Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://andywarnercomics.com/
CITY: Berkeley
STATE: CA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://us.macmillan.com/briefhistoriesofeverydayobjects/andywarner/9781250078650/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.:
n 2016040669
LCCN Permalink:
https://lccn.loc.gov/n2016040669
HEADING:
Warner, Andy
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PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Comics writer and artist, and teacher. Irene, cofounder and coeditor; Nib, contributing editor; taught cartooning at Stanford University, California College of the Arts, and the Animation Workshop in Denmark.
WRITINGS
Contributor of comic strips to various outlets, including Slate, Medium, American Public Media, Symbolia, popsci.com, Showtime’s Years of Living Dangerously, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency, Generation Progress, UNICEF, BuzzFeed, and Upworthy.
SIDELIGHTS
Comics creator Andy Warner is the New York Times Best Selling author of the 2016 Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, which features the origins and histories of common and underappreciated objects like the ball point pen and toothbrush. He is cofounder and coeditor of Irene, and contributing editor at the Nib. He has had his comics published in many publications and Web sites, including Slate, BuzzFeed, Showtime’s Years of Living Dangerously, and for organizations such as the Center for Constitutional Rights and the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency. Warner has also taught cartooning at Stanford University, California College of the Arts, and the Animation Workshop in Denmark.
Warner’s Brief Histories of Everyday Objects structures its tour through household items around locations in the home and daily life, like the kitchen, bathroom, office, bar, grocery store, and gym. Full of fascinating trivia, the collection of black and white comic strips discusses the international origins of things like Velcro, paperclips, and the Slinky toy, as well as an eclectic mix of items like the sports bra, toilet, billiard ball, and artificial sweetener. He also highlights common inventions by African Americans and women, such as the three-position traffic light, coffee filter, and flat-bottomed paper bag.
Warner also features famous inventors and eccentrics and their inventions, including King C. Gillette’s disposable razor, William Addis’s toothbrush, Madam C.J. Walker’s hair product empire, Spencer Silva’s Post-it Notes, and Lizzie Magie’s anti-capitalist Monopoly board game. Throughout the comic strip list of items, he inserts commentary on history, trade, advertising, opportunism, entrepreneurship, the media, politicians, liars, and thieves. “Sometimes the stories aren’t about the invention so much as the wacky things those made rich by razor blades or Slinkys did with their money. And sometimes someone other than the inventor is the one who gets rich,” observed a contributor to the Comics Worth Reading Web site.
Calling the book “delightfully irreverent,” Gordon Flagg in Booklist praised it for its “brashly humorous drawings and admittedly invented dialogue.” A Publisher’s Weekly reviewer commented: “Warner is a deft cartoonist, able to convey a lot of information, humor, and emotion.” Online at New York Journal of Books, Rita Lorraine Hubbard said: “Warner’s prose is down-to-earth and peppered with hilarity. His comic book panels/graphic novel format is the icing on the cake, offering each historical subject in small chunks so that the information is more easily digested.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 2016, Gordon Flagg, review of Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, p. 35.
Publishers Weekly, August 15, 2016, review of Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, p. 57.
ONLINE
Andy Warner Home Page, http://andywarnercomics.com (June 1, 2017), author profile.
Comics Worth Reading, http://comicsworthreading.com (January 6, 2017), review of Brief Histories of Everyday Objects.
NY Journal of Books, http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com (June 19, 2017), review of Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
PopMatters, http://www.popmatters.com (October 26, 2016), review of Brief Histories of Everyday Objects.*
Andy Warner is the New York Times Best Selling author of Brief Histories of Everyday Objects (Picador, 2016). His comics have been published by Slate, Fusion, American Public Media, The Nib, Symbolia, Medium, KQED, popsci.com, The Showtime Network's Years of Living Dangerously, IDEO.org, The Center for Constitutional Rights, UNHCR, UNRWA, UNICEF, and Buzzfeed.
He is a contributing editor at The Nib and has taught cartooning at Stanford University, California College of the Arts, and the Animation Workshop in Denmark.
He makes comics in a garden shed in San Francisco and comes from the sea.
NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Hilarious, entertaining, and illustrated histories behind some of life's most common and underappreciated objects - from the paperclip and the toothbrush to the sports bra and roller skates
Brief Histories of Everyday Objects is a graphic tour through the unusual creation of some of the mundane items that surround us in our daily lives. Chapters are peppered with ballpoint pen riots, cowboy wars, and really bad Victorian practical jokes. Structured around the different locations in our home and daily life—the kitchen, the bathroom, the office, and the grocery store—award-nominated illustrator Andy Warner traces the often surprising and sometimes complex histories behind the items we often take for granted. Readers learn how Velcro was created after a Swiss engineer took his dog for a walk; how a naval engineer invented the Slinky; a German housewife, the coffee filter; and a radical feminist and anti-capitalist, the game Monopoly. This is both a book of histories and a book about histories. It explores how lies become legends, trade routes spring up, and empires rise and fall—all from the perspective of your toothbrush or toilet.
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Reviews
About the Author
From the Publisher
REVIEWS
Praise for Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
"The most delightfully irreverent illustrated history lesson since Larry Gonick’s Cartoon History of the Universe (1990)."—Booklist
“Andy Warner has sparked my curiosity about microwave ovens and piqued my taste for cinnamon with this remarkable book. Brief Histories of Everyday Objects combines scholarship, wit, and some of the best gray-scale design I’ve ever seen in a comic book.” —Larry Gonick, author of The Cartoon History of the Universe
"Ever wonder how the postcard, the bathtub, the ballpoint pen, the microwave, or kitty litter came to be? Warner has you covered with fun and quick backgrounds on objects we take for granted today."—io9
"Funny, clever, and very well done indeed."—Comicsbeat
“[Andy Warner is] equally interested in the chaos that often follows entrepreneurial initiatives, and each strip, though brief, has the power of a parable, outlining how some inventors were cheated, fell into greed, or used their wealth to attempt to fund new, even quirkier endeavors…. Warner is a deft cartoonist, able to convey a lot of information, humor, and emotion within a single panel.”—Publishers Weekly
Reviews from Goodreads
Reviews
About the Author
From the Publisher
REVIEWS
Praise for Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
"The most delightfully irreverent illustrated history lesson since Larry Gonick’s Cartoon History of the Universe (1990)."—Booklist
“Andy Warner has sparked my curiosity about microwave ovens and piqued my taste for cinnamon with this remarkable book. Brief Histories of Everyday Objects combines scholarship, wit, and some of the best gray-scale design I’ve ever seen in a comic book.” —Larry Gonick, author of The Cartoon History of the Universe
"Ever wonder how the postcard, the bathtub, the ballpoint pen, the microwave, or kitty litter came to be? Warner has you covered with fun and quick backgrounds on objects we take for granted today."—io9
"Funny, clever, and very well done indeed."—Comicsbeat
“[Andy Warner is] equally interested in the chaos that often follows entrepreneurial initiatives, and each strip, though brief, has the power of a parable, outlining how some inventors were cheated, fell into greed, or used their wealth to attempt to fund new, even quirkier endeavors…. Warner is a deft cartoonist, able to convey a lot of information, humor, and emotion within a single panel.”—Publishers Weekly
Reviews from Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Written and illustrated by Andy Warner
ANDY WARNER's comics have been published by Slate, Medium, American Public Media, Symbolia, popsci.com, Showtime's Years of Living Dangerously, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the United Nations Refugee and Works Agency, Generation Progress, UNICEF, BuzzFeed, and Upworthy. He is the cofounder and coeditor of Irene. He writes and draws in a garden shed in San Francisco, and he lives in Berkeley and comes from the sea.
Andy
Andy Warner
Andy Warner is the author of "Brief Histories of Everyday Objects" and his comics have been published all around the internet, including by Slate, Fusion, American Public Media and KQED. He has taught comics at Stanford University, The California College of the Arts and The Animation Workshop. He draws comics in a garden shed in San Francisco and comes from the sea.
