Dreaming in Code: Ada Byron Lovelace, Computer Pioneer

“Written with grace and intelligence, researched with care. . . . Sure to inspire a new generation of pioneers.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review)

Ada Byron Lovelace had an unusual upbringing. The daughter of Lord Byron, she was raised in isolation by a strict mother who worked hard at cultivating her own persona as the long-suffering ex-wife of the bad-boy Romantic poet. 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 and kindred spirit Charles Babbage, with whom she would collaborate on ideas and concepts that presaged computer programming by almost two hundred years. In this illuminating biography, now in paperback with an updated cover, 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 remarkable and fascinating portrait of a young woman—now recognized as a pioneer and prophet of the information age—that is at once tragic and triumphant.