Ben Franklin's Instrument
by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 1/27/2003
A great deal is known about Benjamin Franklin, but the story of a musical instrument he invented, with which he attracted the interest of no lesser figures than Beethoven and Mozart, is one of the hitherto untold stories about him. That's about to be remedied by music writer Jody Rosen's The Glass Armonica: The Sensational Life and Curious Disappearance of Benjamin Franklin's Musical Invention, which HM editor Eamon Dolan just won at auction for North American rights over five other publishers. The book by Rosen, author most recently of White Christmas: The Story of an American Song, will describe how the intensely musical Franklin took his invention to Europe, attracting the attention of composers (Mozart wrote for it), as well as of Marie Antoinette and the hypnotist Anton Mesmer, who used it with patients, until, suddenly, everyone lost interest. The sale was made by Bill Clegg at Burnes & Clegg.
