Steamboats Come True

American Inventors in Action

By: James Thomas Flexner

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Paperback | 1 January 1993 | Edition Number 2

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464 Pages

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22.86 x 15.24 x 2.62

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In this work, Flexner chronicles the lives of three men, all striving to invent the first steamboat, and shows the pattern of their interwoven fates. In his introduction, Flexner profiles his first protagonist, John Fitch, as "an archetypal wild man of genius ...born to create what would not be accepted, to fight man and God for what he considered justice, and in the end, destroy himself". Fitch's rival and enemy, James Rumsey, was "A backwoods gambler, suave and humorous where Fitch was torrential, Rumsey was also (but how differently!) self-destroyed". Enter Robert Fulton, an inventor born to succeed, with whom the tale of "anguished pioneering" ends. Flexner paints the final hero as an able and cynical opportunist who became "rich, socially elevated, and down through the generations, famous".

Industry Reviews

"The answer to the question 'who invented the steamboat?' makes exceptionally good reading. Flexner recounts steps that led to the steamboat as an accomplished fact, and recreates the living personalities of Fitch, Rumsey, and Fulton as they reacted to the times, their environment, and the inventive urge within them."-- "--Library Journal"

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