Excerpt from Thomas An; Edison: With Seven Illustrations From Photographs We shall see presently in what sort of an environment and as a consequence of what events Edison unhesitatingly sought and found himself. But, Without attributing an excessive influence to heredity in shaping the destinies of great men, it is only fair that we should ask in the first place what were the antecedents of Thomas Alva Edison, and whether, in revealing himself to us with all the marks of a striking originality, he has not been simply obeying certain family traditions of high intelligence and audacious initiative. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.