Journalist David Owen tells the story of an invention without which life in a modern office is unthinkable: the copy machine. A unique case: it was created through the efforts of almost one person. The amazing tenacity of inventor Chester Carlson earned him the fame of the second Gutenberg and saved thousands of people on the planet from grueling rewriting of documents. The author traces Chester's path from the first xerographic machine, manufactured in 1938, to the creation of the giant Xerox Corporation, whose name has become synonymous with the highest quality and speed of copying. It's a gripping account of the struggle to realize a monumental discovery that Fortune magazine later called "the most successful product ever sold in America."