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The Inventor’s Secret: What Thomas Edison Told Henry Ford Written by Suzanne Slade Illustrated by Jennifer Black Reinhardt Charlesbridge Publishing    9/08/2015 978-01-58089-667-2 32 pages   Ages 7—12 “Thomas was curious about electricity—invisible energy that flowed and stopped, sizzled and popped. “Henry was curious about engines—machines that chugged and purred, hiccupped and whirred. “When Thomas …

Oscar-winning screenwriter Graham Moore (pictured, via) has landed a deal for his second novel with Random House.

The publisher plans to release The Last Days of Wonder in Fall 2016. Senior editor Noah Eaker negotiated the terms of the agreement with ICM Partners agent Jennifer Joel.

Here’s more from Deadline: “Sticking to the historical thriller bent of Alan Turing’s story in Imitation Game, Wonder is set against the backdrop of 1880s New York and centers on the legal battle over the invention of the light bulb pitting Thomas Edison against George Westinghouse. The story is told through the eyes of Westinghouse’s young attorney, Paul Cravath (later the founding partner of the prestigious law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore), and focuses on his efforts against enormous odds to win his case for his client.”

Many have praised Moore for a moving acceptance speech he gave while accepting the Academy Award in the best adapted screenplay category earlier this year. Click here to watch a video with Moore encouraging those who feel like different to “stay weird.”

Hi there. Long time no see. It’s me, not you. I’ve been slack.

But tonight I’m putting a hold on the smoothies I promised to make for D and myself, in order to write this post. So listen up. Because it’s important. And because smoothies are on the line!

Lately I’ve been feeling down in the dumps, and it’s not just because of my recent terrible haircut. It’s also because of a project I’ve been working on, which is not going quite where I want it to. It’s gotten so that the last few days I’ve been trying to think of a reason not to quit. Because somehow I got to this point where quitting doesn’t even feel like quitting. It just feels like not continuing, which doesn’t really sound as bad. Does that make sense? It does to me.

But I’ve put a lot of time and effort into this project. You always hear stories where people were so close to quitting when they finally met with success, so I thought, maybe that’s where I am. Maybe I should hang in there a bit longer. But what’s the point? I need a reason. A really rock-solid reason not to quit–something that will actually force me to keep going. Because this is kind of new for me. I don’t quit. Never. Not really. I’m not even bragging because honestly, sometimes it’s a curse. If I get it in my head to do something, then I JUST. WON’T. LET. IT. GO. So ordinarily what keeps me from giving up is that I can’t admit defeat. But this time that isn’t enough.

Because I kind of want to quit. I’ve turned it into something other than defeat. I’ve turned it into the realistic, responsible thing to do. It would save me a lot of grief (read: feeling depressed at my lack of success and guilty for doing anything besides working on my project). It would be easier.

So, while I was washing dishes tonight, the answer kind of came to me in the form of this blog post. (It seems like I always get half-decent ideas while I’m washing dishes. You might think that’s a good enough reason to wash dishes more often, but I’m still not sold.) Anyway, I was trying to think of one good reason not to quit and I realized it was actually pretty simple: If I quit, then I’ll definitely be in the exact same place that I am right now. Forever. My project can’t possibly succeed. And the disappoint that I feel right now will never go away–why would it? But if I don’t quit–if I keep on trying–then there remain two possibilities ahead of me: One is that I might never succeed. I might remain exactly where I am right now. Forever. With one exception: at least I would know I didn’t give up. But the other possibility is that I will eventually succeed. Until I eliminate that possibility, it’s still out there. It could still happen.

If I quit, then all I do is eliminate hope. I control the future by closing off all possibilities except the one I don’t want.

And hope is enough to keep me going. I wouldn’t condemn anyone to disappointment–I want all your dreams to come true. So why would I do any less for myself?

One of my college professors paraphrased Thomas Edison, and I’ll never forget it. At the time, I thought he made it up. I thought he was a genius. So I will always think of R.L. before poor T.E. when I hear the words, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

I guess what I’m saying is, don’t give up. I won’t if you don’t.

What keeps you going on your low days?

This Day in World History

December 6, 1877

Edison demonstrates the phonograph

While he cranked the handle on the device, inventor Thomas Edison watched the faces of the editors from the journal Scientific American. He was in the magazine’s offices to demonstrate one of his newest inventions. As he cranked, indentations made on a tinfoil cylinder sent signals to a diaphragm, and the editors heard the machine ask after their health. Astonished, they heard the device then say it was fine and bid them good night. “There can be no doubt,” editor Alfred Beach later wrote, “that the inflections are those of nothing else than the human voice.” The phonograph was born.

Edison had long been interested in recording information and playing it back later—his interest started back when he was working primarily on inventions related to telegraphy. By 1887, he had enjoyed enough success to create a laboratory dedicated to invention in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Edison had a large staff of scientists and technicians, one of whom—Swiss machinist John Kruesi—turned Edison’s sketches for the phonograph into a real device, reportedly in 30 hours. To test it, Edison had shouted a verse of the nursery rhyme “Mary had a little lamb” into the machine. As hoped, his recorded voice could be heard, as clearly as he had spoken.

Excited by the invention, Edison began to promote it vigorously, and the visit to Scientific American was part of his campaign. The journal published Beach’s glowing account of the demonstration on December 22. The inventor wrote an article for the North American Review speculating on the possible uses for the machine that was published the following spring, by which time he had already formed a company to manufacture phonographs. Whenever visitors came to the Menlo Park lab—and Edison encouraged them to come—he made sure to show them the phonograph, which he called his “baby.”

“This Day in World History” is brought to you by USA Higher Education.
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