STEINMETZ: Wizard of Light
By
An easy to read, but highly sentimentalized, biography of the physically deformed electrical engineering genius who worked in this country for most of his life. Unfortunately, it takes more than baby smiles through tears, the ""good smell of sauerkraut,"" and endless imaginary conversations to make a biography that instills admiration, inspiration and a fuller conception of the depth and breadth of a life. Briefer, but much more dignified accounts are available in Beard (Our Foreign Born Citizens) and Cooper (Twenty Modern Americans). For older readers there is the well written full length biography by Lavine.