Click play to listen. Recorded on November 1, 2008.
Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) was world famous in his lifetime, yet he is now almost wholly forgotten. An American and a peer of Jefferson and Franklin, he was, among many things, a politician, spy, philanthropist, and above all, a man of science. Nicholas Delbanco, professor of English at the University of Michigan and a prolific author, discusses his novel The Count of Concord. The novel is narrated by Thompson’s fictional, last-surviving relative who is haunted by her fascinating and remarkable predecessor.
Born in Massachusetts but a staunch Loyalist during the Revolutionary War, Thompson fled to England after being forced out of his home due to threats from state militias. He is widely recognized in Europe for his inventions of the percolating coffee pot and brick stack fireplace, as well as for his work with gunpowder for the British military. Delbanco talks of his inspiration for the work and how Thompson’s legacy lives on in the living rooms of homes across America.
Source: © Wikipedia
