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H.W. Wilson Announces
Leaders of the Information Age
Practical
Reference Meets Fascinating Reading, in New Biography Sourcebook
Covering 250 Innovators
New
York, New York, February 18th, 2004
The lives and work of 250 pioneers of the information age are
highlighted in the new biography reference
Leaders
of the Information Age, just published by H.W.
Wilson. From historical figures who set the foundation of today's
revolution, to modern giants of the computer industry, through
geneticists, inventors, physicists, philosophers, futurists, and
others, this is a wide-ranging and eclectic sourcebook. The volume
is edited by David Weil, curator and executive director of the
Computer Museum of America.
This
volume provides, for example, profiles of Seymour
Cray, designer of the world's first supercomputer, Vannevar
Bush, inventor of the first operative mechanical
computer, John Atanasoff,
inventor of the first electronic computer, Tim
Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web and HTML, Jack
Kilby, co-creator of the microchip, Ray
Tomlinson, e-mail pioneer, Kenneth
Thompson, developer of Unix, and Linus
Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system.
Tech
entrepreneurs are also represented, among them Microsoft co-founder Bill
Gates, Apple co-founder Steve
Jobs, Jeff Bezos,
founder of Amazon.com, Thomas J.
Watson, Sr., first president and CEO of IBM, Sandra
Lerner and Leonard
Bosack, co-founders of Cisco Systems, Ted
Waitt, co-founder of Gateway, John
Warnock, chairman and CEO of Adobe Systems, Simon
Ramo, co-founder of TRW, Nolan
Bushnell, developer of PONG (the world's first
commercially successful video game), and many others who've shaped
the present digital landscape.
Coverage
focuses on modern figures, but innovators from as far back as the
14th century are included as well. Profiles of such inventors as Johannes
Gutenberg, 15th-century creator of the first movable-type
printing press, John Napier,
16th-century inventor of an early calculating device, Ramon
Llull, 14th-century father of the Llullian logic machine,
and others offer a look at exploration and ingenuity that
foreshadowed today's developments.
Aficionados
of little-known lore will find much of interest in Leaders
of the Information Age. For example, the book includes a
profile of Hedy Lamarr,
screen siren of the 1930s and '40s—less known for her discovery
during World War II of "frequency hopping," which later
contributed to the development of modern cell-phone technology. The
volume also features the tragic story of visionary British
mathematician Alan Turing,
theorist, inventor, honored for his work as a "code
cracker" in World War II—but also openly homosexual and
sentenced to "chemical castration" by British authorities,
before declining into mental depression and death by his own hand.
Photographs
accompany many of the entries. A detailed timeline spanning the 14th
century through today is also featured.
This
is a volume that will prove both invaluable for biographical
research and fascinating for general readers. From the profile of
futurist Raymond Kurzweil:
"By the end of the 21st century it will be possible to scan
people's minds onto computers while preserving all aspects of their
memories, personalities, emotional responses and even spiritual
beliefs. No longer dependent on their bodies for survival, people
will therefore have achieved a certain immortality."
Review
copies of Leaders of the
Information Age are available to members of the working
press.
Leaders
of the Information Age
626 pp. l
February 2004 l
Photographs l
ISBN 0-8242-0976-1 l
$100 ($110 outside U.S. and Canada)
Contact:
Roseward Sky
Phone (800) 367-6770, x2272
Email:
rsky@hwwilson.com
Eileen Sutter
Phone (800) 367-6770, x2312
Email:
esutter@hwwilson.com |
