Schatzkin, Paul

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SCHATZKIN, Paul

PERSONAL:

Born in New York, NY; married, wife's name Ann. Education: Antioch College, B.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Pegram, TN. Office—c/o Author Mail, TeamCom, Inc., P.O. Box 1251, Burtonsville, MD 20866.

CAREER:

Worked as videotape editor for television, including American Broadcasting Company (ABC)-TV series Barney Miller; writer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Emmy Award nomination for editing work on Barney Miller.

WRITINGS:

The Boy Who Invented Television: A Story of Inspiration, Persistence, and Quiet Passion, TeamCom Books (Burtonsville, MD), 2002.

Contributor to Encyclopedia Britannica.

SIDELIGHTS:

The year 2002 marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the first demonstration of television. The inventor of the medium, Philo T. Farnsworth, was twenty-one years old when he devised the invention in 1927. Like many other inventors, Farnsworth was a self-educated genius whose strengths lay in visionary thinking, not in the day-to-day corporate machinations that inevitably accompany any new technology. Although awarded the first patent for television, Farnsworth found himself embroiled in litigation with the giant Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Eventually he faded into obscurity, anonymously pursuing research into cold fusion.

Former television editor Paul Schatzkin became interested in Farnsworth more than a quarter century ago while working in Hollywood. Schatzkin's timing was good. He was able to interview some of Farnsworth's associates and Farnsworth's widow, Pem. Schatzkin's book, The Boy Who Invented Television: A Story of Inspiration, Persistence, and Quiet Passion, charts Farnsworth's life from his burst of inspiration while working in a farm field at age fourteen to his unheralded death amidst unfinished research many years later.

Schatzkin's book is part of a resurgence of interest in Farnsworth and his scientific contributions that began at the turn of the twenty-first century. In Booklist, Mark Knoblauch praised The Boy Who Invented Television as "a readable … biography of the man whose invention truly revolutionized the world." In his online review for The Onion A. V. Club, Noel Murray commented: "Schatzkin's exhaustive research is impressive, and he has a purposeful sense of structure, which pushes the Farnsworth story toward one inevitable, all-but-irrefutable conclusion." Library Journal contributor David M. Lisa concluded that the book is "a great biography of a gifted inventor."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2002, Mark Knoblauch, review of The Boy Who Invented Television: A Story of Inspiration, Persistence, and Quiet Passion, p. 34.

Library Journal, September 15, 2002, David M. Lisa, review of The Boy Who Invented Television, p. 66.