Edwin H. Land was the driving force behind the Polaroid Corporation's engineering and marketing successes. He was the first to figure out how to manufacture practical and useful polarized screens during the 1930s, and he produced revolutionary optics for the military during World War II. But it was the development of the instant camera that made his company famous, and he was able to dominate the instant-photography market with cameras that first produced pictures in sepia tones, then in black and white, and finally in color. One who routinely discarded conventional wisdom, Land believed that market research was not necessary; he claimed that any invention would sell if people believed it was something they could not live without.

An only child, Edwin Land was born to Martha F. and Harry Land on May 7, 1909, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His father ran a salvage and scrap metal business; the family was...