Edison's Ghosts: The Untold Weirdness of History’s Greatest Geniuses

by Katie Spalding

Overturn everything you knew about history’s greatest minds in this raucous and hilarious book, where it turns out there's a finer line between "genius" and "idiot" than we've previously known. “As Albert Einstein almost certainly never said, everyone is a genius – but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” So begins Katie Spalding’s spunky takedown of the Western canon, and how genius may not be as irrefutably great as we commonly understand. While most of us may never become Einstein, it may surprise you to learn that there’s probably a bunch of stuff you can do that Einstein couldn’t. And, as Spalding shows, the famous prodigies she explores here were quite odd by any definition. For
 
Edison's Ghosts is filled with examples of the so-called best of humanity doing, to put it bluntly, some really dumb shit.  You’ll discover stories that deserve to be told but never the hilarious, regrettable, and downright bafflingly lesser-known achievements that never made it into our history books, until now.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Science, Biography, Humor, Audiobook, Historical

352 pages, Hardcover

Published May 16, 2023

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just because important icons from history were geniuses, or created great works of art and/or literature, or invented something that changed the course of history . . . doesn't mean they weren't necessarily jerks with quirks.

Picture a young, drunken Karl Marx cutting the heads off parking meters smashing street lights. Consider Mozart's annoying obsession with butts and poopy stuff. Then there's Ada Lovelace gambling away the farm, and much, much more. Don't forget about Freud's coke habit, and Lord Byron just being, well . . . Lord Byron.

And then there was Tesla. And a pigeon.

“I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me."

This was snarky, engrossing, and frequently hilarious. I'd probably rate the book itself four stars, but Susie Riddell's narration on the audiobook is SO GOOD, you'd think she wrote the text herself.

Delightful!

[Andi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd love to thank the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me a chance at reading this book.

I loved this book so much that I'm gonna buy myself a copy of it. That's right. It's rare that I do that, but this author needs to release a part two - for me, and for everyone else that enjoyed it.

Think of Drunk History, with footnotes, snarky commentary, and easy to-go language / storytelling prose.

A lot of people I noticed who had issues with this book on goodreads were for an older crowd who thought there was too much swearing.

Fuck 'em. This book is for those who like swearing in their history.

There was also "but think of their achievements! their achievements". We've talked about their achievements for 100+ years, we're talking about how they were pieces of shit to their wives, relations, society in general. So air it all. They're dead. Life goes on. The world isn't gonna stop 'using' their knowledge or achievements.

I for one want more books by Katie Spalding and I'd gladly fund another round.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. It’s rare I pick up a book, read the first page, and immediately know I’m going to love it. From page one I knew this was a staff pick for me. There are no words to properly convey how much I loved this book. It combines my love of comedy and learning so perfectly. It’s people like Dr.Spalding who remind me how much fun learning can be. It reignited the passion I have for history. It feels so personal, like catching up with an old friend. I’ve already recommended this book to so many people and when it’s released, I want to drop off a copy to my high school history teacher. You can tell how much research went into each story and what a natural storyteller Dr.Spalding is. I’m a fan for life, I’ll be first in line for whatever comes next.

I genuinely can’t recommend this book enough, and that means a lot coming from a bookseller! Amazing job Doc!

[Ty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speaking of iconic figures doing weird shit, Pablo Picasso drew tentacle porn. Look it up! Or don't!

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Half audiobook via library app and half physical book 📖.

This was so much fun 😁 I knew about a few things but most of it was new to me


You'd probably have a good laugh just watching my face and gestures listening to the book.

Again, this is what they should work into school history class, it would certainly get some attention from the more reluctant learners methinks.

Certainly puts a new perspective on some historical figures and makes me wonder how a few didn't die from their decisions.

Would highly recommend 👌 👍🏼 Definitely want a copy for myself.

[Melissa Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hysterical. Perfect dinner party fodder. (p.s. read it slowly, don’t audio book it)

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heeft me maandenlang aan het lachen gehouden en af en toe “dit moet je horen dit is echt absurd” doen uitroepen. En ik houd van grappige voetnoten.

