Dreaming in Code by Emily Arnold McCully

McCully demonstrates that although Ada had the potential to achieve more, she was hampered by sexism, ill health, and a temperament akin to her father’s. And yet, Ada was able to see far beyond his visions, conceptualizing the potential of modern computers and predicting such programming techniques like loops. A temporary textual shift to focus on Babbage provides necessary context, establishing how advanced and revolutionary Babbage’s Difference Engine and Analytical Engine designs were. The book follows Ada’s education with her marriage and death from uterine cancer, but both the book and Ada focus on her collaborator, Charles Babbage. Lady Byron’s portrayal is complex-she’s cold and self-centered but determined to provide academic opportunities for her daughter.

After the acrimonious end of Lord and Lady Byron’s relationship, the intelligent Lady Byron sought to distance Ada from both her father himself and his unstable tendencies by giving her a challenging education focused on rational pursuits, math, and science. McCully juxtaposes the analytical genius of her subject with her humanizing flaws and personality, painting a portrait of a turbulent soul and a visionary intellect whose promise was cut short by early death. The result is a portrait that is at once remarkable and fascinating, tragic and triumphant.A biography of Ada Lovelace, widely celebrated as the first computer programmer. Their ensuing collaborations resulted in ideas and concepts that presaged computer programming by almost 200 years, and Ada Lovelace is now recognized as a pioneer and prophet of the information age.Īward-winning author Emily Arnold McCully opens the window on a peculiar and singular intellect, shaped - and hampered - by history, social norms, and family dysfunction.

At 17, Ada met eccentric inventor Charles Babbage, a kindred spirit. 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.

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. This illuminating biography reveals how the daughter of Lord Byron, Britain's most infamous Romantic poet, became the world's first computer programmer.Įven by 1800s standards, Ada Byron Lovelace had an unusual upbringing.

Dreaming in Code by Emily Arnold McCully