Based on her husband's unfinished autobiography and her own letters, Helen Fessenden wrote what remains the definitive biography of one of America's most eminent radio pioneers, responsible for the two-way radio, the wireless telephone, the sonic depth finder and the submarine telephone. Using heavy documentation, she traces Fessenden's life as a series of confrontations and crises interspersed with several important achievements : the alternator principle, the first broadcast station (1906) and heterodyne theory.

When it was published in 1940, The New York Times called "Fessenden: Builder of Tomorrows", "a valuable and entertaining biography." Books stated that this biography "should be read by all who realize that creative ideas are the only hope of the nation and the race" (LC 74-4681` Coward McCann, New York, 1940).

Though second-hand copies of Helen Fessenden's book can still be found,  it was reprinted by Arno Press, a New York Times Company, in 1974 (ISBN 0-405-06030-0) and an internet search will quickly procure one or other of these editions.

Though internet web pages elsewhere have 'incomplete extracts' of Chapters XII to XVIII of Helen Fessenden's book,  it seems sensible to add the missing paragraphs of these chapters here as a proper celebration of Fessenden's achievements and also add a complete list of Helen Fessenden's book's contents.

HELEN FESSENDEN'S FOREWORD

"To The World of Today and The World of Tomorrow, worlds alike benefited and enriched by the life of Reginald A. Fessenden, I give the man himself. That the mind which conceived the correct theory of wireless transmission, which invented the Wireless Telephone and with it accomplished the first Broadcasting, which invented and developed the Fathometer and all it implied, that this mind failed to defend itself against commercial assault, whether financial or scientific is an inescapable fact. For this fact I make no apology.

"Mine is the setting forth of factual data, an indication of trends, not the indictment of any man or group of men.

"Without a straightforward account of certain legal encounters, the life of my husband would be but partly told.

"The outcome of these encounters is a matter of court record which "he who runs may read." It is however not by court decisions but by his work that the man will be remembered".

Helen M. Fessenden

CONTENTS (Original Page Numbers of Helen Fessenden's 1940-published book)

 I       FOREBEARS AND CHILDHOOD (3)
II       SCHOOL AND COLLEGE (13)
III      BERMUDA   (23)
IV      NEW YORK (27)
 V      A YANKEE BOY AND A CHINA MUG (31)
VI      FESSENDEN FINDS HIMSELF (39)
VII     NEWARK, PITTSFIELD AND PURDUE (47)
VIII     PITTSBURGH DAYS (64)
IX       A MOMENTOUS DECISION (73)
 X       WIRELESS AT ROANOKE ISLAND (86)
XI       NATIONAL ELECTRIC SIGNALING COMPANY (105)

XII      WIRELESS AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AND TRANS-ATLANTIC STATIONS  (119)
XIII    TRANSATLANTIC WORKING (131)
XIV    DASHED HOPES (140)
XV     WIRELESS TELEPHONY AND THE HIGH-FREQUENCY ALTERNATOR (147)
XVI    DIFFICULTIES-LEGISLATIVE AND COMPANY (157)
XVII   SERVICE ABROAD (169)
XVIII  DESTRUCTION AT HOME (182)

XIX.      DUST AND ASHES (188)
 XX.      POWER AND POWER STORAGE (194)
XXI.      TURBO-ELECTRIC DRIVE. THE FESSENDEN COMBUSTION ENGINE (204)
XXII      SUBMARINE SIGNALING AND THE FESSENDEN OSCILLATOR (214)
XXIII     THE WORLD WAR (224)
XXIV     SUBMARINE SIGNALING IN WAR TIME AND CIVILIAN WAR BOARDS (235)
XXV      OTHER EVENTS OF WAR YEARS (255)
XXVI     INVENTION (261)
XXVII    GREAT AGES (275)
XXVIII   LOOKING FAR BACKWARDS - THEDELUGED CIVILIZATION (286)
XXIX     THE FESSENDEN FATHOMETER (297)
XXX      OTHER DEVICES (304)
XXXI    "GOD ALMIGHTY HATES A QUITTER" (312)

and

XXXII  SANCTUARY (335) (extract here from pages 341 – 342 only)

ADDENDA

  I          SUMMARY - THE SCIENTIFIC WORK OF REGINALD A. FESSENDEN (347)
 II         FESSENDEN'S DISCOVERY OF THE ELECTROSTATIC DOUBLET THEORY AND OF THE
             NATURE OF COHESION AND ELASTICITY - As told by Fessenden himself (348)
III         BIBLIOGRAPHY (353)

XII     WIRELESS AS A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AND TRANS-ATLANTIC STATIONS