Ada: The Enchantress of Numbers

by Betty Alexandra Toole, Ed.D.

"Excellent and thoughtful." --Annals of the History of Computing

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.

--Alice Polesky in the San Francisco Chronicle

Ada Lovelace: The World's First Hacker. . .
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?

--Carla Sinclair

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.

--Bruce Sterling

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 te 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 Anthony Hyman (author, Charles Babbage, Pioneer of the Computer)

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.

--Howard Rheingold

--Lynn Hershman Leeson (director, Conceiving Ada)

Forget this world and all its troubles and if possible its multitudinous Charlatans-- everything in short but the Enchantress of Numbers. --Charles Babbage to Ada Lovelace