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Who was Tesla's best friend? (I'm tempted to ask the corollary questions: "Did Tesla have a dog? If so, what was his name?")

I would have to say that Tesla's best friend was Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of the Century Magazine and personal confidant. This is evident from the large volume of Johnson correspondence that has been preserved at the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade. Tesla also developed a strong relationship with Samuel Clemens, although not very many letters were written between the two. An excellent source of information about Tesla's interpersonal relationships is the recent Tesla biography Wizard — The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla.

As for Tesla's other "best friend," in his youth it was a cat named Macak. This animal is the subject of a charming short story related to a Miss Pola Fotitch in 1939. It can be found on page 283 of the book Tesla Said which contains many significant accounts in Nikola Tesla's own words.

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