this project.