The Man Who Designed the Future, B. Alexandra Szerlip
The Man Who Designed the Future, B. Alexandra Szerlip
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The Man Who Designed the Future
Norman Bel Geddes and the Invention of Twentieth-Century America

Author: B. Alexandra Szerlip

Narrator: B. Alexandra Szerlip

Unabridged: 16 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/25/2017

Synopsis

Before there was Steve Jobs, there was Norman Bel Geddes. A ninth-grade dropout who found himself at the center of the worlds of industry, advertising, theater, and even gaming, Bel Geddes designed everything from the first all-weather stadium, to Manhattan’s most exclusive nightclub, to Futurama, the prescient 1939 exhibit that envisioned how America would look in the not-too-distant 1960s. In The Man Who Designed the Future, B. A. Szerlip reveals precisely how central Bel Geddes was to the history of American innovation. He presided over a moment in which theater became immersive, function merged with form, and people became consumers. A polymath with humble Midwestern origins, Bel Geddes was a visionary whose career would launch him into social circles with the Algonquin roundtable members, stars of stage and screen, and titans of industry.Light on its feet but absolutely authoritative, this first major biography of Norman Bel Geddes is a must for anyone who wants to know how America came to look the way it did.

About B. Alexandra Szerlip

B. Alexandra Szerlip is an author who has been a two-time National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellow, runner-up for London’s Lothian Prize for a first biography-in-progress (the first American finalist in the Lothian’s then-eleven-year history), and a recent Yaddo and US Artists fellow. A chapter from her manuscript of The Man Who Designed the Future appeared in The Paris Review and another chapter in McSweeney’s, which was translated into French and was nominated for inclusion in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Best Essays of 2012.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bruce on November 18, 2019

Fascinating person I had never heard of. He was part of New York in the 30s. He revolutionized the designs for many products from cars to washing machines to refrigerators but wait there is more. He designed Stage sets for Broadway and other shows, he influenced Hollywood. He designed GMs Futurama e......more

Goodreads review by Jack on March 30, 2020

I was hoping this book would be about design, and it wasn't really about design. I would have also liked to see more on what people thought of Norman, but the author appropriately left a lot of this out. Still, it was fascinating to me to see a design genius like Norman 1) make a ton of money by mak......more

Goodreads review by Simone on July 03, 2017

Having never really heard of Norman Bel Geddes before picking up this biography, I thought it was an interesting read. It could be a bit dry at times, and I think the title is a little misleading (there's way more in there about Broadway/theater than industrial design - not that I minded, I just did......more

Goodreads review by Julie on October 05, 2017

This book is an excellent biography of Norman Bel Geddes, a theatrical, architectural, and industrial designer. His influence on 20th century design was unparalleled, and his vision of the future, made tangible via the Futurama exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair, still resonates today. Bel Geddes was......more

Quotes

“In this fascinating and minutely researched biography, Szerlip brings the brilliant, indefatigable industrial designer’s imagination to life…A remarkable rediscovery of a man ahead of his time.” Booklist (starred review)

“Szerlip’s groundbreaking work places him, expertly, in his time and place: his life and work reflect a national certitude—that the world, and the future, is ours for the making.” John Crowley, World Fantasy Award–winning author of Little, Big

“Szerlip takes great care to capture the fundamentally theatrical quality of Bel Geddes’s rise, balancing creative license with considerable research in order to produce a narrative that’s fast paced yet rich with detail…A thorough and exciting biography of one of the most imaginative designers of the modern age.” Library Journal

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