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In 2015, at age 97, Katherine Johnson became a global celebrity. President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the nation's highest civilian honor—for her pioneering work as a mathematician during NASA's first flights into space. Her contributions to America's space program were celebrated in a blockbuster Academy Award-nominated movie.
In this memoir, Katherine shares her personal journey from child prodigy in the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia to NASA human computer. In her life after retirement, she served as a beacon of light for her family and community alike. Her story is centered around the basic tenets of her life—no one is better than you, education is paramount, and asking questions can break barriers.
This multidimensional portrait is also the record of a century of racial history that reveals the influential role educators at segregated schools and Historically Black Colleges and Universities played in nurturing the dreams of trailblazers like Katherine. The author pays homage to her mentor—the African American professor who inspired her to become a research mathematician despite having his own dream crushed by racism.
Infused with the uplifting wisdom of a woman who handled great fame with genuine humility and great tragedy with enduring hope, My Remarkable Journey brings into focus a determined woman who navigated tough terrain with soft-spoken grace—and the unrelenting grit required to make history and inspire future generations.
"Katherine Johnson's personal story never gets old, and never fails to inspire." —Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times-bestselling author of Hidden Figures
"Truly a lovely read . . . an important addition to every bookshelf devoted to great Americans." —Booklist (starred review)
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 11, 2024 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780062897695
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780062897695
- File size: 16222 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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April 15, 2021
Made famous by Margot Lee Shetterly's Hidden Figures (2016) and later portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the Oscar-nominated film, Katherine Johnson, who died in 2020 at age 101, was a mathematician whose career at NASA was crucial to the early successes in space travel. While plenty of pages are devoted to those achievements, this engaging memoir, completed by Johnson's daughters, also delves into much that has been left out of public coverage. Johnson writes of her childhood, early achievements in the classroom, and a dedicated group of African American educators as well as her indomitable parents, who supported her academic interests. Johnson does not simply wax poetic here, she names names, keenly portrays colleagues, and cites specific interactions that set her on her way to her triumphs at NASA. She also writes poignantly of her first husband, who died terribly young, and the solace she took in work and parenthood until she found love again. Johnson is a warm and compassionate author, filling her pages with the most personal of stories while also illuminating the times she lived through with an appreciation for all the dramatic changes occurring around her. Truly a lovely read, this is an important addition to every bookshelf devoted to great Americans.COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from May 1, 2021
In the 1940s, Johnson began working in mathematical research at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). As a "human computer," she, along with many other men and women, performed complicated calculations that assisted engineers in aeronautical safety. After NACA transformed into NASA in 1958, her work came to include calculating space trajectories, flight ascension, shuttle reentry, and shuttle safety. Johnson's work at NASA is only one part of her extraordinary life, as recounted in this lovely posthumous memoir, co-written with her daughters. The memoir chronicles Johnson's childhood in the mountains of West Virginia, her love of learning, her prodigious talent for math and music, and her career as a mathematician. Especially touching are Johnson's recollections of historical events, such as World War II and the civil rights movement, and her relationships with her family, coworkers, and educators. VERDICT Readers will enjoy Johnson's personal accounts of the space race and the roles of Black women in STEM. This wonderful, insightful memoir is the perfect companion piece to Margot Lee Shetterly's best-selling Hidden Figures, which recounted the lives of Johnson and her colleagues Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson.--Leah Huey, Dekalb P.L., IL
Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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