Follow Andy Warner on
COMICS BY ANDY WARNER
ISIS And The Middle East’s Vanishing Religious Minorities
by Andy Warner
Posted May 3rd, 2017READ MORE
Why Tensions Might Finally Be Boiling Over in North Korea
by Andy Warner and Morgan Pielli
Posted April 17th, 2017READ MORE
Want a New Emoji? Good Luck.
by Andy Warner
Posted March 29th, 2017READ MORE
South Sudan is Falling Apart
by Andy Warner and Victor Ndula
Posted March 6th, 2017READ MORE
Trucking is About to Go Automated
by Andy Warner
Posted February 10th, 2017READ MORE
500 Days to Mars
by Andy Warner and Sophie Goldstein
Posted February 6th, 2017READ MORE
A Timeline of Trump's Twitter Wars
by Andy Warner
Posted January 19th, 2017READ MORE
The Voting Rights Act Was Gutted. Here's What Happened Next.
by Andy Warner
Posted January 9th, 2017READ MORE
Guantanamo Bay is Still Open
by Andy Warner
Posted January 5th, 2017
Monopoly's Radical, Anticapitalist, Feminist Origins
by Andy Warner
Posted December 21st, 2016READ MORE
Trump's Carrier Deal by the Numbers
by Andy Warner
Posted December 9th, 2016
Meet a Few of Trump's Super Rich Cabinet Picks
by Andy Warner
Posted December 5th, 2016READ MORE
The Electoral College Isn't Working. Here's How it Might Die.
by Andy Warner
Posted November 21st, 2016READ MORE
California is about to legalize marijuana for 39 million people. The era of Big Weed is upon us.
by Andy Warner
Posted November 7th, 2016READ MORE
Trump's Campaign is a Money Making Scam
by Andy Warner
Posted November 4th, 2016READ MORE
Think Small
by Sofie Louise Dam and Andy Warner
Posted October 28th, 2016READ MORE
What Were We Fighting About?
by Andy Warner
Posted October 24th, 2016
The League of Extraordinarily Large Robots
by Andy Warner and Jon Chad
Posted October 19th, 2016READ MORE
The Longest War
by Andy Warner
Posted September 30th, 2016
The Mayans Developed Written Language in 600 BC. We're Still Trying to Decode It.
by Andy Warner
Posted September 29th, 2016READ MORE
Bad Blood
by Andy Warner
Posted September 19th, 2016READ MORE
It's Getting Hot in Here
by Andy Warner
Posted September 16th, 2016
Kurdish Crossroads
by Andy Warner
Posted August 24th, 2016READ MORE
Rudimentary Reform
by Andy Warner
Posted August 23rd, 2016
Graying World
by Andy Warner and Jackie Roche
Posted August 10th, 2016READ MORE
House Democrats are Screwed. Here's Why.
by Andy Warner
Posted July 28th, 2016READ MORE
Arrested Developments
by Andy Warner
Posted July 26th, 2016
Democratic Amnesia
by Andy Warner
Posted July 26th, 2016READ MORE
Outside Chances
by Andy Warner
Posted July 21st, 2016
Cracks in the Foundation
by Andy Warner
Posted July 20th, 2016READ MORE
Get to Know the 2016 GOP Platform
by Sofie Louise Dam and Andy Warner
Posted July 20th, 2016READ MORE
Primary Focus
by Andy Warner
Posted July 19th, 2016
These Oligarchs Want to Buy Your Vote. Here's How.
by Andy Warner
Posted July 18th, 2016READ MORE
Election Daze
by Andy Warner
Posted July 13th, 2016
Fact Attack!
by Andy Warner
Posted June 28th, 2016
Haven is a Place on Earth
by Andy Warner
Posted June 14th, 2016
Epidemic En Route
by Andy Warner
Posted May 31st, 2016
Safer Harbor
by Andy Warner
Posted May 18th, 2016
Bombs Astray!
by Andy Warner
Posted May 3rd, 2016
5/14/17, 10)11 PM
Print Marked Items
Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
Gordon Flagg
Booklist.
113.4 (Oct. 15, 2016): p35. From Book Review Index Plus.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Brief Histories of Everyday Objects. By Andy Warner. Illus. by the author. Oct. 2016. 224p. Picador, $20 (9781250078650). 741.5.
