Handwritten "First Draft" in Dyson's book?
Dear SIGCIS members: I found George Dyson's book, Turing's Cathedral (2012), seems to show the original hand-written version of the "First Draft" (probably?) in a picture page, which is on 13 pages after p.136. Since the caption says the picture is from Princeton University Libraries, I contacted archivists of the Libraries to access the manuscript. But the archivists answered they cannot find any material like the picture within the collection or elsewhere in related collection. I also asked to the IAS Library, but they cannot find anything, either. Then, as the archivists suggested, I contacted the publisher to send a message to Mr. Dyson. They told me just a forwarding address, so I sent a regular mail to Mr. Dyson in last February to make sure of the location of the manuscript. I have not received the reply yet. I am stranded. Does anyone know contact information of Dyson, or have any idea about the picture on the book or the original hand-written version of the draft? My colleagues and I have been working of a Japanese translation of von Neumann's original paper. Dyson's book is very interesting, but it seems to have a lot of unreferenced information, so my collaborators and I think that we should be careful to handle this book in the bibliographical comments. Best, Mai Sugimoto Associate Professor Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University 3-3-35, Yamate-cho, Suita-shi Osaka, Japan 564-8680 msgmt@kansai-u.ac.jp
Dear Mai and list - Do you think that the illustration in Dyson's book actually is part of the manuscript? It looks rather like a page of notes to me, with a summary of the "von Neumann architecture" and some diagrams copied from various places in the report. Can anyone identify the handwriting? A year or two ago, David Grier gave a nice talk at the Science Museum in London during which he mentioned having come across a manuscript of the First Draft in the Library of Congress. He didn't have a detailed reference for it, however. I contacted the Library of Congress, but they were unable to locate such a manuscript. If I remember correctly, Grier said the manuscript was in Herman Goldstine's handwriting and that Goldstine had, later in life, repeatedly claimed credit for drafting the document. This is slightly at odds with Goldstine's letter of 15 May 1945 to von Neumann, where he says I forwarded under separate cover the MSS and a copy of your report on the EDVAC, also the original typescript was sent to Bergmann. Inasmuch as several dumb typists combined their talents in typing the script there are a lot of errors, which I got discouraged over. It's rather unclear how many separate documents are being referred to here. Tom Haigh, Crispin Rope and I discuss this briefly in our forthcoming ENIAC book. Tom uncovered a typescript of the First Draft in Arthur Burks' archive, which Burks describes thus This is a preliminary draft of the report issued June 30, 1945. It contains pages and figures not in the June 30 report. We believe that this version of the report is the one that Goldstine is referring to in his letter, and that it was retyped, with a couple of sections being omitted, for the mimeographed version that was circulated in June, 1945. Also relevant to this discussion is von Neumann's letter of May 8, 1945 to Goldstine, in which von Neumann says: [This letter] contains some minor changes and comments concerning the code for the EDVAC, which I gave at the end of the manuscript - part [sic - there are spaces round the hyphen in the letter, but it would make more sense if von Neumann had intended to write "manuscript-part"] which you have, and a rather detailed discussion of the way to express this code ... The contents of this letter belong, of course, in the manuscript and i will continue the manuscript and incorporate these things also after I get it back from you ... There's no evidence I know of that this happened. Burks bound a copy of this letter together with his copy of the first typescript, but none of the new material from this letter got included in the widely circulated June 30 version. To me, the two letters suggest quite strongly that von Neumann had written a manuscript, sent it to Goldstine to get comments from the other members of the EDVAC team (especially Burks, Eckert and Mauchly) and that after getting it typed up, Goldstine returned it to him (or at least was planning to do so). But where this manuscript might now be remains a bit of a mystery. Best wishes, Mark On 1 September 2015 at 15:56, Mai Sugimoto <nix.pura@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear SIGCIS members:
I found George Dyson's book, Turing's Cathedral (2012), seems to show the original hand-written version of the "First Draft" (probably?) in a picture page, which is on 13 pages after p.136. Since the caption says the picture is from Princeton University Libraries, I contacted archivists of the Libraries to access the manuscript. But the archivists answered they cannot find any material like the picture within the collection or elsewhere in related collection. I also asked to the IAS Library, but they cannot find anything, either. Then, as the archivists suggested, I contacted the publisher to send a message to Mr. Dyson. They told me just a forwarding address, so I sent a regular mail to Mr. Dyson in last February to make sure of the location of the manuscript.
