Herbert Newton Casson

Born in Odessa, Ontario, in 1869, Herbert Newton Casson grew up in a Methodist family and studied at Victoria College, graduating in 1892. He was ordained as a minister when he was still young, but soon left that path and moved into journalism, beginning a long writing career in the United States.

Casson wrote about technology, business, and industrial progress at a time when modern corporate life was taking shape. He worked for major newspapers and magazines in New York and became known for interviewing prominent public figures and inventors, including Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla. Among his best-known books are The Romance of Steel and The History of the Telephone, both aimed at making fast-changing industries understandable and engaging for ordinary readers.

Later in life he moved to England, where he continued writing and lecturing and also published the journal Efficiency. He remained active as an author well into his later years and died in Norwood, Surrey, in 1951. His work now offers a vivid window into how early twentieth-century readers were introduced to the worlds of business, invention, and modern management.