[Lisa Konet · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a humor-ish biography about inventors and scientists and some of the unknown mistakes they may have made along the way. This book was definitely written in a juvenile and amateur style and did not highlight tastefully the accomplishments by the people in the chapters.

Cannot recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley, Kate Spalding and Little Brown & Co for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Already available

[Alli P · Rating 2 out of 5]

Working at TENHP, the chapter on Edison is full of inaccuracies nor did she come to do research at the park where she could have asked/submitted a request to the millions of primary sources and other archival materials we have which would disprove her whole chapter on Edison. I gave 2 stars because I like her writing style.

[Ed Erwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loads of fun! Mostly stories of famous smart people doing stupid or odd things, but sometimes simply about odd things that happened to them. I knew some of these stories already, but the author has a way of making even those stories fun again. The final chapter isn't about one person, but about NASA. I already knew they ruined one mission by forgetting to convert between metric and imperial units. But was surprised to learn they did it again. And then again. Did you know that the first American in space, Alan Shepard, went there covered in his own pee? or that there are 96 bags of human poop on the moon?

Recommended for fans of Mary Roach, or of science and humor in general.

[Pooja Peravali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nowadays we look up to and liberally quote those we consider history's greatest geniuses, but Spalding makes the case that while they may have been geniuses in their chosen fields, in other aspects of their lives they may have easily been called eccentrics - or even utter idiots.

This is an amusing yet informative read about the idiosyncrasies of a number of very smart and/or talented people. Spalding managed to cover a lot of ground and a number of geniuses, discussing both characters who are familiar to the general public today as well as those who are better known only in their chosen discipline. Her background in mathematics is evinced in both the slight over-representation of those in that field, as well as her facile explanations of what exactly made them worthy of the title of genius.

[Reilly Zimbric · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gotta blast.

[ManOfLaBook.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

For more reviews and bookish posts visit https://www.ManofLaBook.com

Edison’s Ghosts: The Untold Weirdness of History’s Greatest Geniuses by Katie Spalding encompasses 30 mini-biographies of famous geniuses that show their human side and the unbelievably naïveté, to be kind, mistakes they’ve made. Dr. Spalding is a mathematician and a writer, this is her first book.

I actually put this book on the back burner, but if I would have known how much I’d enjoy it I would have read it immediately. The book has my sense of humor and taught me several things I didn’t know.

Edison’s Ghosts by Katie Spalding attempts and succeeds to make those who are bigger than life more human. The author tells of some of their idiosyncrasies and missteps in a funny, relatable manner.

I was lucky enough to work with many very smart people and can attest that I witnessed occurrences that, to the not-so-smart-people seem to be mindboggling. However, I’ve always maintained many super-successful people are not “normal”, which is the reason for their fame, and maybe fortune.

I have read several of these stories in full-length biographies, Einstein, da Vinci, and Napoleon, for example. But this book is much more succinct and very entertaining, I even recommended it to my teenage children.

This is the type of book that I used to love as a pre-teen / teen reader. These stories also made dinner conversations much more entertaining than “how was school today?” type of inquiries. Entertaining stories like the ones in this book always seem to stick, and I know that my kids used several such stories (some in the book) for school projects or quiz bowls.

One of the aspects that I like is that the book makes its point that being very-smart and high-achiever does not necessarily make one a good human being. A statement that we miss in idolizing people who, like every else, have their own faults and weird idiosyncrasies.

[Sebastian · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Audiobook**
Spalding helped me combat the existential dread that comes with driving 100 miles every day.
However, The real reason I love this book? Two delicious little ironies.

1. Spalding, a mathematician and a genius in her own right, chose to write a history book—and not just any history book, but one that pokes lighthearted fun at the moronic behavior of some of the most well-known geniuses throughout history. The irony? Some of the chapters are wildly inaccurate. At times, it honestly felt like a high school student was in charge of the research.