I have not received the reply yet. I am stranded. Does anyone know contact information of Dyson, or have any idea about the picture on the book or the original hand-written version of the draft? My colleagues and I have been working of a Japanese translation of von Neumann's original paper. Dyson's book is very interesting, but it seems to have a lot of unreferenced information, so my collaborators and I think that we should be careful to handle this book in the bibliographical comments.
Best,
Mai Sugimoto Associate Professor Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University 3-3-35, Yamate-cho, Suita-shi Osaka, Japan 564-8680 msgmt@kansai-u.ac.jp _______________________________________________ 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
According to JAN Lee's _Computer Pioneers_, on line at the IEEE History Center, Goldstine gave his papers to Hampshire College when it was founded (in 1965), and "this is said" to include a handwritten copy of the Draft Report. Michael Godfrey's introduction to the report (Annals 15:4 p 27) says that Goldstine reported that his archive included a manuscript copy. I asked the Hampshire archivist about it six years ago, and she said that they had only the mimeographed copy with the June 30, 1945 date. She said that the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia also had some of Goldstine's papers. Has anyone looked for a manuscript there? David David Hemmendinger hemmendd@union.edu Professor Emeritus http://athena.union.edu/~hemmendd Computer Science Dept. +1 518 346 4489 Union College, Schenectady, NY 12308 FAX: +1 518 388 6789
A year or two ago, David Grier gave a nice talk at the Science Museum in London during which he mentioned having come across a manuscript of the First Draft in the Library of Congress. He didn't have a detailed reference for it, however. I contacted the Library of Congress, but they were unable to locate such a manuscript.
If I remember correctly, Grier said the manuscript was in Herman Goldstine's handwriting and that Goldstine had, later in life, repeatedly claimed credit for drafting the document. This is slightly at odds with Goldstine's letter of 15 May 1945 to von Neumann, where he says ....
George Dyson has given a number of talks about this book, the process by which it was written, and the sources. A key set of sources were available from family and friends, previously unaccessed. My strong hunch re your question is that "lots of the unreferenced information" is of this type. My understanding (or maybe inferred belief) is that much of this material is in process of being given to (or maybe has been given to) the Princeton libraries, but it likely is not yet indexed, catelogued, or assentioned, which could account for your difficulty in locating some of it. I am pretty sure that Dyson's contact info is available via the Computer History Museum. Dag? Best regards, Chuck House On 9/1/15 7:56 AM, "Members on behalf of Mai Sugimoto" <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org on behalf of nix.pura@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear SIGCIS members:
I found George Dyson's book, Turing's Cathedral (2012), seems to show the original hand-written version of the "First Draft" (probably?) in a picture page, which is on 13 pages after p.136. Since the caption says the picture is from Princeton University Libraries, I contacted archivists of the Libraries to access the manuscript. But the archivists answered they cannot find any material like the picture within the collection or elsewhere in related collection. I also asked to the IAS Library, but they cannot find anything, either. Then, as the archivists suggested, I contacted the publisher to send a message to Mr. Dyson. They told me just a forwarding address, so I sent a regular mail to Mr. Dyson in last February to make sure of the location of the manuscript.
I have not received the reply yet. I am stranded. Does anyone know contact information of Dyson, or have any idea about the picture on the book or the original hand-written version of the draft? My colleagues and I have been working of a Japanese translation of von Neumann's original paper. Dyson's book is very interesting, but it seems to have a lot of unreferenced information, so my collaborators and I think that we should be careful to handle this book in the bibliographical comments.
