This Week in History, Nov. 24th – 30th

“Fiction is too beautiful to be about just one thing. It should be about everything.”

Arundhati Roy

This week we celebrate the birthday of author Arundhati Roy, 1997 winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

You may find her prize winning semi autobiographical novel, The God of Small Things, in the General collection at PR9499.3.R59 G63 1997

We also celebrate the birthday of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, who is quoted as having said:

“You must come to terms with the reality that nothing outside ourselves, be it people or things is actually responsible for our happiness.”²

and

“Let the generations know that women in uniform also guaranteed their freedom.”²

Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919) was the US Army’s first female surgeon and as of this time, the first and only female Medal of Honor recipient.

The book, Dr. Mary Walker an American Radical, 1832-1919 may be checked out online from the Clark College libraries.

“A new, a vast, and a powerful language is developed for the future use of analysis, in which to wield its truths so that these may become of more speedy and accurate practical application for the purposes of mankind than the means hitherto in our possession have rendered possible.”

Ada Lovelace

This week marks the passing of Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), only child of Lord and Lady Byron, and the first person to recognize the potential of the “Analytical Engine“, which is considered one of the first computers.

Ada, Countess of Lovelace, passed away at the age of 36 from uterine cancer.

Countess Lovelace’s remarkable life is dramatized through the graphic novel, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer which may found at PN6737.P34 T48 2015

¹https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arundhati_Roy_W.jpg

² Mary Edwards Walker

³https://www.clarkcollegelibraries.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Dr_Mary_Edwards_Walker_mans_top_coat_and_hat_c_1911.jpg
⁴https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ada_Lovelace_Chalon_portrait.jpg