S e t h S h u l m a n
BOOKS:
The Telephone Gambit:
Chasing Alexander Graham Bell’s Secret
(W.W. Norton, 2008)
- “Best of 2008—Science” Washington Post
- “Best of 2008—Nonfiction” Christian Science Monitor
- “Best of 2008—Sci/Tech”—Booklist, American Library Assoc.
- Finalist, AAAS/SB&F Award Best Science Book for Young Adult Readers
- A Barnes & Noble “Discover Great New Writers” selection
- A selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the History Book Club, and QPB
- An Amazon.com “Editor’s Pick of the Month”
My latest book, The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret, is a nonfiction detective story. It recounts my experience, while working for a year as a science writing fellow at MIT, of stumbling upon a twisted mystery surrounding Bell's role in the invention of the telephone. Working from Bell's laboratory notebooks and his voluminous correspondence, I fell through a kind of historical trap door to becoming increasingly intrigued by the surprising story behind the invention of the telephone: a tale of romance, corruption, and unchecked ambition.
In the book, I try to capture the feel of the rich and exciting time in which Bell lived, as well as to tell my own story of chasing down clues about Bell’s life and times in rare archives and artifact collections around the world to unravel the surprising and long-hidden truth about him.
In the course of my research, I unearth a “smoking gun” that leaves little doubt that Bell furtively—and illegally—plagiarized his initial telephone design from his major competitor, Elisha Gray in his quest to secure what would become the most valuable U.S. patent ever issued. Afterwards, as Bell’s device led to the world’s largest monopoly, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, I trace how he hid his invention’s illicit beginnings.
Praise for The Telephone Gambit:
It'll be stacked in the science shelves, but The Telephone Gambit might be an early contender for best thriller of the year..." (Read full review.)—Barnes & Noble Review
[A] page-turner...The Telephone Gambit is solid history and Seth Shulman makes it as fun to read as an Agatha Christie whodunit..." (Read full review.)—Wall Street Journal
...a stellar example of historical investigation at its probing best." (Read full review.)—Boston Globe
How often does a detective story upend history?...A page turner..Read[s] more like the stuff of thrillers than of the history of science." (Read full review.)—Christian Science Monitor
A dramatic probe into a shocking intellectual theft...the skillful, polished writing makes century-old events spring to life." (Read full review.)—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Masterful...[the] story never flags....an intrepid journalist-turned-historian's quest for the true story of the invention of the telephone." (Read full review.)—The Washington Post
Fraught with controversy, conspiracy, and possible chicanery, Shulman spins real-life Da Vinci Code drama around one of the most influential inventions of the modern era." (Read full review.)—Amazon.com (editor's pick of the month)
Shulman...brings [to the book] some tantalizing bits of fresh evidence and his considerable talent for writing engaging prose."—Science
...a great tale of historic detection."—NewScientist
[A] fascinating tale of what could be the greatest intellectual property theft in history." (Read full review.)—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Examines a historical event with the suspenseful gush of a detective novel and the intellectual clarity of academic scholarship" (Read full review.)—Boldtype.com
An impressive aspect of Shulman's sleuthing is his measured assessment of facts...this book potentially rewrites history even as it immediately lures readers with scandal and iconoclasm." (Read full review.)—Booklist (Starred Review)
Seth Shulman’s The Telephone Gambit masterfully breathes life into a long-forgotten controversy." (Read full review.)—Entertainment Weekly
Part muckraking journalism, part detective story, and part science lesson, The Telephone Gambit is an engaging romp through the scientific world of the late 19th century with a cast of characters worthy of Dickens..." (Read full review.)—VeryShortList.com selection
Shulman's book rewards us with a fresh take on old lore, and spurs us to consider what history's losers might add to the story... " (Read full review.)—New York Daily News
A powerful and personal story of historical sleuthing and discovery that you won't be able to put down. Seth Shulman has single-handedly rewritten the history of one of the most important inventions of modern times."—Robert Buderi, author of The Invention That Changed the World
and founder of Xconomy.com
Seth Shulman reveals the hidden history of an invention all of us use every day, upending the version we all learned in school. But he does something else as well: he takes us along for an exciting ride as we follow him through the dropped hints, musty papers and secret scandals that led him to his discovery. This is both well-written history and a suspenseful detective story."—Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost and Bury the Chains
If every great fortune is built upon a great crime, as Balzac supposedly said, the telephone—arguably the most lucrative invention ever made—may have been built on the greatest crime of all...I enjoyed the detective story in the book, but was particularly struck by Shulman's portrait of Bell—a brilliant and decent man whose reputation, fortune, and even marriage were based, to his lifelong horror, on a single act of chicanery."—Charles C. Mann, author of 1491
A great read. I enjoyed it. It reads just like a mystery novel."—Ira Flatow, Talk of the Nation, Science Friday, NPR. (See Podcast below.)
Select Links
Telephone Gambit on "Talk of the Nation, Science Friday," NPR
Audio from Boston.com of Seth reading a short excerpt
"The Very Short List Item of the Day"
Purchase
Buy the book at Amazon.
