To those interested in the history of computing, the name Howard Aiken is familiar, yet little of a definitive nature has been written about him--until now. These two volumes, well-written and handsomely produced by the MIT Press, paint a full picture of the man and of his work. No one could be better qualified to correct this deficiency than I. Bernard Cohen, author of Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer and lead editor of and contributor to Makin’ Numbers, a compilation of essays by Aiken’s contemporaries and others on Aiken’s life and work. Cohen knew Aiken, first as a student, and later as a computer historian who conducted an interview with Aiken just before Aiken’s death in 1972. The story of Aiken and his pioneering computer work cannot be untangled from that of Harvard and its ambiguous attitude toward applied science, engineering, and computing. Here, too, Cohen is well qualified, having known Aiken, and Harvard, as a student, and later as a professor of the history of science.

Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer combines a biography of Aiken with a detailed description of the genesis, construction, installation, and operation of the Mark I computer, for which Aiken is best remembered. It is a very personal account, filled with anecdotes and bits of trivia about how the author approached and, ultimately, was able to write this story. The result is a narrative that is a pleasure to read, even as it deals with technical topics that might otherwise overwhelm the reader. There are chapters that cover nearly every conceivable detail of the Mark I--Aiken’s choice of a 23-decimal-digit word length, for example. But the chapters all read well and never seem superfluous. Together, these details paint a full picture of Aiken, a man who held and expressed strong opinions on computing while remaining, in some ways, an enigma.

Makin’ Numbers is the companion volume to the biography. It contains chapters by Aiken’s contemporaries that give a first-hand assessment of his work. Two analytical pieces by Harvard undergraduates address the touchy subject of Harvard’s uncertain status among academic computer science departments. This volume stands well on its own. It is more than a mere supplement to the biography, and different enough to warrant a separate volume. What really differentiates it from the biography is its addressing of the paradox of Aiken’s role at Harvard. Aiken was a pioneer in computing, a visionary, and, above all, a great teacher. Yet Harvard was unable to capitalize on that head start, and fell well behind universities such as Stanford, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon in developing a high-quality computer science department. As a member of Harvard’s faculty, Cohen seems a little uneasy about what he could say about this, but  Gregory  Welch, one of Cohen’s students and co-editor of the volume, is more direct. Adam Rabb Cohen, another student, is allowed to say even more. It is a delicate subject but one from which the editors do not shy away.

Howard Aiken was at once more and less of a pioneer than histories have treated him as until now. Less, because his ideas on computer architecture, on a university’s role in computer design, and on other topics increasingly fell outside the mainstream of computing as it evolved in the 1950s. More, because, as these books show, he was a man of great vision and energy, who brought computing into the world as much by his force of will as by his engineering and scientific talents. He possessed all of those in ample supply.