This folder contains correspondence and other documents relating to Edison's past and present friends, acquaintances, and associates. Among the items for 1918 are reminiscences by Philippe A. Bequet, who was an assistant to Theodore Puskas during the 1880s when the Hungarian entrepreneur was Edison's business partner in Europe. Included in Bequet's memoirs is an account of Puskas's involvement in the Keely Motor Co. and Edison's role in exposing the fraudulent claim of John W. Keely that he had discovered a new power source. There is also correspondence with naturalist John Burroughs and his longtime companion Clara Barrus concerning Edison's opinions about health, diet, and sleep, as well as references to the 1918 camping trip involving Edison, Burroughs, Henry Ford, and Harvey S. Firestone. In addition, there is a letter to Otto H. Kahn in which Edison praises the New York City financier and art patron as "one of the very few men . . . who can think straight," along with an interview with former Edison associate Sigmund Bergmann discussing economic conditions in postwar Germany.
Approximately 60 percent of the documents have been selected. The unselected material consists of letters of transmittal and routine business documents. Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historical Park.