Even the most commonplace items can have a fascinating backstory that belies their mundane familiarity. Comics journalist Warner has expanded his webcomic series into a book-length collection that humorously recounts the creation of dozens of products found around the house. The book is chockfull of the sort of revelations that will reward readers at trivia nights and in barroom betting. The first sports bra was made from two jockstraps sewn together. Paper clips, a Norwegian invention, became a sign of resistance during the Nazi occupation. In 1945, the newly invented ballpoint pen drew a mob of 5,000 to Gimbel's, which sold its entire stock of 10,000 pens at $12.50 a pop. Perhaps the most significant takeaway from Warner's research is the unheralded contributions of African Americans and women; for instance, a black inventor patented the three-position traffic signal, and coffee filters and paper bags were devised by women. Warner's brashly humorous drawings and admittedly invented dialogue make this the most delightfully irreverent illustrated history lesson since Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe (1990).--Gordon Flagg
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Flagg, Gordon. "Brief Histories of Everyday Objects." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2016, p. 35. PowerSearch,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA468771285&it=r&asid=385a9c4316ecc787cbf4ef56c55da260. Accessed 14 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A468771285
about:blank Page 1 of 2
5/14/17, 10)11 PM
Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
Publishers Weekly.
263.33 (Aug. 15, 2016): p57. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
Andy Warner, Picador, $20 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-250-07865-0
In this history lesson about the mundane, Warner's fascination is with the daily objects that clutter your bathroom, bedroom, office, bar, and all the places you frequent without even noticing you're there. Each strip in this webcomic collection is a breezy romp as Warner recounts the histories of objects such as toothbrushes, toilets, and billiard balls with a tongue-in-cheek wit and glee for some of the more disgusting elements in their origins. Warner reveals in his illustration of an early toothbrush, for instance, a bone with animal hair as bristles. He's equally interested in the chaos that often follows entrepreneurial initiatives, and each strip, though brief, has the power of a parable, outlining how some inventors were cheated, fell into greed, or used their wealth to attempt to fund new, even quirkier endeavors-- like flying off to Bolivia to become a missionary or attempting to build a utopia. Warner is a deft cartoonist, able to convey a lot of information, humor, and emotion within a single panel. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Brief Histories of Everyday Objects." Publishers Weekly, 15 Aug. 2016, p. 57. PowerSearch,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do? p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA461444555&it=r&asid=dd87286f3864631dfddcc1172c6b62b4. Accessed 14 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A461444555
about:blank Page 2 of 2
Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
Image of Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
Author(s):
Andy Warner
Release Date:
October 3, 2016
Publisher/Imprint:
Picador
Pages:
224
Buy on Amazon
Reviewed by:
Rita Lorraine Hubbard
In author/illustrator Andy Warner’s latest graphic novel, Brief Histories of Everyday Objects, just about every major object invented on planet earth is featured in black-and-white comic strips.
There is the brief history of jail bird William Addis, who invented the toothbrush by drilling holes in a bone left over from his prison supper and stuffing it with animal hairs; the life and legacy of Sarah Breedlove, aka Madame C. J. Walker and her meteoric rise to financial fame; and how King C. Gillette’s disposable razor made him a very wealthy man. There is the charming history of where flushing toilets came from, where cinnamon came from, and how Post-it notes came about after chemist Spencer Silva invented a glue that didn’t stay stuck.
If you’ve ever wondered how bathtubs came about, who invented artificial sweeteners, how shoes were once a luxury item until African American Jan Matzeliger came along, and how Margaret Knight developed flat-bottomed paper bags this book is the one to read.
Brief Histories of Everyday Objects is a fascinating look at everyday inventions that people of the Information Age typically take for granted. Each object’s story is categorized the way humans categorize objects in everyday life. The Table of Contents is actually an illustration of a house situated in the city. The house’s bathroom tells the history of toilets, toothbrushes, shampoo, and razors; the kitchen tells the history of Tupperware, coffee filters, and Microwave ovens; and the living room tells the history of gaming items like dice, Monopoly, yo-yos and Slinkies. The Coffee Shop down the street tells the history of tea, artificial sweeteners, and coffee beans; the bar down the street explains beer cans and billiard balls; and the neighborhood grocery discusses paper bags, potato chips, and everyone’s favorite: Instant Ramen noodles.
