Biographer Walter Isaacson is planning on writing a book on Ada Lovelace, the 19th century scientist who was the daughter of poet Lord Byron. According to Fortune, Isaacson had not yet told his editor Alice Mayhew of Simon & Schuster, about his new idea.

Why is the author of books on icons such as Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs picking such an obscure subject? Fortune has more details: “At an appearance Wednesday night in San Francisco, he said he felt he had earned the right to pick someone less iconic, and pluck her out of obscurity. ‘I want to give Ada Lovelace her moment in the sun,’ he said.”

According to Wikipedia, Lovelace was a writer who was credited with creating the first algorithm and is sometimes referred to as the World’s First Computer Programmer.