Alan Turing's Notebook Just Sold For $1 Million At Auction
A long-lost notebook owned by gay World War II code breaker Alan Turing sold at auction this week for just over $1 million.
The journal, sold through Bonhams auction house in New York on Monday, went for $1.025 million after just two minutes of bidding.
It dates back to the mid-1940s, when Turing, then in his early 20s, was working to break the Nazi Enigma code at Britain's Bletchley Park, as chronicled in the Oscar-nominated film The Imitation Game.
It's believed to be the only Turing autograph manuscript remaining in existence.
Gizmag explains:
The unassuming 56-page composition book was previously withheld from sales... because the blank pages in the middle section were used by the British mathematician and logician Robin Oliver Gandy (1919-1995) to keep a personal dream journal.
The notebook was part of a collection of papers that were bequeathed to Gandy after Turing's death in 1954.
A portion of proceeds from the sale will go to charity.
"This is a wonderful result and a fitting testament to Alan Turing's impact and legacy," said Bonham's Cassandra Hatton. "We are immensely pleased that all the people who bid for this unique item and indeed the wider public have recognized Turing's importance and place in history."
Also sold was a fully functional Enigma Machine from 1944, which went for $269,000, well over pre-auction estimates of between $140,000 and 180,000.
Buyers for both items asked to remain anonymous.
A critical part of the Allied victory and the father of modern computer science, Turing later fell prey to the homophobia of the times, when he was arrested for public indecency and was forced to undergo chemical castration to avoid prison time. He committed suicide shortly thereafter.