Best,
Mai Sugimoto Associate Professor Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University 3-3-35, Yamate-cho, Suita-shi Osaka, Japan 564-8680 msgmt@kansai-u.ac.jp _______________________________________________ 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
OK. (Email conatct info shared privately with Mai). Dag
On Sep 1, 2015, at 11:00 AM, Chuck House <housec1839@gmail.com> wrote:
George Dyson has given a number of talks about this book, the process by which it was written, and the sources. A key set of sources were available from family and friends, previously unaccessed. My strong hunch re your question is that "lots of the unreferenced information" is of this type. My understanding (or maybe inferred belief) is that much of this material is in process of being given to (or maybe has been given to) the Princeton libraries, but it likely is not yet indexed, catelogued, or assentioned, which could account for your difficulty in locating some of it.
I am pretty sure that Dyson's contact info is available via the Computer History Museum. Dag?
Best regards, Chuck House
On 9/1/15 7:56 AM, "Members on behalf of Mai Sugimoto" <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org on behalf of nix.pura@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear SIGCIS members:
I found George Dyson's book, Turing's Cathedral (2012), seems to show the original hand-written version of the "First Draft" (probably?) in a picture page, which is on 13 pages after p.136. Since the caption says the picture is from Princeton University Libraries, I contacted archivists of the Libraries to access the manuscript. But the archivists answered they cannot find any material like the picture within the collection or elsewhere in related collection. I also asked to the IAS Library, but they cannot find anything, either. Then, as the archivists suggested, I contacted the publisher to send a message to Mr. Dyson. They told me just a forwarding address, so I sent a regular mail to Mr. Dyson in last February to make sure of the location of the manuscript.
I have not received the reply yet. I am stranded. Does anyone know contact information of Dyson, or have any idea about the picture on the book or the original hand-written version of the draft? My colleagues and I have been working of a Japanese translation of von Neumann's original paper. Dyson's book is very interesting, but it seems to have a lot of unreferenced information, so my collaborators and I think that we should be careful to handle this book in the bibliographical comments.
Best,
Mai Sugimoto Associate Professor Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University 3-3-35, Yamate-cho, Suita-shi Osaka, Japan 564-8680 msgmt@kansai-u.ac.jp _______________________________________________ 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
Following up on Chuck's point, I believe that Dyson's work at IAS on the history of its computer project (led by von Neumann) prompted IAS to organize and make accessible its files on the project. https://library.ias.edu/finding-aids/ecpfa Dyson also received access from John von Neumann's daughter, Marina von Neumann Whitman, to some papers she had retained when the Library of Congress accessioned her father's papers. These include letters between von Neumann and his second wife, Klara. He was kind enough to share some of his copies of these with us, as they were at that point in Whitman's basement. However she has subsequently given them, along with her own papers, to Radcliffe College. I would, however, be stunned if either collection holds a manuscript for the "First Draft." I'm confident that it is not in Goldstine's collection at Hampshire college, which is quite small and has an excellent folder level finding aid. Goldstine's APS papers were, when I used them a few years ago, not fully processed and had only a draft finding aid. Something could be hiding there, but I didn't come across it and IIRC he gave to Hampshire first and provided them with the things he thought were most historically significant. I recall seeing a recent announcement from APS that the papers were finally processed. I'm also fairly sure that there is no First Draft manuscript in the von Neumann papers at the Library of Congress, as I looked through carefully for one without success. Tom On 1 September 2015 at 13:00, Chuck House <housec1839@gmail.com> wrote:
George Dyson has given a number of talks about this book, the process by which it was written, and the sources. A key set of sources were available from family and friends, previously unaccessed. My strong hunch re your question is that "lots of the unreferenced information" is of this type. My understanding (or maybe inferred belief) is that much of this material is in process of being given to (or maybe has been given to) the Princeton libraries, but it likely is not yet indexed, catelogued, or assentioned, which could account for your difficulty in locating some of it.
I am pretty sure that Dyson's contact info is available via the Computer History Museum. Dag?
