The Bride of Science

Author: Benjamin Woolley
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
ISBN: 9780071388603
Category : Aristocracy (Social class)
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
""[A] colorful cast of luminaries and rogues . . . This biography provides an intriguing glimpse into the beginnings of computer science and a reminder that character is destiny."--"Wall Street Journal Known in her day as an "enchantress of numbers," Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, was one of the most fascinating women of the 19th century. In collaboration with Charles Babbage, inventor of the mechanical "thinking machine" that anticipated by more than a century the invention of the computer, Ada devised a method of using punch cards to calculate Bernoulli numbers and thus became the mother of computer programming. It was in her honor that, in 1980, the U.S. Department of Defense named its computer language "Ada." In this critically acclaimed biography, Benjamin Woolley, author of "The Queen's Conjurer, portrays Ada Byron's life as the embodiment of the schism between the worlds of romanticism and scientific rationalism. He describes how Ada's efforts to bridge these opposites with a "poetical science" was the driving force behind one of the most remarkable careers of the Victorian Age.

The King's Assassin

Author: Angus Donald
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1405525894
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Book Description
AD 1215: The year of Magna Carta - and Robin Hood's greatest battle The yoke of tyranny King John is scheming to reclaim his ancestral lands in Europe, raising the money for new armies by bleeding dry peasants and nobles alike, not least the Earl of Locksley - the former outlaw Robin Hood - and his loyal man Sir Alan Dale. The call to arms As rebellion brews across the country and Robin Hood and his men are dragged into the war against the French in Flanders, a plan is hatched that will bring the former outlaws and their families to the brink of catastrophe - a plan to kill the King. The roar of revolution England explodes into bloody civil war and Alan and Robin must decide who to trust - and who to slaughter. And while Magna Carta might be the answer their prayers for peace, first they will have to force the King to submit to the will of his people . . .

The Bride of Science

Author: Benjamin Woolley
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 440

Book Description
"[A] colorful cast of luminaries and rogues . . . This biography provides an intriguing glimpse into the beginnings of computer science and a reminder that character is destiny."Wall Street Journal Known in her day as an "enchantress of numbers," Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, was one of the most fascinating women of the 19th century. In collaboration with Charles Babbage, inventor of the mechanical "thinking machine" that anticipated by more than a century the invention of the computer, Ada devised a method of using punch cards to calculate Bernoulli numbers and thus became the mother of computer programming. It was in her honor that, in 1980, the U.S. Department of Defense named its computer language "Ada." In this critically acclaimed biography, Benjamin Woolley, author of The Queen's Conjurer, portrays Ada Byron's life as the embodiment of the schism between the worlds of romanticism and scientific rationalism. He describes how Ada's efforts to bridge these opposites with a "poetical science" was the driving force behind one of the most remarkable careers of the Victorian Age.

In Byron's Wake

Author: Miranda Seymour
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1681779366
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 445

Book Description
In 1815, the clever and courted Annabella Milbanke married the notorious and brilliant Lord Byron. Just one year later, she fled, taking with her their baby daughter, Ada Lovelace. Byron himself escaped into exile and died as a revolutionary hero in 1824. Brought up by a mother who became one of the most progressive reformers of Victorian England, Byron’s little girl was introduced to mathematics as a means of calming her wild spirits. As a child invalid, Ada dreamed of building a steam-driven flying horse. As an exuberant and boldly unconventional young woman, she amplified her explanations of Charles Babbage’s unbuilt calculating engine to predict the dawn of the modern computer age.During her life, Lady Byron was praised as a paragon of virtue; within ten years of her death, she was vilified as a disgrace to her sex. Well over a hundred years later, Annabella Milbanke is still perceived as a prudish wife and cruelly controlling mother. But her hidden devotion to Byron and her tender ambitions for his mercurial, brilliant daughter reveal a deeply complex but unexpectedly sympathetic personality.Drawing on fascinating new material, Seymour reveals the ways in which Byron, long after his death, continued to shape the lives and reputations both of his wife and his daughter.

Dreaming in Code: Ada Byron Lovelace, Computer Pioneer

Author: Emily Arnold McCully
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 1536204064
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 175

Book Description
This illuminating biography reveals how the daughter of Lord Byron, Britain’s most infamous Romantic poet, became the world’s first computer programmer. Even by 1800s standards, Ada Byron Lovelace had an unusual upbringing. Her strict mother worked hard at cultivating her own role as the long-suffering ex-wife of bad-boy poet Lord Byron while raising Ada in isolation. Tutored by the brightest minds, Ada developed a hunger for mental puzzles, mathematical conundrums, and scientific discovery that kept pace with the breathtaking advances of the industrial and social revolutions taking place in Europe. At seventeen, Ada met eccentric inventor Charles Babbage, a kindred spirit. Their ensuing collaborations resulted in ideas and concepts that presaged computer programming by almost two hundred years, and Ada Lovelace is now recognized as a pioneer and prophet of the information age. Award-winning author Emily Arnold McCully opens the window on a peculiar and singular intellect, shaped — and hampered — by history, social norms, and family dysfunction. The result is a portrait that is at once remarkable and fascinating, tragic and triumphant.

