The Computer - My Life

Konrad Zuse is one of the great pioneers of the computer age. He created the first stored-program computer in 1941 and continued to build machines for a quarter-century, as well as writing books and articles. This is his autobiography - lively, witty, full of fascinating asides.

Personal computers didn't appear until the 1970s, but as early as 1941, the first automated, program-controlled, and freely programmable computer was up and running. The Computer-- My Life is the story of Konrad Zuse and his revolutionary invention--the computer (or mechanical brain as he liked to call it), which Zuse built in his parents' living room. Zuse writes his autobiography simply and directly to be accessible to a wide audience of non-technophiles and includes hand-drawn diagrams of computer functions, as well as cartoons from his younger years when he dreamed of becoming an artist. The book also includes appendices with detailed technical information for the more technical reader.