Best regards, Chuck House
On 9/1/15 7:56 AM, "Members on behalf of Mai Sugimoto" <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org on behalf of nix.pura@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear SIGCIS members:
I found George Dyson's book, Turing's Cathedral (2012), seems to show the original hand-written version of the "First Draft" (probably?) in a picture page, which is on 13 pages after p.136. Since the caption says the picture is from Princeton University Libraries, I contacted archivists of the Libraries to access the manuscript. But the archivists answered they cannot find any material like the picture within the collection or elsewhere in related collection. I also asked to the IAS Library, but they cannot find anything, either. Then, as the archivists suggested, I contacted the publisher to send a message to Mr. Dyson. They told me just a forwarding address, so I sent a regular mail to Mr. Dyson in last February to make sure of the location of the manuscript.
I have not received the reply yet. I am stranded. Does anyone know contact information of Dyson, or have any idea about the picture on the book or the original hand-written version of the draft? My colleagues and I have been working of a Japanese translation of von Neumann's original paper. Dyson's book is very interesting, but it seems to have a lot of unreferenced information, so my collaborators and I think that we should be careful to handle this book in the bibliographical comments.
Best,
Mai Sugimoto Associate Professor Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University 3-3-35, Yamate-cho, Suita-shi Osaka, Japan 564-8680 msgmt@kansai-u.ac.jp _______________________________________________ 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
I vaguely recall a First Draft being among the Mauchly papers @ Penn, but I don't remember at all whether it was a copy or anything original. Maybe search in the Aberdeen archives?
There is a “First Draft” in the rare book library of the Smithsonian. A number of years ago I got a call from the Bureau of Standards (now NIST), which was discarding a large personal library accumulated by one of its employees. I went up there to Gaithersburg, and it sort of “popped out” from the files. It is one of the original mimeographed copies—strictly speaking, not “mimeographed” but reproduced by some other chemical means. It was bound in a cardboard cover, signed by Sam Alexander, which I removed. Alexander was one of the builders of the SEAC computer. A classic story of how this collection was days away from the dumpster. The Draft is extremely fragile—it has to be handled very carefully as it was on some sort of chemically-treated paper that crumbles easily. But it is readable. I’ve often wondered exactly how many copies were made by Goldstine, but perhaps we’ll never know for sure. The rest of the NBS collection went to the Babbage Institute. You may be upset that I broke up the collection, but, hey, I saved it. Paul From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Haigh Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2015 2:45 PM To: Chuck House Cc: members@lists.sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Handwritten "First Draft" in Dyson's book? Following up on Chuck's point, I believe that Dyson's work at IAS on the history of its computer project (led by von Neumann) prompted IAS to organize and make accessible its files on the project. https://library.ias.edu/finding-aids/ecpfa Dyson also received access from John von Neumann's daughter, Marina von Neumann Whitman, to some papers she had retained when the Library of Congress accessioned her father's papers. These include letters between von Neumann and his second wife, Klara. He was kind enough to share some of his copies of these with us, as they were at that point in Whitman's basement. However she has subsequently given them, along with her own papers, to Radcliffe College. I would, however, be stunned if either collection holds a manuscript for the "First Draft." I'm confident that it is not in Goldstine's collection at Hampshire college, which is quite small and has an excellent folder level finding aid. Goldstine's APS papers were, when I used them a few years ago, not fully processed and had only a draft finding aid. Something could be hiding there, but I didn't come across it and IIRC he gave to Hampshire first and provided them with the things he thought were most historically significant. I recall seeing a recent announcement from APS that the papers were finally processed. I'm also fairly sure that there is no First Draft manuscript in the von Neumann papers at the Library of Congress, as I looked through carefully for one without success. Tom On 1 September 2015 at 13:00, Chuck House <housec1839@gmail.com<mailto:housec1839@gmail.com>> wrote: George Dyson has given a number of talks about this book, the process by which it was written, and the sources. A key set of sources were available from family and friends, previously unaccessed. My strong hunch re your question is that "lots of the unreferenced information" is of this type. My understanding (or maybe inferred belief) is that much of this material is in process of being given to (or maybe has been given to) the Princeton libraries, but it likely is not yet indexed, catelogued, or assentioned, which could account for your difficulty in locating some of it. I am pretty sure that Dyson's contact info is available via the Computer History Museum. Dag? Best regards, Chuck House On 9/1/15 7:56 AM, "Members on behalf of Mai Sugimoto" <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org<mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of nix.pura@gmail.com<mailto:nix.pura@gmail.com>> wrote:
