'The Man Who Invented the Computer'
Published 4:00 am, Sunday, October 24, 2010
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley turns her attention to a relatively unknown, yet historically important physics and mathematics professor in "The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer" (Doubleday; 246 pages; $25.95). The book offers an in-depth portrait of the brilliant Atanasoff, who, one night in December 1937, sat alone in an Illinois roadhouse and wrote down four ideas on how a computer might function. Two years later, Atanasoff had almost singlehandedly created a working prototype, funded by a $650 grant. Smiley introduces a barrage of other scientists of the time, weaving their innovations and calculations around Atanasoff's, to create a complex look at how ideas are born and grow. But it is physics Professor John Mauchly who serves as the story's villain, routinely underestimated by Atanasoff in a frustrating series of events that lead to a court battle about who created what. And, while Atanasoff is eventually recognized - late in life - for his invention, his routine willingness to talk to Mauchly about his work, to occasionally share his findings, serves as a warning to overly trusting innovators, then and now: Protect your ideas. Unlike computers, humans can be greedy.