Warner’s prose is down-to-earth and peppered with hilarity. His comic book panels/graphic novel format is the icing on the cake, offering each historical subject in small chunks so that the information is more easily digested. His black-and-white sketches are meticulous in detail and definitely keep readers’ eyes darting back and forth across each page to soak in the great details and humor.
Use this graphic novel for independent reading or as a primer for further research into the wide world of innovation. Also great for history, science, and social studies classes—and for historical writers who want to spice up their “future books” list.
Rita Lorraine Hubbard is a full-time children’s book writer, offering tips to aspiring writers at “Rita Writes History,” a blog that has attracted over 700,000 visitors. She founded and manages Picture Book Depot, a children’s book review website that enjoys a global audience and offers free books to children. She received SCBWI’s 2014 Letter of Merit for a Multicultural Work in Progress, and is Lee & Low Publishers' 2012 New Voices Award Winner. Her new picture book will be published in 2015.
Buy on Amazon
'Brief Histories of Everyday Objects' Ponders, What's Up With the Toothbrush?
BY MEGAN VOLPERT
26 October 2016
IN COMIC FORM, BRIEF HISTORIES OF EVERYDAY OBJECTS PUTS EVERYDAY OBJECTS UNDER CLEVER IDEOLOGICAL SCRUTINY.
cover art
BRIEF HISTORIES OF EVERDAY OBJECTS
ANDY WARNER
(PICADOR)
US: OCT 2016
AMAZON
Andy Warner’s Brief Histories of Everyday Objects is a more exciting read than one might initially expect. But go ahead and judge the book by its cover, with the title in a jauntily slanted modern font perched atop a picture of the Queen Victoria contemplating a red and yellow toothbrush set against a dusty purple background. Picador might have done well to give Warner color on the inside pages, too. Fortunately, Warner’s writing and drawing are both utterly up to the task of turning everyday objects into colorful stories.
Taken in totality, the contents are evenly divided between objects in private and public spheres of life. From the bathroom to the bedroom closet to the living room to the kitchen, each section has between four and six objects. Public sector chapters on the coffee shop, the office, the grocery store, the bar and the great outdoors are arranged the same way. With just four pages devoted to each object, Warner cherry picks historical anecdotes and compresses them into every panel in the strip with verve. On the last page for each object, the bottom half concludes with “briefer histories” that arrange miscellaneous interesting footnotes to the main stories that sometimes add closure and sometimes reopen one’s curiosity about those objects.
Most of the objects themselves are truly “everyday”, such as toilets, microwave ovens, velcro, shoes, ballpoint pens, paper bags, and traffic lights. Others are slightly more whimsical, such as kitty litter, yo-yos, instant ramen, billiard balls, and roller skates. The slant on these stories is quite progressive, yet told in language that adults and eighth graders alike can appreciate. Of the 45 objects in the book, the stories of more than half of them focus on innovators that are female, of color, or of national origins other than the United States. Sarah Breedlove: inventor of shampoo and America’s first female millionaire, the daughter of ex-slaves. Lizzie Magie: feminist anticapitalist who designed the original Monopoly board game. Sure, you may know silk and tea come from China, but did you know that the yo-yo comes from the Philippines?
Perhaps the origin stories of the razor and the Slinky are already well-known, but even so, Warner finds fresh avenues of delight in relating the sordid tales of their marketability. It’s wise of Warner not to get sucked into a narrow definition of what constitutes the history of an object. Beyond mere invention, these objects have proliferated to become part of our everyday lives. As such, our interpretation of them is inextricably bound to the evolution of advertising and sales, to the pioneering of international trade routes and to the business of politics. Warner doesn’t shy away from sarcasm directed at the evils of colonialism, misogyny and money-grubbing, often depicting how minorities and oppressed people triumph over ugly circumstances for the betterment of all our everyday lives.