Dear SIGCIS members:
I found George Dyson's book, Turing's Cathedral (2012), seems to show the original hand-written version of the "First Draft" (probably?) in a picture page, which is on 13 pages after p.136. Since the caption says the picture is from Princeton University Libraries, I contacted archivists of the Libraries to access the manuscript. But the archivists answered they cannot find any material like the picture within the collection or elsewhere in related collection. I also asked to the IAS Library, but they cannot find anything, either. Then, as the archivists suggested, I contacted the publisher to send a message to Mr. Dyson. They told me just a forwarding address, so I sent a regular mail to Mr. Dyson in last February to make sure of the location of the manuscript.
I have not received the reply yet. I am stranded. Does anyone know contact information of Dyson, or have any idea about the picture on the book or the original hand-written version of the draft? My colleagues and I have been working of a Japanese translation of von Neumann's original paper. Dyson's book is very interesting, but it seems to have a lot of unreferenced information, so my collaborators and I think that we should be careful to handle this book in the bibliographical comments.
Best,
Mai Sugimoto Associate Professor Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University 3-3-35, Yamate-cho, Suita-shi Osaka, Japan 564-8680 msgmt@kansai-u.ac.jp<mailto:msgmt@kansai-u.ac.jp> _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://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<http://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
Dear SIGCIS members: Thank you for so much information. David Grier was very kind enough to forward my email to George Dyson, and I received his reply immediately! Dyson says: The copy of the EDVAC report that I used (and partly reproduced in Turing's Cathedral) was (in 2003) in the open stacks of the math library at Fine hall (the new Fine Hall) at Princeton University. I attach a JPEG of the title page. Almost all of it is a typescript, except a few pages of manuscript illustrations at the end. If for some reason Princeton University is unable to provide you with a copy, I made a photocopy of the entire document and could make a copy of that. Since the original is priceless, I hope someone did not walk off with it. I felt very nervous carrying it home from the library and just leaving it lying around the apartment I was staying in (on Von Neumann Drive, coincidentally). I will send emails to share this information with the archivists and librarians in Princeton U. and in the IAS, who helped me. The JPEG attached the email looks very similar to other typescripts of the First Draft. Apparently this is not the hand-written version. But still, I am a little interested in "a few pages of manuscript." I visited the Library of Congress and APS Library in Philadelphia for several times. I am very sure that there is no First Draft manuscript in the von Neumann papers at the LoC, as Tom Haigh said. In the Goldstine papers at APS, there is another version of typescript (I wrote an research note on it => http://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/handle/2433/153495 and http://www4.plala.or.jp/maisugimoto/firstdraft.htm). I heard from Michael Godfrey that he also got a copy of the APS draft last April, and I sent him a list of differences between two versions of the typescript, which I made for my translation work. Mai 2015-09-02 4:38 GMT+09:00 Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP@si.edu>:
There is a “First Draft” in the rare book library of the Smithsonian. A number of years ago I got a call from the Bureau of Standards (now NIST), which was discarding a large personal library accumulated by one of its employees. I went up there to Gaithersburg, and it sort of “popped out” from the files. It is one of the original mimeographed copies—strictly speaking, not “mimeographed” but reproduced by some other chemical means. It was bound in a cardboard cover, signed by Sam Alexander, which I removed. Alexander was one of the builders of the SEAC computer. A classic story of how this collection was days away from the dumpster. The Draft is extremely fragile—it has to be handled very carefully as it was on some sort of chemically-treated paper that crumbles easily. But it is readable.
