Okay, all you morose code lovers, a new book just for beepers:

"Lightning Man; The Accursed Life of Samuel F. B. Morse" by
Kenneth Silverman, published by Alfred A. Knopf, 504 pp, $35.

A biography of "Polymath's Progress" as the L. A. Times Book
Review section titled a full-page spread by Henry Petrouski
(professor of civil engineering and history at Duke University)
in the Sunday, 26 October 2003 edition.

Glowing reviews on the book, not necessarily on the character
of Finley (as he was called when a young man)...a rather routine
portrait painter of the early 1800s looking for some grande
scheme of fame and fortune, only one of which made it...with
the help of a lot of other talent...and others' money.

LHA