Even the gods of old, in the wildest imaginings of their worshipers, never undertook such gigantic tasks of world-wide dimension as those which Tesla attempted and accomplished.-from Chapter OneFirst published in 1944 and long a favorite of Tesla fans, this is a definitive biography of the man without whom modern civilization would not exist. Nikola Tesla, pioneer of electrical engineering, was a close friend of Pulitzer Prize-winning author O'Neill, and here, O'Neill captures the man as a scientist and as a public figure, exploring:. how Tesla's father inspired his life in engineering. why Tesla clung to his theories of electricity in the face of opposition. how the shy but newly popular Tesla navigated the social life of New York in the gay 1890s. Tesla's friendship with Mark Twain. the story of Tesla's lost Nobel Prize. Tesla's dabblings in the paranormal. and much more.JOHN JOSEPH O'NEILL (b. 1889) also wrote Engineering the New Age and You and the Universe: What Science Reveals.