[SIGCIS-Members] Request for biographies

Sun Sep 6 12:09:18 PDT 2020

I would like to pipe in also to advocate for biography.  I long ago came to
the conclusion that the most difficult type  of history to do is probably
biography, which is why I never attempted to do it.  So when someone writes
a good biography I am in awe, especially since we need these.  Bio story:
Dumas Malone the great biographer of Thomas Jefferson told me in the 1960s
that it was his objective to write his multi volume bio while going through
the same age as Jefferson, i.e., writing about Jefferson in his '60s when
Malone was in his '60s.  Both lived into their '80s.  He did it this way,
he said, so that he could relate to such issues as their stations in life,
attitude toward their prior accomplishments and their responses to the
aches and pains of old age.  I did not "get it" when he told this to me at
my then age of 21; a half century later, I get it.  But to put a fine point
on his experience, he began studying biography in his '20s.

On Sun, Sep 6, 2020 at 1:53 PM Barbara B Walker <bbwalker at unr.edu> wrote:

> Greetings, all,
>
>
>
> It’s been wonderful to see this outpouring of excitement about biographies
> (and memoirs), reflecting their intrinsic fascination. Biographies are
> sometimes dismissed as subjective, celebratory, irrelevant to the broader
> structural issues of society, for example gender. But especially in an age
> of upward mobility through education, expertise, and innovation, good
> biographies are an extraordinary source of power for individual motivation
> and self-understanding. Sometimes they are indeed irritatingly celebratory,
> partly just because it is difficult for a biographer to stick to the
> research, if not inspired by the subject.
>
>
>
> But biographies and memoirs are life-stories, and at their best uncover a
> multitude of difficulties and solutions to the grand Tolstoyan question,
> “kak zhit’,” or “how to live.” Difficulties overcome in intellectual
> development, love, family, institutions, financial relations – or not
> overcome – all are grist for readers of a biography to contemplate their
> own lives, and to strategize for their own success and happiness. As I have
> seen in reading/watching life-stories with my students, diverse and
> upwardly mobile as they are at my state university, life-stories are among
> the most profound tools for self-transformation. More publicly, it is
> extraordinary how Ron Chernow’s wonderful, complex biography of Alexander
> Hamilton, reimagined also by Miranda as a musical, has inspired a
> generation.
>
>
>
> Dare I say that if left to men as a genre of scholarship, biographies
> serve especially to empower men? (and, heh-heh, to preserve the
> patriarchy!) Women too can learn from the lives of brilliant men, and do.
> But women – and all in the vast range of human gender and ethnic diversity
> -- historically face a variety of life-experiences not necessarily
> experienced by men, and so their lives are a potential source for expanding
> our understanding of “kak zhit’,” or how to live. And what it means to be
> human.
>
>
>
> And just to contradict myself, let me add that one of the most inspiring
> biographies I have read is James Hamilton’s *A Life of Discovery, Michael
> Faraday, Giant of the Scientific Revolution.* Hamilton is an art
> historian, so able to illuminate Faraday’s remarkable ability to visualize
> the forces of nature, despite a poor education and a distinct weakness in
> formal mathematics. Those of my students uncomfortable with math love that
> part!
>
>
>
> Hope all are having a safe, refreshing weekend, Barbara
>
>
>
> *From: *Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of "Ceruzzi,
> Paul" <CeruzziP at si.edu>
> *Date: *Saturday, September 5, 2020 at 4:58 PM
> *To: *"members at lists.sigcis.org" <members at lists.sigcis.org>
> *Subject: *Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Request for biographies
>
>
>
> Here are some autobiographies / memoirs:
>
>
>
> Paul Ceruzzi
>
>
>
> _________________________________
>
>
>
> Allen
>
> Paul
>
> Idea Man
>
> 2011
>
> Portfolio/Penguin
>
> Bartik
>
> Jean Jennings
>
> Pioneer Programmer: Jean Jennings Bartik and the Computer that changed the
> world
>
> 2013
>
> Truman State University Press
>
> Beranek
>
> Leo
>
> Riding the Waves: a life in sound, science, and industry
>
> 2008
>
> MIT
>
> Berners-Lee
>
> Tim
>
> Weaving the Web
>
> 1999
>
> Harper
>
> Getting
>
> Ivan A.
>
> All in a Lifetime: Science in the defense of democracy
>
> 1989
>
> New York
>
> Grosch
>
> Herbert R.J.
>
> Computer: Bit slices from a life
>
> 1991
>
> Novato, CA
>
> Hardy
>
> G.H.
>
> A Mathematician's Apology
>
> 1976
>
> London
>
> House
>
> Charles H.
>
> Permission Denied: Odyssey of an Intrapreneur
>
> 2012
>
> Menlo Park, CA
>
> Lukoff
>
> Herman
>
> From Dits to Bits…: A personal history of the electronic computer
>
> 1979
>
> Portland, OR
>
> Mims
>
> Forrest M.
>
> Siliconnections: Coming of Age in the Electronic Era
>
> 1986
>
> New York
>
> Morse
>
> Philip M.
>
> In at the Beginnings: A Physicist's Life
>
> 1977
>
> Cambridge
>
> Ornstein
