Nikola Tesla Articles
Two Decades of Platonic Love
Tesla’s reputation and fame grew, and electrical engineer Thomas Commerford Martin, himself enchanted by our genius, took care of that too. In 1893 he wrote a book about Tesla’s great discoveries. But he did even more for him. He also introduced him and befriended him with Robert Underwood Johnson, journalist and poet, and with his exceptionally charming and interesting wife Katharine.
Mrs. Kate Johnson was a beautiful and sensitive woman who, together with her husband, turned their home into a real gathering place for the educated and wealthy world. She valued her friendship with Tesla very highly. It could be said that she very jealously cultivated that friendship for more than two decades — longer than any other woman managed. But from the correspondence it is not difficult to conclude that she simultaneously felt delicate sympathy and even tender love for Tesla. Interestingly, her husband knew about that great affection of hers and approved of it.
One evening Tesla’s carriage stopped at Lexington Avenue 327, in front of the house of Robert Johnson. Mozart’s piano concerto could already be heard in the garden.
In the Johnsons’ house Tesla was introduced to Rudyard Kipling, whom the host considered one of the greatest poets of the time, met writers John Muir and Helen Hunt Jackson, composers Ignacy Paderewski and Antonín Dvořák, prima donna Nellie Melba, and a whole series of people of renown.
That autumn evening, while entering the Johnsons’ house drawn by the sounds of Mozart’s composition, he recognized that it was being played by one of his favorite partners in society. Admiration and affection were the most he felt and showed toward this exceptional lady.
The host took him by the arm to introduce him to the other guests as well. They approached a tall, serious girl, elegantly dressed, whose gown was adorned with a floral arrangement around the neck. He noticed her honey-colored eyes.
“Miss En Morgan,” Johnson said during the introduction, adding: “Mr. Nikola Tesla.”
Then he discreetly withdrew, leaving them alone.
She nodded and returned to listening to the music.
The Millionairess with Honey-Colored Eyes
Tesla was delighted. Her eyes had the same fearless intelligence as the eyes of her father, the famous tycoon John Pierpont Morgan. Johnson had told him that the girl was in love with him. If that was so, now she was resolutely trying not to show it in any way. Her bearing, learned in the so-called schools for young ladies, impressed him. So rich and yet so charming.
