Nominate a Biography: the pioneers' quotes

J. Logie Baird

"Baird first came across Wells's stories when he was eight; they transported him out of the damp, cloistered Helensburgh manse into a world in which anything was possible. He may well have read The Sleeper Wakes when it was published in 1899 - it directly anticipates television and its effect on the viewer" p.4

John Logie Baird: a life, by Antony Kamm and Malcolm Baird, 2002.

William Friese-Greene

"He was interested to find that among the prison kit handed to every new arrival are a Bible and Prayer Book. He had forgotten little bits of prison etiquette that now came back to him from that week in Brixton. "Warder" is the outsider's word; prisoners always say "officer." "Cell" is an unmentionable word; a prisoner has a "room."

The two-plank bed in his "room" seemed at first too hard for sleep and he never got accustomed to the food. "Just enough to keep body and soul together. I lived for the next meal and dreamed of food at night."

But he was allowed to borrow all the books he liked, and spent blissful evenings reading books he had meant to read for years and had not had time. He was allowed paper, and wrote poetry again. He came out feeling fit and well, and full of good ideas." p.108-9

Friese-Greene: close-up of an inventor, by Ray Allister, 1948.