Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Memoirs

ADA, THE ENCHANTRESS OF NUMBERS / 3RD EDITION

Betty Alexandra Toole

Poetical Science

December 10, 2015 will mark the 200th birthday of Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, and an often unheralded pioneer of computing: Born in 1815, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace was a highly unusual woman of the 19th century. Ada was mathematical genius who was inspired by what she called “poetical science,” a combination of imagination and scientific rigor. An early pioneer of computer programming, she contributed notes to the creation of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine in the mid-1840s—a rare female innovator among scientific men.

Ada was an exceptional character for a high-born lady, wife, and mother of the 19th century. Beautiful and charming, she was often characterized as “mad and bad” as her illustrious father, Lord Byron. With a mind for numbers and music and patterns, Ada was fascinated by the integration of imaginative thinking and scientific experiment—what she calls “poetical science.” She became closely involved in the development and programming of one of the early computers: Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine in 1843. Dr. Betty Toole’s seminal biography of Ada Lovelace has become a point of reference in the history of computers and the remarkable story of Ada Lovelace, including citations in Walter Isaacson’s The Innovators and James Gleick’s The Information. We learn about Ada’s unique approach to “poetical science” through her own fascinating correspondence with Charles Babbage, and end-of-chapter discussion points allow readers to apply their own skills to the practice of “poetical science.” Written in an accessible, vivid manner, Dr. Toole’s extensive research demonstrates that Ada Lovelace deserves recognition for her unusual role as innovator in 19th century history and science—a female pioneer among the circle of scientific men. Dr. Betty Alexandra Toole received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. For two decades, she has researched and written extensively about Ada Lovelace, and this essential biography has been cited by Walter Isaacson (in The Innovators), James Gleick (in The Information), and others in their works. Dr. Toole has published articles on Ada Lovelace in The Byron Journal, Scientific American, Annals of the History of Computing. She will be a guest speaker at Ada Lovelace’s 200th birthday commemoration at the University of Oxford, Bodelian Libraries, in December 2015. Please visit http://www.well.com/~adatoole/

Available products
Book Published 2023-10-11 by Critical Connection

Comments

Dr Toole has written a brilliant and insightful book that reveals the depth not only of Lovelace's genius but also her personal passions. It is an essential and inspiring book, one that crosses the boundaries of time and gender.

Betty Toole has been a pioneer in helping us understand the contributions of Ada Lovelace to computer science, and her brilliant and delightful book helps bring Ada alive. It’s a great feat of reporting, research, analysis, and writing. Everyone who cares about the early history of computing and the role women played should read it.

Ada was one of the first to write programs of instructions for Babbage’s Analytical Engines, the famous precursors to the modern digital computer. Beautiful, charming, temperamental, an aristocratic hostess, mathematicians of the time thought her a splendid addition to their number. Babbage warmly appreciated her worth, and the value of the felicitous account she wrote of his Analytical Engines and their potential scope of application. “The story of Ada’s life and of her relationship with Babbage has been sadly distorted, and Dr Toole, who has in my view an unrivaled knowledge of Ada’s life, here gives us the opportunity to set the record straight. By this Dr Toole helps clarify not only Ada's personal life, but also an important early stage of the computer revolution. I warmly welcome the publication of this critical selection of Ada’s letters.

Dr. Betty Toole has dedicated almost a lifetime of effort to elucidating the character and personality of Ada Lovelace, and has brought forth the real evidence, in Ada’s own words, that tells us who Ada really was. Instead of an enigmatic caricature, we find a real person and a passionate thinker who was truly the visionary who foresaw what was to come, with ideas about future computers, even before the word was coined, that went far beyond the mere calculating machines of her day.

Ada Lovelace, the First Tech Visionary. Read more...

Toole did research for more than eight years, burying herself in British archives and libraries to narrate and edit this extraordinary collection of letters written by Ada Lovelace. Not only do they outline Ada’s ingenuity for the sciences, but they also enlighten us on all aspects of Lady Lovelace’s multidimensional life: her passionate desire to flourish in a ‘man's world,’ her battle with drug addiction and chronic sickness, and her efforts as a mother and wife. Lovelace also had a reputation as a wild gambler and a lover. What can tell us more truthfully about Ms. Lovelace’s life than letters from the Lady herself?

Toole lets Ada speak for herself through letters to colleagues, family and friends which bring Ada to life with an intimacy a biography never could.

an “interview” with Ada Lovelace, citing Dr. Toole’s biography. Read more...

Daughter of Lord Byron, companion and partner of Charles Babbage, Ada was one of the most picturesque characters in the history of technology… Ada’s letters are some of the classic founding documents of cybernetics and computer science, written nearly a century before ENIAC.

Betty Toole’s meticulous transcription, editing, and analysis of Ada Lovelace’s writings open a window into one of the most stunningly original figures in the history of technology. Anyone who deals with the intersection of science, mathematics and creativity will find Toole's insightful handling of Lovelace's tragic life and brilliant writings to be priceless.

Author interview Read more...

Ada Lovelace has a mythic resonance for our digital age: reverent visits to Ada’s grave now outnumber pilgrimages to the grave of her father, the poet Byron. Betty Alexandra Toole’s revelatory book gives us the sad, evocative and all-too-human story of the woman behind the Ada myth.

The collaboration between Ada, countess of Lovelace, and computer pioneer Charles Babbage resulted in a landmark publication that described how to program the world’s first computer.