The genius of America's most prolific inventor, Thomas Edison, is widely acknowledged, and Edison himself has become an almost mythic figure. But how much do we really know about the man who considered deriving rubber from a goldenrod plant as opposed to the genius who gave us electric light? Neil Baldwin gives us a complex portrait of the inventor himself—both myth and man—and a multifaceted account of the intellectual climate of the country he worked in and irrevocably changed.

Edison: Inventing the Century

Biographies & Memoirs

Baldwin, Neil

Historical

University of Chicago Press

Man Ray

Da Capo Press

The definitive biography of one of the most influential surrealists and a quintessential modernist. Figure-painter, sculptor, photographer, filmmaker, and collagist, Ray was born Emmanuel Radnitsky in Brooklyn. This book traces his American upbringing and his departure for Europe plus his work in painting, sculpture, photography, and filmmaking. Although he wasn't successful in all media, Man Ray nonetheless had his own style and vision. Baldwin's portrait was the first full-length biography of Man Ray. This edition has a new intro by the author updating the artist's story.

Man Ray: American Artist

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War

Neil Baldwin, one of the most exciting intellectual historians, has written extensively about the great thinkers and innovators who have shaped our unique American identity. In THE AMERICAN REVELATION, he turns his energies to the unfolding story of how the American spirit developed over 400 years. This inspiring examination of the ideals that have grown to inform our national identity and of the figures who set the course for our evolving self image covers: City on a Hill--John Winthrop--1630 Common Sense--Thomas Paine--1776 E pluribus unum--Pierre-Eugene Du Simitiere--1776 Self Reliance--Ralph Waldo Emerson--1841 Manifest Destiny--John L. O'Sullivan--1845 Progress and Poverty--Henry George--1879 The Sphere of Action--Jane Addams--1902 The Melting Pot--Israel Zangwill--1908 The Negro in Our History--Carter Woodson--1922 The Marshall Plan--George C. Marshall--1947 Neil Baldwin writes of figures both familiar and forgotten in this work of popular history that seeks to illuminate and enliven the current debate about American's role in the world. Meticulously researched and entertainingly written, THE AMERICAN REVELATION will make all U.S. readers, regardless of their politics, be proud of our country's intellectual heritage and high-minded values and will reassert those ideals to the rest of the world.

St.Martin's Press

In The American Revelation, Neil Baldwin, one of our most exciting and provocative intellectual historians, applies his formidable energies to the story of how the American Spirit developed over four centuries, through an inspiring―and unsparing―examination of selected ideals that have helped inform our culture through the vivid personalities who set the course. 
Figures both familiar and forgotten illuminate this timely narrative of popular history that enlivens the current debate about America's proper role in a turbulent post-9/11 world. Though an ideal may have been forgotten, that does not mean it no longer has the power to move us and shape our future.
Exuberant and lively, The American Revelation will inspire all readers, regardless of their politics, to revisit and revalue our country's high-minded heritage.

Community & Culture

St. Martin's: Griffin

In The American Revelation, Neil Baldwin, one of our most exciting and provocative intellectual historians, applies his formidable energies to the story of how the American Spirit developed over four centuries, through an inspiring―and unsparing―examination of selected ideals that have helped inform our culture through the vivid personalities who set the course.  Figures both familiar and forgotten illuminate this timely narrative of popular history that enlivens the current debate about America's proper role in a turbulent post-9/11 world.  Though an ideal may have been forgotten, that does not mean it no longer has the power to move us and shape our future.Exuberant and lively, The American Revelation will inspire all readers, regardless of their politics, to revisit and revalue our country's high-minded heritage.

The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country From The Puritans To The Cold War

Leaders & Notable People

St Martins Pr

A major biography—the first in three decades—of one of the most important artistic forces of the twentieth century, the legendary American dancer and choreographer who upended dance, propelling the art form into the modern age, and whose profound and pioneering influence is still being felt today.\n"Brings together all the elements of Graham’s colorful life...with wit, verve, critical discernment, and a powerful lyricism.”—Mary Dearborn, acclaimed author of Ernest Hemingway\nTime magazine called her “the Dancer of the Century.” Her technique, used by dance companies throughout the world, became the first long-lasting alternative to the idiom of classical ballet. Her pioneering movements—powerful, dynamic, jagged, edgy, forthright—combined with her distinctive system of training, were the epitome of American modernism, performance as art. Her work continued to astonish and inspire for more than sixty years as she choreographed more than 180 works.\nAt the heart of Graham’s work: movement that could express inner feeling.\nNeil Baldwin, author of admired biographies of Man Ray (“Truly definitive . . . absolutely fascinating” —Patricia Bosworth) and Thomas Edison (“Absorbing, gripping, a major contribution to our understanding of a remarkable man and a remarkable era” —Robert Caro), gives us the artist and performer, the dance monument who led a cult of dance worshippers as well as the woman herself in all of her complexity.\nHere is Graham, from her nineteenth-century (born in 1894) Allegheny, Pennsylvania, childhood, to becoming the star of the Denishawn exotic ballets, and in 1926, at age thirty-two, founding her own company (now the longest-running dance company in America).\nBaldwin writes of how the company flourished during the artistic explosion of New York City’s midcentury cultural scene; of Erick Hawkins, in 1936, fresh from Balanchine’s School of American Ballet, a handsome Midwesterner fourteen years her junior, becoming Graham’s muse, lover, and eventual spouse. Graham, inspiring the next generation of dancers, choreographers, and teachers, among them: Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor.\nBaldwin tells the story of this large, fiercely lived life, a life beset by conflict, competition, and loneliness—filled with fire and inspiration, drive, passion, dedication, and sacrifice in work and in dance creation.

Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern

Humor & Entertainment

KNOPF

Arts & Literature

Random House Value Publishing

Man Ray is the quintessential modernist figure - painter, sculptor, photographer, filmmaker, poet, and philosopher. One of the most fascinating of the Surrealists who transformed the Paris art world during the 1920s, Man Ray was an enigma - a Dadaist who revered the Old Masters, an anarchist pursued by wealthy patrons. Driven to make his mark in as many art forms as possible, he struggled bitterly to win acceptance as a painter even as his skill as a photographer brought him world wide fame. Man Ray came to know personalities such as Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, and Coco Chanel, and he photographed virtually every important figure in the arts on both sides of the Atlantic.

Clarkson/Potter

A biography of a man who successfully combined two careers as a family physician and as a poet.

To All Gentleness: William Carlos Williams, the Doctor-Poet

Teen & Young Adult

Biographies

Atheneum

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baldwin, Neil. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Baldwin, Neil

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Baldwin, Neil. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Edison: Inventing the Century

Man Ray

Man Ray: American Artist

The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War

The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country from the Puritans to the Cold War

The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country From The Puritans To The Cold War

Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern

Man Ray: American Artist

Man Ray: American Artist

To All Gentleness: William Carlos Williams, the Doctor-Poet