As a sixth former at Sherborne School, Alan Turing was allowed to borrow books from the School Library. Between 10 October 1928 and 16 May 1931 Alan Turing borrowed 33 titles from the School Library, mainly on the subjects of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and astronomy, with only three works of fiction.
| AUTHOR | TITLE | DATES BORROWED |
| Aston, Frederick William | Isotopes. | 24 March-30 April 1929 |
| Ball, W.W. Rouse | Mathematical Recreations and Essays.
[This book includes a chapter about the art of constructing cryptographs and ciphers and reveals that from at least the age of 16 Alan Turing had an interest in the subject. In 1930, Alan chose this book as his prize book for the Morcom Prize for Science] |
7 November-12 December 1928 |
| Campbell, Norman Robert | Modern Electrical Theory. | 18 January-10 February 1929 |
| Caroll, Lewis | Alice in Wonderland.
[Donald Eperson, who taught mathematics at Sherborne School from 1927 to 1938, was an advocate of the value of ‘Recreational Mathematics’ in the classroom, believing that it allowed boys to investigate problems and puzzles on their own. He introduced his pupils, including Alan Turing, to the literary works of Lewis Carroll which contained many arithmetical and logical allusions] |
4 November-15 December 1930 |
| Carroll, Lewis | The Game of Logic. | 4 November-15 December 1930 |
| Carroll, Lewis | Through the Looking Glass. | 4 November-15 December 1930 |
| Clerk Maxwell, James | Matter and Motion.
[During summer term in 1930, Alan Turing set up Foucault’s pendulum experiment in the stairwell of Westcott House, his boarding house at Sherborne School, which he based on a description of the experiment described in chapter 6 of this book] |
13-24 February 1929
29 July-23 September 1929 (Summer holidays) |
| Clifford, William Kingdon | The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences. | 28 October-7 November 1928 |
| Eddington, Arthur Stanley | Space, Time and Gravitation. | 6 November-6 December 1929
18 December 1929-20 January 1930 22 January-27 March 1930 |
| Eddington, Arthur Stanley | The Nature of the Physical World.
[This book was chosen by Alan Turing for the Digby prize awarded posthumously to Christopher Morcom in Michaelmas Term 1929] |
17-21 March 1929
24 March-20 April 1929 31 May-24 July 1930 |
| Einstein, Albert | Sidelights on Relativity.
[In 1928, aged 15 ½, Alan Turing prepared for his mother a précis of Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity] |
21 October-6 December 1929 |
| Evans, A.J. | The Escaping Club. | 31 January-22 March 1931 |
| Fichte, Immanuel Hermann | Contributions to Mental Philosophy. | 21-30 January 1931 |
| Haas, Arthur (translated by R.W. Lawson) | The New Physics Lectures for Laymen and Others. | 27 January-10 February 1929 |
| Henderson, Hubert D. | Supply and Demand. | 29 March-6 May 1930 (Easter holidays)
6 May-24 July 1930 |
| Jeans, James Hopwood | The Stars in their Courses. | 24 April-13 June 1931 |
| Jeans, James Hopwood | The Universe Around Us.
[This book was chosen by Alan Turing for the Digby prize awarded posthumously to Christopher Morcom in Michaelmas Term 1929] |
16 December 1929-20 January 1930 (Christmas holidays) |
| Lodge, Oliver | Atoms and Rays: An Introduction to Modern Views on Atomic Structure and Radiation. | 16-21 March 1929 |
| Lodge, Oliver et al | Phases of Modern Science (published in connection with the Science Exhibit arranged by a committee of the Royal Society at the British Empire Exhibition 1925). | 24 February-4 March 1929
24 March-30 April 1929 |
| Preston, Thomas | The Theory of Heat. | 12 February-29 March 1930
6 May-23 July 1930 30 November-15 December 1930 24 January-20 March 1931 16 May-13 June 1931 |
| Roberts, Isaac | A Selection of Photographs of Stars, Star-Clusters and Nebulae. | 19 October-23 November 1930 |
| Rood, Ogden Nicholas | Modern Chromatics: with Applications to Art and Industry. | 12-26 May 1929 |
| Sanford, Vera, (ed. John Wesley Young) | A Short History of Mathematics. | 10 October-12 November 1928 |
| Webb, Thomas William | Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes. | 16 December 1929-20 January 1930 (Christmas holidays) |
| Whetham, William Cecil Dampier | The Recent Development of Physical Science. | 13-24 February 1929 |
| Whitehead, Alfred North | Science and the Modern World (Lowell Lectures 1925).
[Alfred North Whitehead FRS (the mathematician and philosopher, co-author with Bertrand Russell of Principia Mathematica) was a pupil at Sherborne School (School House) from 1875 to 1880] |
24 February-4 March 1929 |
| Wood, Alexander | Sound Waves and their Uses. Six Lectures Delivered before a ‘Juvenile Auditory’ under the auspices of the Royal Institution, Christmas 1928. | 13 February-20 March 1931 |
| ? | Illusions | 20 February-20 March 1931 |
| Journal of the Chemical Society, vols. 95, 96, 97 | 29 May-16 June 1930 | |
| ? | Lead | 30 September-10 October 1929 |
| ? | Money | 2-8 February 1930 |
See also:
For further information about the Sherborne School Archives please contact the School Archivist
Return to the School Archives homepage