The Inventors: A Memoir

""This book is mainly about two men who were very important to me. "The first was there at my conception; the second came along 13 years later. Both men shaped my personality. "The first man was my father, Paul Selgin, who, it so happens, was an inventor. The second was my eighth grade English teacher." Both Selgin's father and the man he calls "the teacher" led remarkable lives. Among other things, Paul Selgin invented the first dollar bill-changing-machine and helped design the so-called proximity fuse, which hastened the end of World War II. As for the teacher, he became a forceful advocate for human rights and diversity, championing the cause of indigenous peoples and refuges from Southeast Asia, while insisting that they not forget their history - ironically, since the teacher did everything he could to obliterate his own. As Selgin discovers only after their deaths, for very different reasons both men felt compelled to reinvent themselves. The Inventors is the story of how these two charismatic men shaped the author's life. It's also the story of a relationship between a boy and his teacher, a relationship that was equal parts inspiring and destructive. "--