2. Spalding’s tone and approach to history seem tailor made for a younger audience: fun, irreverent, and a little chaotic. But the kind of person who would actually pick up this book is probably older and psychorigid as fuck. I just know they’d find both the book and its author absolutely disgusting.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book.Katie Spalding writes with a conversational tone and she is a great storyteller. It was very refreshing to read about the dark side of such accomplished people. The book also comprises a decent history of science although many of the stories are about non-scientists. Most importantly for me was that the book is very funny, right from the start, and it doesn’t let up. And by funny, I don’t mean there was a little humor, I mean the book was laugh-out-loud funny. Even the footnotes and acknowledgements are worth reading. I look forward to reading more Katie Spalding books. Thank you to Netgallet and Little, Brown and Company for the digital review copy.

[Susan W · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is like a movie in which all the best parts are in the preview

[Alexia · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delight!

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

CW: ableist language

The subtitle of this book mentions the weirdness of geniuses but in the foreword, the author emphasizes that she’s going to reveal the idiotic things they’ve done. Few of the profiles actually show any such thing, despite the author’s intent. Weird is probably a better word to use to describe most of these people’s actions. Some profiles are very admiring of their subjects. The one concerning Maya Angelou is really about her badass mom.

[AcademicEditor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edison's Ghosts: The Untold Weirdness of History's Greatest Geniuses, by Katie Spalding, takes readers on an intriguing journey through the lives of some of history's most (reputedly) brilliant minds--and shows you their, er, human side. I'd heard some of these stories before, such as Tesla falling in love with a pigeon, Marie Curie being all touchy-feely with radioactive rocks, and Arthur Conan Doyle believing so ardently in supernatural woo-woo that he was repeatedly duped by little girls and spirit mediums. But other stories were unexpected, such as Leonardo being basically the worst employee ever, Einstein nearly drowning himself many times through his inability to sail OR swim, and NASA engineers both forgetting that humans need to urinate and wildly overestimating how many tampons a woman might use in one cycle. Also, the author's genuinely enthusiastic love of maths is charming, and her language, while very salty (not for K-8 audiences!), is very funny.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Thea’s Reading World 💛]

#87 in 2023


Dnf at 50%

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horrible History
To describe this book in the most accurate way I can : imagine the BBC series Horrible Histories if it were written as a book. And that's it. That's what this book reminds me of. What an amazing way to learn about stuff that actually happened, in my opinion. The chapter titles were the best part!

4/5
What a fun and funny nonfiction about the craziest aspects of these people's lives! I wouldn't have guessed, honestly.

[Ioana Dumitrescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've noticed that I tend to get excessively excited about every book I read. Not sure if it's just a quirk in my personality or if I've honed my ability to pick out books that truly resonate with me, but this one unquestionably takes the crown as my favorite of 2023.
Let me break it down for you.
This book is an absolute gem—insightful and downright hilarious. Katie Spalding's writing has this magical quality that makes you completely forget you're absorbing legitimate facts about some of the world's greatest minds, like Pythagoras, Isaac Newton, and Freud. It's more like you're engaged in a cultural tête-à-tête with a friend, sipping wine and enjoying the banter.
Did you know that NASA hemorrhaged millions of dollars because they couldn't get their act together on a metric system? Or that Mozart wrestled with massive daddy issues and vehemently opposed breastfeeding, putting his own children's lives on the line? And how about Freud nearly wiping out his pals by prescribing them absurd amounts of cocaine? Oh, and Darwin, ever the adventurer, ended up munching on his own research during his global voyages. So much so that he had to resort to using the leftovers to piece together details about evolution. (Bet you can't claim the same with your leftover pizza.)
The only hiccup with this book is that it bombards you with so many fascinating facts about these geniuses that you might find yourself confusing one eccentric tale with another. At one point, I even forgot which brilliant mind had a pet moose, treating it to a tipsy escapade for amusement.
To sum it up, if you're aiming to dazzle any conversation with intelligent and captivating facts, this book deserves the top spot on your reading list.

