My principal debt for expert assistance with the research and writing of this biography is to Leonard DeGraaf, the chief archivist at Thomas Edison National Historical Park. I am also indebted to Paul Israel and Thomas E. Jeffrey, respectively editor and senior editor of the Papers of Thomas A. Edison project at Rutgers University. Aside from their general help, Messrs. DeGraaf and Jeffrey gave my manuscript a thorough scholarly review, as did my wife and fellow biographer Sylvia Jukes Morris. The scientific, technological, and medical portions of the text were scrutinized by Louis Carlat, associate editor of the Papers project, Dr. Carl M. Horner, laboratory consultant at Edison-Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, Florida, and Dr. Karen Chapel of Northville, Michigan. Dr. David Edison Sloane gave me privileged access to his collection of Edison family papers. I am profoundly grateful to all these generous and patient people, as well as to my past and present editors, Robert Loomis and Andy Ward, and to the other kindly souls listed below.
Michele Albion; Marie Arana; David Ball; Pierson Ball; Konstantin Batygin; Antony Beaumont; Pamela A. Brunfelt; Sam Brylawski; Karen Chapel; Ned Comstock; Mike Cosden; Lee A. Craig; Anthony Davidowitz; Judy Davidowitz; Charles DeFanti; Dino Everett; ; Marc Greuther; Tom Griffith; George Herrick; Chris Hunter; Dodie Kazanjian; Georgianne Ensign Kent; Ginny Kilander; Clifford Laube; David Levesque; Richard Lindsey; Charles Macpherson; Stephen Morgan; John Novogrod; Harry Pennington; Kate Armour Reed; Alexandra Rimer; Benjamin M. Rosen; Donna Perrett Rosen; David Seubert; Walter Suskie; Rachel Weissenberger; George Willeman; Hiram P. Williams Jr.; and Lois Wolf.
And finally, my gratitude to Scott Moyers, who first suggested I write a biography of Thomas Alva Edison.
—E.M.