Review by Choice Review
Framing his text around primary correspondence, Essinger (Jacquard's Web, 2004) effectively supports his premise that Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) was shaped by contrasts, having the poetic imagination of her father, Lord Byron, but incorporating the mathematical sensibilities and discipline of her mother, Lady Byron (Anne Isabella Noel). Though constrained by 19th-century societal norms and expectations for women, she challenged those norms through often-tenacious individualism and educational pursuit. Essinger argues that Ada has frequently been presented as solely an underling to the mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage. However, the historical record, such as her pivotal Notes and even Babbage's autobiography, illustrate her as a visionary of "the intellectual prehistory of the computer" (in contrast to Babbage's more utilitarian purposes for his Difference Engine and Analytical Engine). The author adeptly utilizes the available evidence to counterbalance unsubstantiated or out-of-context portrayals of Lovelace as a sufferer of mental illness and a substance abuser; in her last years, she took laudanum to help treat symptoms of uterine cancer. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All women's history, 19th-century studies, and history of information technology collections. --Kyle D. Winward, Central College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Ada Lovelace is one of the more fascinating figures in scientific history because of both her parentage (beleaguered daughter of the legendary Lord Byron) and her position as one of the key people in the life and work of computer pioneer Charles Babbage. Essinger approaches this biography with a goal of tackling Lovelace's personal life and solidifying her place in Babbage's work. Excerpting both their letters and passages from journals and letters from Lovelace's parents and others, the author provides an engaging and appropriately gossipy (how could it not be?) look at her parents' romance, her childhood, her lifelong fascination with mathematics, and, mostly, her friendship with the inventor. The title suffers, however, from an awkward writing style that results in a frequently interrupted narrative flow and numerous repetitions. Further, Lovelace's story is often set aside for Babbage's, and while a great deal of attention is placed on the latter's inventions and life, after the final pages, many questions remain about Ada herself. A conflicted and vexing effort, Ada's Algorithm serves mostly to whet the reader's appetite for more on this worthy subject.--Mondor, Colleen Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Behind every great man, theres a great woman; no other adage more aptly describes the relationship between Charles Babbage, the man credited with thinking up the concept of the programmable computer, and mathematician Ada Lovelace, whose contributions, according to Essinger (Jacquards Web) in this absorbing biography, proved indispensable to Babbages invention. The Analytical Engine was a series of cogwheels, gear-shafts, camshafts, and power transmission rods controlled by a punch-card system based on the Jacquard loom. Lovelace, the only legitimate child of English poet Lord Byron, wrote extensive notes about the machine, including an algorithm to compute a long sequence of Bernoulli numbers, which some observers now consider to be the worlds first computer program. Essingers tome is undergirded by academic research, but it is the authors prose, both graceful and confident, that will draw in a general readership. Readers are treated to an intimate portrait of Lovelaces short but significant life-she died at age 36 from uterine cancer-along with an abbreviated history of 19th-century high-society London. A quick denouement and preface add contemporary context and further Essingers argument that Lady Lovelace had seen the computer age clearly ahead... was never allowed to act on what she saw. Agent: Diane Banks, Diane Banks Associates, U.K. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The story of Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), the brilliant mathematician and the daughter of the poet Lord Byron, who likely wrote the first computer program in the early 1840s. Due to her gender, however, her research was overlooked, and another two centuries passed before computers became a reality. Despite the fact that Ada was Lord Byron's only legitimate daughter, her mother deemed him unfit to raise her and left him when Ada was just 1 month old. Her father's reputation made Ada famous by association, and throughout her life, this recognition connected her with some of the era's most interesting and accomplished people, including the mathematician Charles Babbage. As a child, Ada was fascinated by mathematics and demonstrated an "imaginative approach to science." Through sheer force of will, she managed to obtain an education rarely available to women in the 19th century and was therefore able to recognize the profound potential in Babbage's lifelong obsession, a machine he called the "Analytical Engine," designed to make calculations. Babbage considered his invention to be purely mathematical, but Ada realized that the possibilities were much granderthat the machine could be capable of "weav[ing] algebraical patterns," a sophisticated idea that did not yet exist at the time. In her writings, she clearly laid out these early concepts of computer science, but because she was female, she was essentially ignored. Essinger (Spellbound: The Surprising Origins and Astonishing Secrets of English Spelling, 2007, etc.) presents Ada's story with great enthusiasm and rich detail, painting her life as one that was rich with opportunity and access but stifled by sexism. Ada continues to inspire, and by using her own voice via letters and research, the author brings her to life for a new generation of intrepid female innovators. A robust, engaging and exciting biography. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
