Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) changed the world. This extraordinary book is the first fully illustrated look at the man, his most famous invention -- the telephone -- and his myriad other achievements. Created with newly uncovered material, it displays hundreds of rare images depicting the early history of the telephone as well as intimate photographs of Bell, his family, and his associates.Edwin S. Grosvenor, Bell's great-grandson and founding editor of the art magazine Portfolio, and Morgan Wesson, an Emmy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, tell of the dramatic race to invent the telephone, and how Bell's patent for it would become the most valuable ever issued.Much more than the history of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell is the story of an unusual man whose exceptionally fertile mind spawned a raft of accomplishments most do not associate with his name. Bell invented the first practical phonograph and the respirator, and helped develop early airplanes and the hydrofoil. He cofounded the National Geographic Society and its magazine, was instrumental in bringing Montessori education to the United States and Canada, worked with the deaf, including Helen Keller, and participated in early civil rights work.Published on the 150th anniversary of Bell's birth, and with a foreword by the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Robert V. Bruce, this book presents the man whose most famous invention made modern communication possible.