I’ve often wondered exactly how many copies were made by Goldstine, but perhaps we’ll never know for sure.
The rest of the NBS collection went to the Babbage Institute. You may be upset that I broke up the collection, but, hey, I saved it.
Paul
*From:* Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] *On Behalf Of *Thomas Haigh *Sent:* Tuesday, September 01, 2015 2:45 PM *To:* Chuck House *Cc:* members@lists.sigcis.org *Subject:* Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Handwritten "First Draft" in Dyson's book?
Following up on Chuck's point, I believe that Dyson's work at IAS on the history of its computer project (led by von Neumann) prompted IAS to organize and make accessible its files on the project. https://library.ias.edu/finding-aids/ecpfa
Dyson also received access from John von Neumann's daughter, Marina von Neumann Whitman, to some papers she had retained when the Library of Congress accessioned her father's papers. These include letters between von Neumann and his second wife, Klara. He was kind enough to share some of his copies of these with us, as they were at that point in Whitman's basement. However she has subsequently given them, along with her own papers, to Radcliffe College.
I would, however, be stunned if either collection holds a manuscript for the "First Draft." I'm confident that it is not in Goldstine's collection at Hampshire college, which is quite small and has an excellent folder level finding aid. Goldstine's APS papers were, when I used them a few years ago, not fully processed and had only a draft finding aid. Something could be hiding there, but I didn't come across it and IIRC he gave to Hampshire first and provided them with the things he thought were most historically significant. I recall seeing a recent announcement from APS that the papers were finally processed. I'm also fairly sure that there is no First Draft manuscript in the von Neumann papers at the Library of Congress, as I looked through carefully for one without success.
Tom
On 1 September 2015 at 13:00, Chuck House <housec1839@gmail.com> wrote:
George Dyson has given a number of talks about this book, the process by which it was written, and the sources. A key set of sources were available from family and friends, previously unaccessed. My strong hunch re your question is that "lots of the unreferenced information" is of this type. My understanding (or maybe inferred belief) is that much of this material is in process of being given to (or maybe has been given to) the Princeton libraries, but it likely is not yet indexed, catelogued, or assentioned, which could account for your difficulty in locating some of it.
I am pretty sure that Dyson's contact info is available via the Computer History Museum. Dag?
Best regards, Chuck House
On 9/1/15 7:56 AM, "Members on behalf of Mai Sugimoto"
<members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org on behalf of nix.pura@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear SIGCIS members:
I found George Dyson's book, Turing's Cathedral (2012), seems to show the original hand-written version of the "First Draft" (probably?) in a picture page, which is on 13 pages after p.136. Since the caption says the picture is from Princeton University Libraries, I contacted archivists of the Libraries to access the manuscript. But the archivists answered they cannot find any material like the picture within the collection or elsewhere in related collection. I also asked to the IAS Library, but they cannot find anything, either. Then, as the archivists suggested, I contacted the publisher to send a message to Mr. Dyson. They told me just a forwarding address, so I sent a regular mail to Mr. Dyson in last February to make sure of the location of the manuscript.
I have not received the reply yet. I am stranded. Does anyone know contact information of Dyson, or have any idea about the picture on the book or the original hand-written version of the draft? My colleagues and I have been working of a Japanese translation of von Neumann's original paper. Dyson's book is very interesting, but it seems to have a lot of unreferenced information, so my collaborators and I think that we should be careful to handle this book in the bibliographical comments.
Best,
Mai Sugimoto Associate Professor Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University 3-3-35, Yamate-cho, Suita-shi Osaka, Japan 564-8680 msgmt@kansai-u.ac.jp _______________________________________________ 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
_______________________________________________ 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
participants (8)
-
Ceruzzi, Paul -
Chuck House -
Dag Spicer -
Evan Koblentz -
hemmendd＠union.edu -
Mai Sugimoto -
Mark Priestley -
Thomas Haigh