Contents
"Women threw themselves at him, and he responded with gusto. One lover called him 'mad, bad, and dangerous to know.'" (p.4)
"[R]umors had already been circulating through London society that Byron engaged in homosexual acts (then a capital crime) and that he had fathered a child by his half sister. These allegations ensured that custody of Ada would almost certainly go to Lady Byron." (p. 6)
In Chapter 6:
"The rules of propriety in courtship were very strict at the time; Ada was to be matched to suitor approved by Lady Byron. And then marriage was the only outcome. In addition, any romance between Ada and William would have jeopardized William's employment and his family's standing.
Ada was watched constantly by one Fury or another. Nevertheless, she managed to slip him a note one day proposing that they meet later that night. Years afterward, Ada told a friend that matters 'went as far as they possibly could without connexion.' Passion made Ada and William careless. Someone witnessed an intimate gesture between them and reported it to Lady Byron. William was promptly dismissed. A disappointed and indignant Ada then ran away and into the arms of her lover, who had retreated to his family home. The Turners promptly returned Ada to Fordhook. Ada's behavior must have awakened her mother's worst fears--no behavior was more Byronic than seduction.
Not surprisingly, Lady Byron concluded that Ada's escapade proved the need for greater discipline." (p. 35)
Description
Biography & Autobiography. Computer Technology. Juvenile Nonfiction. Science. HTML: This illuminating biography reveals how the daughter of Lord Byron, Britain's most infamous Romantic poet, became the world's first computer programmer. Even by 1800s standards, Ada Byron Lovelace had an unusual upbringing. Her strict mother worked hard at cultivating her own role as the long-suffering ex-wife of bad-boy poet Lord Byron while raising Ada in isolation. 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 Charles Babbage, a kindred spirit. Their ensuing collaborations resulted in ideas and concepts that presaged computer programming by almost two hundred years, and Ada Lovelace is now recognized as a pioneer and prophet of the information age. 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 portrait that is at once remarkable and fascinating, tragic and triumphant… (more)