Ada Lovelace

Author: Christopher Hollings
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781851244881
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
"Ada, Countess of Lovelace and daughter of Romantic poet Lord Byron, is sometimes referred to as the world's first computer programmer. But how did a young woman in the nineteenth century without a formal education become a pioneer of computer science? Drawing on previously unpublished archival material, including a remarkable correspondence course with eminent mathematician Augustus De Morgan, this book explores Ada Lovelace's development from her precocious childhood into a gifted, perceptive and knowledgeable mathematician who, alongside Mary Somerville, Michael Faraday and Charles Dickens, became part of Victorian London's social and scientific elite. Featuring images of the 'first programme' together with mathematical models and contemporary illustrations, the authors show how, despite her relatively short life and with astonishing prescience, Ada Lovelace explored key mathematical questions to understand the principles behind modern computing."--Page 4 de la couverture.

Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science

Author: Diane Stanley
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1481452495
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 40

Book Description
"A fascinating look at Ada Lovelace, the pioneering computer programmer and the daughter of the poet Lord Byron." --

Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism

Author: Thomas David Brothers
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393065820
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 608

Book Description
The definitive account of Louis Armstrong—his life and legacy—during the most creative period of his career. Nearly 100 years after bursting onto Chicago’s music scene under the tutelage of Joe "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong is recognized as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. A trumpet virtuoso, seductive crooner, and consummate entertainer, Armstrong laid the foundation for the future of jazz with his stylistic innovations, but his story would be incomplete without examining how he struggled in a society seething with brutally racist ideologies, laws, and practices. Thomas Brothers picks up where he left off with the acclaimed Louis Armstrong's New Orleans, following the story of the great jazz musician into his most creatively fertile years in the 1920s and early 1930s, when Armstrong created not one but two modern musical styles. Brothers wields his own tremendous skill in making the connections between history and music accessible to everyone as Armstrong shucks and jives across the page. Through Brothers's expert ears and eyes we meet an Armstrong whose quickness and sureness, so evident in his performances, served him well in his encounters with racism while his music soared across the airwaves into homes all over America. Louis Armstrong, Master of Modernism blends cultural history, musical scholarship, and personal accounts from Armstrong's contemporaries to reveal his enduring contributions to jazz and popular music at a time when he and his bandmates couldn’t count on food or even a friendly face on their travels across the country. Thomas Brothers combines an intimate knowledge of Armstrong's life with the boldness to examine his place in such a racially charged landscape. In vivid prose and with vibrant photographs, Brothers illuminates the life and work of the man many consider to be the greatest American musician of the twentieth century.

The Queen's Conjurer

Author: Benjamin Woolley
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780805065107
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Book Description
Although his accomplishments were substantial-he became a trusted confidante to Queen Elizabeth I, inspired the formation of the British Empire, and plotted voyages to the New World-John Dee's story has been largely lost to history. In The Queen's Conjurer, Benjamin Woolley brings to life the tale of one of the most colorful characters of the Renaissance. In the midst of a pivotal era when the age of superstition collided with the world of science and reason, Dee's mathematics anticipated Newton by nearly a century, and his mapmaking and navigation were critical to exploration. Obsessed with alchemy, astrology, and mysticism, his library was one of the finest in Europe, a vast compendium of thousands of volumes. Yet, despite his powerful position and prodigious intellect, Dee died in poverty and obscurity, reviled and pitied as a madman. Written with flair and vigor, and based on numerous surviving diaries of the period, The Queen's Conjurer is a highly readable account of an extraordinary and nearly forgotten life.

Lady Byron and Her Daughters

Author: Julia Markus
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393248755
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 473

Book Description
A startling reevaluation of Lady Byron’s marriage and the untold story of her complex life as single mother and progressive force. The center of public attention after her tumultuous marriage to Lord Byron, Annabella Milbanke transformed herself from a neglected wife into a figure of incredible resilience and social vision. After she and her infant child were cast out of their home, she was left to navigate the stifling and unsupportive social environment of Regency England. Far from a victim or an obstacle to Byron’s work, however, Lady Byron was a rebel against the fashionable snobbery of her class, founding the first Infants School and Co-Operative School in England. A poet and talented mathematician, Lady Byron supported the education of her precocious daughter, Ada Lovelace, now recognized and lauded as a pioneer of computer science, and saved from death her “adoptive daughter” Medora Leigh, the child of Lord Byron’s incest with his sister. Lady Byron was adored by the younger abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe and by many notable friends. Yet her complex relationships with her family, including the sister Byron loved, runs like a live wire through this skillfully told and groundbreaking biography of a remarkable woman who made a life for herself and became a leading light in her century.