'The Vagabonds' Details The Publicity-Encouraged Road Trips Of Edison And Ford

Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Henry Ford invented the affordable automobile.

And, together, the brilliant best friends also invented the great American road trip!

OK, yes, that's a stretch. But it's the kind of puffed-up exaggeration the two publicity hounds would have delighted in, as author Jeff Guinn makes clear in his new book The Vagabonds.

The truth? Edison and Ford were friends, for sure, although they were the kind of pals who communicate mostly through their secretaries. And between 1914 to 1924, the two men — along with tire magnate Harvey Firestone and the crotchety naturalist John Burroughs — went on a series of vacations by car.