_______________________________________________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@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of "Ceruzzi, Paul" <CeruzziP@si.edu>
Date: Saturday, September 5, 2020 at 4:58 PM
To: "members@lists.sigcis.org" <members@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@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Marc Weber <marc@webhistory.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 5, 2020 7:07 PM
To: Brian Berg <brianberg@gmail.com>
Cc: members@sigcis org <members@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 with us, as did Dave Walden and several of the other folks being mentioned in this thread.
Best, Marc
Marc Weber | marc@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 | Co-founder, Web History Center and Project
On Sep 5, 2020, at 07:44, Brian Berg <brianberg@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@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/102785079His 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.
_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Marc Weber | marc@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
Co-founder, Web History Center and Project, webhistory.org
This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org