Robert Fulton: American Inventor

by William Morrison

Robert American Inventor is aligned to the Common Core State Standards for English/Language Arts, addressing Literacy.RI.3.8 and Literacy.L.3.2g. Steamboat inventor Robert Fulton's life is examined in this book with full-page illustrations and narrative nonfiction text. A timeline of Fulton's life is included. This book should be paired with “Robert Fulton Invents the Steamboat" (978147772637) from the Rosen Common Core Readers Program to provide the alternative point of view on the same topic.

26 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

William Morrison was a pen name used by Joseph Samachson (1906-1980). He earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale at the age of 23. He was an assistant professor at the College of Medicine, University of Illinois. He also headed a laboratory in metabolic research dealing with diseases that affect the skeleton. Samachson worked as a research chemist until 1938, leaving to become a fulltime writer. He worked as a technical writer but also wrote science fiction for the pulp magazines. In the early 1940s he wrote primarily for the comics. From that period, he is best known as the co-creator of the Martian Manhunter at DC but also created other characters like Zatara, Tomahawk and Two-gun Percy. In the 1950s he produced science fiction novels and many short stories and was a frequent contributor to major magazines like GALAXY. With his wife, he wrote books about various subjects, including the theater, music and ballet. He returned to biochemistry in 1953, eventually retiring in 1973 after five years as Associate Clinical Professor of biochemistry at Loyola University, Chicago.