[Gerald Matzke · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t finish book. I tried but it got more and more disgusting the farther into it I got. I understand the author’s point in writing the book to show that many geniuses had foibles but why does the world need that kind of dirty laundry hanging out hundreds of years after their deaths? Reading this book is like listening to a bunch of foul-mouthed people sitting around gossiping about people who threaten their sense of worth. It’s like them saying, “Let’s dig up more dirt.” Why would a publisher put out this kind of garbage?

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an entertaining enough read, but it took awhile to get used to her use of extended footnotes including those that frequently chopped up sentences. I'm also really confused by throwing in a few literary figures for the last chapters. How were these people picked? Also, none of these stories are truly "untold" although perhaps some were less well known.

[Sarah Marcum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, factual and funny, but a bit repetitive in the documentation style of the historical geniuses

[Andrew Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting insights, but the attempts at presenting things in a witty manner fell flat in the audio book to me.

[Aneta (bujonetka) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ta książka to absolutna perełka — wnikliwa i wręcz przezabawna. Przedstawia 30 zabawnych historii sławnych, wybitnych ludzi, takich jak Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Isaac Newton czy Thomas Edison.

Czy wiecie, że pewien wybitny pianista zmagał się z ogromnymi problemami z ojcem i zaciekle sprzeciwiał się karmieniu piersią, narażając życie własnych dzieci? Albo że pewien szalony naukowiec nie umiał pływać, ale uwielbiał żeglować ? A co z lekarzem, który omal nie zabił swoich kumpli, przepisując im absurdalne ilości kokainy? A jeszcze ktoś inny zakochał się w gołębiu. Takich absurdalnych historii tu nie brakuje!

Jedyny problem z tą książką polega na tym, że bombarduje tak wieloma fascynującymi faktami na temat tych geniuszy, że można pomylić jedną ekscentryczną opowieść z drugą.

Jednym z aspektów, które mi się podobają, jest to, że książka podkreśla, że bycie bardzo inteligentnym i ambitnym niekoniecznie czyni kogoś dobrym człowiekiem.

Jeśli nie lubicie biografii znanych osób, to nie dziwię się – też nie jestem fanką. Jednak takie pozycje jak „Granice geniuszu” to ciekawa alternatywa i możliwość poznania historii tych ludzi od tej codziennej, nie opisywanej nigdzie strony. Bawiłam się przy niej wyśmienicie i gorąco Wam książkę polecam!

[Amak · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 stars

Interesting enough for me to get over the snark. I've always found looking back on great historical figures through the lense of modern data weird. Just to bash people who were absolutely geniuses. Did they do they do weird things compared to what we do now? Of course. Would they consider "normal" things we do strange? Yeah. Our chronically online syndrome and inability to speak to each other face to face would probably be weird to them. Who knows.

Its not a bad book. I'm also not as put off by cursing as some of the other reviews on here are. I believe the book is supposed to be comedic, so I don't mind a "fuck" or ten thrown in. Doesn't hurt my feelings.

It was interesting enough.

[Lynn Coulter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edison's Ghosts: The Untold Weirdness of History's Greatest Geniuses, by Katie Spalding, is a fascinating journey into the minds of some of our greatest thinkers, authors and scientists, such as Marie Curie, Einstein and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You may be familiar with some of these stories; for example, Doyle's belief in the supernatural is well documented, and he even fell for doctored "photos" of fairies in an English garden. Other anecdotes are surprising and funny, and we learn that the geniuses we look up to have clay feet, after all. Not for young and easily offended readers, due to some language. Overall, a very enjoyable read.

[Angie Tomlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very entertaining and educational in the weirdest way which I thoroughly enjoy. We all know about the accomplishments of geniuses, but we don't know their quirks, crazy stories and behaviors.

Just to give you a sample: Pythagorus died indirectly due to his irrational fear of beans, the guy who discovered Uranus originally wanted to name it George, Mozart couldn't get enough of fart jokes, and Tesla was in love-love with a pigeon.

There's a little language, but it made it all the more hilarious to me.