Alan Mathison Turing 1912-1954. Offprint from Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 1, pp. 253-263.

TURING, Alan - NEWMAN, Max.

Published by [London: Royal Society,] 1955

First edition, offprint issue, a Turing family copy, presented by his mother to his close friend and colleague Norman Routledge. The author was another friend and colleague of Turing's, who worked with him both at Cambridge and Bletchley Park. His posthumous biography commemorates Turing's warmth, humour, and generosity, along with his prodigious intelligence and originality. Newman likely sent Sara Turing an offprint of his article in thanks for "constant help with biographical material" (p. 263). Sara later sent it to Routledge. In a letter to Routledge dated 16 May 1956, she wrote, "I have to-day sent by registered post 13 of Alan's off-prints and the R.S. [Royal Society] notice of him". Routledge had two copies of this notice in his possession, of which this is one. Like Turing, Routledge was a mathematical fellow at King's College, Cambridge. Turing's letters to Routledge are among his most candid, particularly about his sexuality, which he knew Routledge would understand - Routledge himself later lived openly as a gay man. In a 1952 letter, Turing addressed to Routledge his now-famous syllogism: "Turing believes machines think / Turing lies with men / Therefore machines do not think / Yours in distress, Alan" (Hodges, p. xxx). Turing and Newman (1897-1984) first met in mid-1930s Cambridge, when Turing attended the lectures of Newman's Foundation of Mathematics course. Turing's seminal 1936 On Computable Numbers began as a paper on the Entscheidungsproblem that he first showed to Newman, who helped him to publish the work. Newman's biography describes Turing's prescience regarding such work: he predicted that future owners of computers would have cause to say "'My machine' (instead of 'My little boy') 'said such a funny thing this morning'" (p. 255). Elsewhere, Newman's biography recalls Turing both as a mathematical genius and a generous man who helped colleagues and put immense care into selecting Christmas presents. Turing's research is summarized, but his work at Bletchley Park was still classified information at the time of publication; Newman merely comments that during the War Turing had "full scope for his inventiveness" (p. 254). Provenance: Ethel Sara Turing (1881-1976); Norman Arthur Routledge (1928-2013); by descent in the Routledge family. AMT/B/29. Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma, 1983. Octavo. Photographic portrait frontispiece. Original grey wrappers lettered in black, wire-stitched. Front and rear wrappers creased vertically along staples, otherwise clean and crisp: a fine copy. Seller Inventory # 183009

Bibliographic Details

Title: Alan Mathison Turing 1912-1954. Offprint ...
Publisher: [London: Royal Society,] 1955
Edition: 1st Edition