Customer Reviews (1)

Quite Dated, but Informative
I am not sure who the target audience was for this book, I presume it to be school aged children. It is a very easy reading book, if you can get over the old terminology. As an Amateur Radio operator myself, I found this to be interesting on the scientific level, not just for the information presented about Marconi's life.

An example of some of the old words used is the word "aerial" instead of antenna. In fact, at one point in the book the author makes a comment about "antennae as they were often called." Which, of course, now we use primarily instead of the word aerial.

Don't read the book for up to date radio lingo, nor to really learn about radio and its capabilities today. Rather, read it from the perspective of seeing what the world of radio thought about Marconi just a short time after his discoveries and death. ... Read more

Book Description
Merging both his scientific and personal lives into one compelling history, author Degna Marconi recalls the turbulent existence of her father, Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the radio. Unable to gain admittance to a university, child prodigy Marconi instead set up a laboratory in his father's attic. These boyhood experiments led to the development of the radio. Marconi transmitted the first transatlantic wireless message in 1902. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

My search for Marconi
For a long time, I have studied Marconi since I am an amateur radio operator. I have visited his two stations on Cape Cod and even wrote a short web article about the first message he sent from Cape Code to England. Yet I found much new information in this book. Some of the comments tied loose ends together for me. If you are interested in early radio or Marconi, I suggest you read this book. It is paperback book size, but has a vast amount of information and pictures written by someone who knew him well.

Degna Marconi: My Father, Marconi pub. Guernica
I was held captive by a book that is a generous tribute of a loving daughter to her Father, Guglielmo Marconi.Degna Marconi allows us an insight into a chapter in her family history, and introduces us to the science behind her Fathers' inventions, his passion, his single-mindedness, his genius.
Marconi grew up in Bologna, at the center of his Mother's world.Without formal schooling, bright and gifted Guglielmo was allowed to develop at his own pace.Inspired by a book on Benjamin Franklin, his imagination was fired up, and he started experimenting with electricity and passing signals across distances.Later as a young adult in Great Britain, Marconi together with a small group of dedicated and passionate men and scientists made his ideas a working reality.The rest is history, and we all are beneficiaries.
Last summer when I stayed at Cape Cod, I took a detour and a walk at South Wellfleet. Marconi Station is no longer there, but the display tells us of messages that were relayed for the first time over great distances, between Great Britain and America.One of the early demonstrations of importance of communicating over long distances was when the signals were received, informing the world of the tragedy of the maiden voyage of Titanic.
While most of us still grapple with understanding the way signals travel, the ideas and inventions of Guglielmo Marconi have become a life transforming reality.As a mother living in Melbourne, Australia, with a daughter in New York, and a daughter in London, I bow to the genius of Marconi.His work made it possible for us to remain close, it made the "tyranny of distance" more bearable.
This book is more interesting than any fiction.Degna Marconi writes with literary skill that is outstanding.
We are closer to understanding Guglielmo Marconi, the man, when we read his own words: "genius is gift of work continuously applied"
Recommended reading!

My father Marconi
Review: My father, Marconi

What magnificant reading this is! This book is a must for those who would agree that a good biography is incomparably more valuable than even a great work of fiction. Degna Marconi has succeeded in recording her father's life with both scrutiny and filial affection. She has maintained a very high level in every aspect: what she tells us about scientific evolution in its historical context is witty, precise and fascinating whereas her personal touch never errs on the side of biased family pride. She is as good an author as her father was a man of science!
This portrait of Marconi and his times at the beginning of the era of global communication is all the more interesing right now a hundres years after it all began.
"My father, Marconi" should be on the shelf of anyone who prefers reflection to mere consuption.