>
> Severo M.
>
> Computing in the Middle Ages: A View From the Trenches 1955-1983
>
> 2002
>
> Osborne
>
> Adam
>
> Hypergrowth: The Rise and Fall of Osborne Computer Corporation
>
> 1984
>
> Berkeley, CA
>
> Torvalds
>
> Linus
>
> Just For Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary
>
> 2001
>
> New York
>
> Ulam
>
> S.M.
>
> Adventures of a Mathematician
>
> 1976
>
> New York
>
> Watson
>
> Thomas J. Jr.
>
> Father, Son & Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond
>
> 1991
>
> New York
>
> Wiener
>
> Norbert
>
> Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth
>
> 1966
>
> Cambridge
>
> Wiener
>
> Norbert
>
> I Am a Mathematician: The Later Life of a Prodigy
>
> 1973
>
> Cambridge
>
> Wilkes
>
> Maurice
>
> Memoirs of a Computer Pioneer
>
> 1985
>
> Cambridge
>
> Zuse
>
> Konrad
>
> Computer - My Life, the
>
> 1993
>
> Berlin
>
> [And two anthologies]
>
> Lee
>
> J.A.N.
>
> Computer Pioneers
>
> 1995
>
> Los Alamitos, CA
>
> Northrup
>
> Mary
>
> Collective Biographies: American Computer Pioneers
>
> 1998
>
> Springfield, NJ
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Marc
> Weber <marc at webhistory.org>
> *Sent:* Saturday, September 5, 2020 7:07 PM
> *To:* Brian Berg <brianberg at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* members at sigcis org <members at sigcis.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Request for biographies
>
>
>
> *External Email - Exercise Caution*
>
> It’s a wonderful book, and thank you to Severo for making it publicly
> accessible!
>
> Severo also did an oral history
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerhistory.org%2Fcollections%2Fcatalog%2F102738018&data=01%7C01%7Cbbwalker%40unr.edu%7Cb2bbfe2c547949ab3f8608d851f79c1c%7C523b4bfc0ebd4c03b2b96f6a17fd31d8%7C1&sdata=s%2BHg8ecz8%2B6ofLg3%2BShRLUM4Mb5h2B0udeuCYIt1vzg%3D&reserved=0> with
> us, as did Dave Walden and several of the other folks being mentioned in
> this thread.
>
> Best, Marc
>
>
>
> Marc Weber
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerhistory.org%2Fstaff%2FMarc%2CWeber%2F&data=01%7C01%7Cbbwalker%40unr.edu%7Cb2bbfe2c547949ab3f8608d851f79c1c%7C523b4bfc0ebd4c03b2b96f6a17fd31d8%7C1&sdata=gIjYToEkCFzlFpwC7E%2Bdr%2BnAfXMqr6ukNDu6k%2FgXH6U%3D&reserved=0>
>   |   marc at webhistory.org  |   +1 415 282 6868 | Zoom 901 292 1071
>
> Curatorial Director, Internet History Program
>
> Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043
>
> computerhistory.org/nethistory
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcomputerhistory.org%2Fnethistory&data=01%7C01%7Cbbwalker%40unr.edu%7Cb2bbfe2c547949ab3f8608d851f79c1c%7C523b4bfc0ebd4c03b2b96f6a17fd31d8%7C1&sdata=cikY3EV9c0%2Foqter5j%2BFYPqYPI%2B%2BxaDCPKQ4rxIdZXI%3D&reserved=0>
> |  Co-founder, Web History Center and Project
>
>
>
> On Sep 5, 2020, at 07:44, Brian Berg <brianberg at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> Thanks - this is some wonderful reading.  For example, the Bob Taylor
> portion and the birth of the ARPANET and the ALTO computer nicely
> complements other books such as Leslie Berlin's *Troublemakers*.
>
>
>
> Thanks, Brian Berg
>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 5, 2020 at 3:28 AM David Walden <dave.walden.family at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Severo Ornstein's memoir "Computing in the Middle Ages -- A view from the
> trenches, 1955-1983".
>
> Available publicly at the Computer History Museum.
> https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102785079
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerhistory.org%2Fcollections%2Fcatalog%2F102785079&data=01%7C01%7Cbbwalker%40unr.edu%7Cb2bbfe2c547949ab3f8608d851f79c1c%7C523b4bfc0ebd4c03b2b96f6a17fd31d8%7C1&sdata=ZReuWMNKDE%2BuR0BhfbfzzhoOM8zl2WtO74%2BpMRjyArY%3D&reserved=0>
>
> His journey goes from Whirlwind to TX-2 to LINC to ARPANET to Durado to
> Mockingbird.  At least look at the annotated Table of Contents and read the
> Preface to see what you'd be missing to not read his well written story.
>
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>
> Marc Weber
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerhistory.org%2Fstaff%2FMarc%2CWeber%2F&data=01%7C01%7Cbbwalker%40unr.edu%7Cb2bbfe2c547949ab3f8608d851f79c1c%7C523b4bfc0ebd4c03b2b96f6a17fd31d8%7C1&sdata=gIjYToEkCFzlFpwC7E%2Bdr%2BnAfXMqr6ukNDu6k%2FgXH6U%3D&reserved=0>
>   |   marc at webhistory.org  |   +1 415 282 6868
>
> Internet History Program Curatorial Director, Computer History Museum
>
>
> 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043
> computerhistory.org/nethistory
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcomputerhistory.org%2Fnethistory&data=01%7C01%7Cbbwalker%40unr.edu%7Cb2bbfe2c547949ab3f8608d851f79c1c%7C523b4bfc0ebd4c03b2b96f6a17fd31d8%7C1&sdata=cikY3EV9c0%2Foqter5j%2BFYPqYPI%2B%2BxaDCPKQ4rxIdZXI%3D&reserved=0>
>
> Co-founder, Web History Center and Project, webhistory.org
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-- 
James W. Cortada
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Charles Babbage Institute
University of Minnesota
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