Brief Description
This is the most complete and only full-length biography available of the legendary inventor of dynamite and founder of the prizes that bear his name, Alfred Nobel. Nobel's story-which the New York Review of Books described as extraordinary-reads better than most commercial fiction. Born in poverty, Nobel devised a way to detonate nitroglycerine safely and make a new explosive called dynamite available for commercial exploitation. The discoveries and ensuing patents made him fabulously wealthy-but ultimately lonely. Spurned by the only woman he ever loved, he began a long and stormy romance with a flower girl named Sofie Hess, whom he eventually abandoned after she became pregnant by another man. Deeply disturbed that the press of the day had labeled him the merchant of death, Nobel bequeathed his entire fortune (as written in a one-page, cryptically worded will fiercely contested by his family) toward the foundation of prizes celebrating peace, literature, and scientific achievement. Fant makes generous use of previously unavailable letters between Nobel and his mistress, bringing Nobel vividly to life.
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The only full-length biography of the founder of the Nobel Prize.
Few documents have had a more enduring influence on our century than Alfred Nobel s last will and testament, for these handwritten sheets established the most coveted and prestigious awards on earth. The Nobel Prizes represent glory and world stature, and are the stuff of immortality. Yet the man whose name they bear has been lost to near obscurity. As Kenne Fant shows in this fascinating biography, Alfred Nobel s life contained fierce and troubling paradoxes. He invented dynamite and revolutionized the technology of destruction, yet his dreams of a disarmed world inspired him to create the Nobel Peace Prize.
One of the most powerful men of his time, Nobel was viewed by some as the model of success and entrepreneurial drive; to his workers, he was an enlightened and scrupulously honest employer in an age of heartless exploitation. Others, however, blamed him for the accidents caused by his inventions and labeled him the merchant of death. Victor Hugo called him Europe s richest vagabond because he moved about too restlessly. Harassed by imitators, sycophants, and frauds, and struggling continuously with bureaucracies and patent offices (only Thomas Edison surpassed him in the number of patents obtained), Nobel was often desperately lonely.
Making extensive use of Nobel s letters and writing, Fan s portrait reveals Nobel in all his aspectsindustrialist, pacifist, arms manufacturer, and poetand does full justice to a compelling and visionary figure whose name will resonate for generations.
Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a "New York Times" bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home."
Review Quotes
1. "An extraordinary story . . . Alfred Nobel emerges as a remarkable man." --"New York Review of Books"
2. An extraordinary story . . . Alfred Nobel emerges as a remarkable man. "New York Review of Books"
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