Susanne Regehr

Marconi's eldest daughter writes about her famous father.
If I had to pick the one book (and there are many out there) that best describes Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless communication, this would definitely be it. This book, written by Marconi's eldest daughter, Degna, is one of the best biographies I have ever read, in part because of the enormous charisma of the subject and in equal part because of the obvious respect and affection with which he is treated by Degna Marconi.
With only a vague idea of who Marconi was and fearing a book filled with technical jargon I picked up this book with a little suspicion at first. What a wonderful surprise! Degna Marconi's story was engaging from the first few paragraphs and rivetting up until the end. I quickly became engrossed in this fascinating story of a young man who, instead of going to university, spends his days experimenting with sending radio signals across his parents' garden, using homemade equipment and information gathered from scientific magazines, and then his tireless struggle to improve and promote his inventions which takes him first to London, then Canada, and the U.S. Degna Marconi presents the historical and scientific facts in a clear and concise manner without sacrificing detail. The work is both rewarding for those interested in science as well as those of us after a good read. Indeed, the charm of this book is that it reads like a real page turning novel. Loads of little anecdotes and commentaries colour the story without obscuring it. The reader gets a wonderful insight into a world of wealth and luxury, cut-throat competition and scientific innovation.
The book describes the novelty and excitement of Marconi's first experiments and then moves on to describe Marconi's struggles to patent his inventions, circumvent his ever more numerous competitors and expand the range and use of his technology. In fact, Marconi emerges not only as a brilliant scientist but above all as an energetic and resourceful entrepreneur. This account of Marconi's work to establish radio as a practical and useful alternative to other more established technologies (such as the telephone) is thrilling to read and is as relevant today as it was 100 years ago. I especially enjoyed reading about the heroic radio operator who continued sending S.O.S. signals from the sinking Titanic and about Marconi's long, lonely and often frustrating struggle to establish radio contact across the Atlantic.
Marconi's private life was no less exciting and tumultuous. The book's description of Marconi's love of the beautiful Beatrice O'Brien, his efforts to win over the undecided Beatrice and their wedding is entertaining and often humorous. The strain of Marconi's ever increasing work and fame on his family, the tragic divorce that neither he nor Beatrice really wanted and Marconi's complicated relationship with his children, especially his son Giulio, are all described with subtle and touching insight. Degna Marconi is also able to convey Marconi's charm and subtle sense of humour. Highly recommended.

A look through the eyes of a daughter
This book by Mrs Marconi was extremely touching; we know so much about Marconi the inventor, the public figure but what makes this book so original is that it was so clearly written by someone who knew him well and loved him even more. Set side by side are descriptions of his scientific breakthroughs and very intimate glimpses of him as a person, many of them humorous and understanding.

The book is also very well written, interesting but at the same time readable and enjoyable. I have lent my copy of the book to many of my friends. ... Read more

Book Description
Marchesa Maria Cristina Marconi has written the biography of her famous husband and Nobel Prize winner, Guglielmo Marconi. In 1901, he accomplished the first trans-Atlantic wireless transmission and became known as the Father of the Age of Communication. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII exchanged first messages between Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and England. The book also contains Marconi's other experiments, especially those dealing with radar. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Guglielmo Marconi's story told by his wife and daughter
This book was originally written (and reprinted several times) in Italian by the wife of Inventor and Statesman Guglielmo Marconi, and in recent years was translated to english by his daughter Elettra, who also added some important recollections. Guglielmo Marconi was the first to discover how to send a sound made in one box, to another box on the other side of the room.
This technology was then used by others, as it still is today, in inventions that involve wireless communication, such as satellite communication and radios.
He was Nobel Prize winner. He was credited with saving the lives of survivors on the Titanic because he installed the radio transmission on that ship.He conceived of, and built the Vatican Radio Station which is still a powerful communications tool for the world's millions of Roman Catholics.
Read it!

Marconi comes to life!
Who invented the wireless radio? Well as we are taught in history class Marconi did. Now what else do we know about him? More or less very little, that was until now. This book is an exceptional look into one of thiscentury greatest men.

Written by Marconi's wife, this book is more than asimple biography, it is a love story, and it is a romance novel and mostimportantly it is history lesson all rolled into 370 plus pages of one ofthe best books I have ever read or reviewed.

The books tells more thanthe life work of the "man who gave voice to silence", it shows anotherside, this side history books never record. The book includes letter,pictures and even a listing of his honors.

Here is a book that should beon the must read list for those interested in history. I was trulyimpressed by the way the author makes the man come to life and shows histriumphs and his failures. Excellent reading for one and all! ... Read more

Book Description
When it was first published in 1996, Giancarlo Masini's biography of Marconi generated a wide range of interest and praise for its portrait of a brilliant scientist and a complex, fascinating individual.

Marconi's invention transformed modern communication technology and its inventor became a figure of international renown. Despite the criticism of skeptics and detractors, his relentless experimentation and belief in the possibilities of science resulted in professional acclaim. Masini also addresses Marconi's troubled marriages and his complex relationship to Mussolini and Italian Fascism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Save your money; buy the comic book!
This is a strange little book which offers no insight into the way Marconi thought about the technical aspects of radio or about many of the interesting issues associated with the early history of the Marconi Company. There are several photographs of early radio equipment but there is no discussion of what functions the devices have. There are no circuit diagrams. There are many pictures of Marconi and various notables; none of these are of archival value. If the reader wishes to learn more about how Marconi lost his eye, or about his extensive sexual adventures I recommend this book. If however the reader is a serious student of the history of radio I suggest the two volumes by Hugh G.J.Aitken or the History of the Marconi Company are much more valuable and interesting. ... Read more