This book goes more in detail about Thomas Alva Edison than any other book can.It looks at the life of America's and the world's greatest inventor.

Wyn Wachhorst has written some beautiful essays with the core theme of spaceflight and has collected them in his book The Dream Of Spaceflight. The essays aren't perfect. Wachhorst often takes disparate insights from others and tries to connect them, when leaving them to contrast with each other would have been fine. He is critical of the postmodern [which is fine by me], but he often uses terms in fuzzy and metaphorical ways reminiscent of many postmodern authors. But ultimately the purpose of any good essay is to get the reader to think and Wachhorst succeeded with this reader admirably. The deep and wonderful insights in the essays [e.g. The whole person must have both the humility to nurture the Earth and the pride to go to Mars.] come often enough to recommend the book with a four star rating.

If every politician in Washington had read this book we would not only have saved the Pluto-Kuiper Express mission but might well be revitalizing our whole space effort in the direction of actual exploration. Wachhorst gets beyond the nuts and bolts and tired histories to the real meaning of spaceflight-what it feels like to dream the dream. My wife and I are avid readers, and this is simply the best non-fiction writing we have ever encountered.

The beautiful prose in Wyn Wachhorst's The Dream of Spaceflight : Essays on the Near Edge of Infinity, led me to a greater understanding of space exploration and invited me to meditate with the author on the deeper meanings waiting for us if we open ourselves to the mysteries of the universe. Reading this book reminded me of how I felt when I first read Chet Raymo's The Soul of the Night: that I was being taken on a journey to new places with a trustworthy guide. I love the way Wachhorst, like Raymo, looks at science through the lens of poetry. Throughout the essays in his book, whether he's writing about the history of spaceflight and the evolution of Western culture, philosophical concerns related to space exploration, or the workings of the human psyche, Wachhorst made me aware of how important it is not to lose the capacity for wonder and for the human race to keep dreaming of reaching the stars. As he focuses on what it means to explore other worlds, Wachhorst never loses sight of the inner, subjective meaning inherent in all our undertakings. The personal narrative that Wachhorst weaves through the book connects those inner and outer realities and celebrates a world that is infinite. These are essays I will return to often for their poetry, their intelligence, and their wisdom.