$9.99 on Kindle, Nook, Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play (September 2025)Singer and the Sewing Machine: A Capitalist Romance by Ruth Brandon (XXX,000 words and YY illustrations)
“Isaac Merritt Singer (1811-1875), the man who made the sewing machine work and drove New York’s most flamboyant equipage, was also, on the sly, the father of four families comprising (when the news broke) sixteen children, all of whom he recognized and supported — a story told full-length for the first time because, Ruth Brandon speculates, neither the firm nor the family wished to see it revived. For her, the scandal is secondary to Singer the archetypal American entrepreneur, restless, energetic, adaptive (failed thespian, inspired tinkerer); and Singer himself is peripheral to the rise of the company that — thanks to partner Clark’s acumen — belonged to the first patent pool, pioneered mass production, sold the middle class on the idea of domestic labor-saving machinery (despite misgivings as to women’s mechanical competence), introduced buying on the installment plan, and captured the international market by manufacturing abroad (thus becoming perhaps the first American-based multinational). One thinks of another probing British woman, Emma Rothschild, when Brandon, warming to her subject, explains the significance to industrial production of interchangeable parts, accurate ‘to the thousandth or ten thousandth of an inch achievable only by a machine’; traces that innovation to the armaments industry and the universal American need for a gun; attributes US adoption of mass production (vs. British opposition) to the shortage of labor — concluding that ‘the United States was the only place where it was then possible to bring a complex mechanism such as the sewing machine into successful commercial production.’” — Kirkus
“[A] superb biography of Isaac Merritt Singer.” — The Guardian
“[A] bright and intelligent biography... The focus is on Isaac Merritt Singer the man, and his numerous families... Singer was a self-educated machinist, good at improving the product, and ingenious at thinking up new ways of promotion. The latter ability was aided by his flamboyant egotism, which [Singer’s business partner, lawyer] Clark had to tone down and put up with for the sake of making money. A reliable product plus aggressive promotion were the key to their success. Sales territories were rapidly spread in the United States and Western Europe with a factory in Scotland by 1861. Installment payments were pioneered by ‘renting’ the machine for a period, at the end of which the renter became the owner... about half of the book is concerned with the sewing machine company, the rest is given over to Singer’s most unusual private life. A frustrated actor, who tried for years but never succeeded, he had an insatiable need for attachment to women. At one time he was living with three ladies as wives. He also had large numbers of children... Both parts are engagingly written and as clear as the usually scanty evidence will permit.” Thomas C. Cochran, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
“Marvelous... That such a spectacular complex of history, mechanics, and human comedy should have gone so long without a chronicler is astonishing... A treasure.” — Eve Auchincloss, Washington Post
“Thanks to Ruth Brandon’s brilliant book, surely the best by far to be written... about any capitalist entrepreneur or his enterprises, [Singer’s] wonderful history is on paper at last.” — Alistair Forbes, Spectator