“It was in the research that I fatally fell in love. I read Babbage’s autobiogray and became the helpless slave of that blend of Mr. Pickwick, Mr. Toad, Don Quixote, and Leonardo da Vinci. I pored over Lovelace’s letters, wanting alternately to shake her, hug her, and throw her a parade. And I was bewitched by that marvelous, mysterious, nonexistent Analytical Engine, concatenation of contraptions and labyrinth of gears. Like all pure and disinterested lovers, I overflowed with sensations of generous evangelism. Everyone had to know how charming, how fascinating, how unjustly misunderstood my heroes were! Everyone must share in teh joy of unearth an illuminating primary document! This is how one finds oneself in the British Library, trying to glean usable jokes from technical articles in the Annals of the History of Computing.”
Sydney Padua, from his preface for The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, a history AU graphic novel in which Lovelace and Babbage succeed in building the difference engine and proceed to use it to fight crime. But also including all the accurate historical information (including extensive citations from primary sources!) for all your history geek needs.
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