Alexandra Illmer Forsythe studied mathematics in college and graduate school, and then became interested in computing. During the 1960's and 1970's, she co-authored a series of textbooks on computer science, published by Wiley & Sons and Academic Press. Her first was the first textbook written in CS. Among her books were:

• A.I. Forsythe, T.A. Keenan, E. I. Organick, and W. Stenberg, Computer Science: A First Course. Wiley & Sons, 1969 (1st ed.), 1975 (2nd ed.)

• E.I. Organick, A.I. Forsythe, and R.P.Plummer, Programming Language Structures. Academic Press, 1978.