Each of the objects can be read about independently from the others in a nonlinear fashion, but there are hidden additional delights for those readers that opt to go cover to cover. There’s a running thread that references the “tiny lady brain” of female inventors. There is a “join the club” thread about inventors who went broke by failing to properly patent their work before it was stolen out from under them. Some of the generic “citizen” characters in England and China recur in different anecdotes with stacked punchlines from a previous bit of a different history. The index (yes, there’s an index!) is useful for following these—it lists helpful stuff like the Dutch (two pages), the Nazis (six pages) and Texas (two pages), but also hilarious stuff like “derring-do, acts of” (five pages), “gender, antiquated views of” (five pages) and “small things, unreasonably giant versions of” (three pages).
The words and pictures are doing different work; Warner doesn’t waste an ounce of space on unnecessary repetition unless it will further the jokes. Though these histories are factual and often underscored by violence or greed, the pace remains quick and the tone remains light—Warner usually opts to treat injustices as self-evidently bad and therefore dismissible; he never appears to be simply glossing the difficult parts of the story. Many of the characters make openly disapproving faces behind the backs of fat cats in the foreground. They show frustration with closed-minded business practices by cursing at management in classic #$*%ing style. The rectangular captions serve the story, the dialogue bubbles serve the punchlines, and the drawings themselves are full of sight gags. Sometimes Warner draws himself into the panels and metatextually comments on his own irresistible puns or the lameness of something that has occurred in the story.
The entire book can be read cover to cover in about 90-minutes with fair attention to detail, but Brief Histories of Everyday Objects is also dense enough to be worth savoring. Keep it next to the bedside table and reach for it for just a few minutes at a time. The success of its humor may tempt readers to skate past its worldview, but the true joy of the book is that Warner’s casual brevity on behalf of a more progressive commercial milieu sounds some pretty uplifting notes amidst all the avaricious shenanigans.
BRIEF HISTORIES OF EVERDAY OBJECTS
Rating:
Megan Volpert is the author of seven books on communication and popular culture, including two Lambda Literary Award finalists. Her most recent work is 1976 (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2016). She has been teaching high school English in Atlanta for a decade and was 2014 Teacher of the Year. She edited the American Library Association-honored anthology This Assignment Is so Gay: LGBTIQ Poets on the Art of Teaching.
Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
Andy Warner’s Brief Histories of Everyday Objects provides capsule four-page histories of a wide variety of everyday objects. But he also covers more than just “did you know who invented the microwave or the sports bra?”
I previously wrote about the book’s description, but now I’ve read and enjoyed it. The contents are arranged by the likely location where you’d find the objects discussed — kitchen, living room, bathroom, but also coffee shop, office, and grocery store.
History is tricky. A prologue explains that Warner did plenty of research but made up the dialogue to make things funnier (and he’s good at comedy). This research means that at times, Warner presents the accepted inventor of, say, the toothbrush but then points out that they were known elsewhere earlier. His skepticism is appreciated, as are the additional, interesting facts he tosses in related to the topic. Some of his tales aren’t about the actual invention of an item but instead tell a more interesting story related to it.
Warner has a fondness for the underdog, frequently pointing out achievements by people who aren’t white men during eras where that meant more challenges to overcome. There are several women who had to fight for their due recognition, such as the inventor of the flat-bottomed paper bag. Other stories feature people making money by serving overlooked audiences.
Alternately, sometimes the stories aren’t about the invention so much as the wacky things those made rich by razor blades or slinkies did with their money. And sometimes someone other than the inventor is the one who gets rich, as when Laszlo Biro’s design for the ballpoint pen is outright stolen.
Brief Histories of Everyday Objects
The reader will learn which products started out intended for another use and the determination of inventors to keep trying or solve problems. Sometimes it seems like chance that everything came together, while other times, the lesson is not to be too focused (or you might die early from self-neglect). Some inventors are taken advantage of, some are jerks, some crazy (tasting chemical experiments is how we discovered artificial sweeteners), some inspirational, some credited by accident, and some make you feel sorry for them.
Brief Histories of Everyday Objects is a terrific read, the kind of popular history full of trivia we used to see more of before the internet.