Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: TURNING FIFTY
1. Vallentin, 163.
2. New York Times , Mar. 15, 1929.
3. Reiser, 205.
4. Reiser, 207; Frank 1947, 223; Fölsing, 611.
5. www.einstein-website.de/z_biography/caputh-e.html; Jan Otakar Fischer, “Einstein’s Haven,”International Herald Tribune , June 30, 2005; Fölsing, 612; Einstein to Maja Einstein, Oct. 22, 1929; Erika Britzke, “Einstein in Caputh,” in Renn 2005d, 272.
6. Vallentin, 168.
7. Reiser, 221.
8. Einstein to Betty Neumann, Nov. 5 and 13, 1923. These letters are part of a set given to Hebrew University and are not catalogued in the Einstein archives.
9. Einstein to Betty Neumann, Jan. 11, 1924; Pais 1982, 320.
10. Einstein to Elsa Einstein, Aug. 14, 1924, part of sealed correspondence released in 2006; Einstein to Betty Neumann, Aug. 24, 1924. I am grateful to Ze’ev Rosenkranz of the Einstein archives in Jerusalem and Caltech for helping me find and translate these letters.
11. Einstein to Ethel Michanowski, May 16 and 24, 1931, in private collection.
12. Einstein to Elsa Einstein and Einstein to Margot Einstein, May 1931, part of sealed correspondence released in 2006. I am grateful for the help of Ze’ev Rosenkranz of the Einstein Papers Project for providing context and translation.
13. Einstein to Margot Einstein, May 1931, sealed correspondence released in 2006.
14. This is a sentiment that lasted through his life. Einstein to Eugenia Anderman, June 2, 1953, AEA 59-097: “You must be aware that most men (and many women) are by nature not monogamous. This nature is asserted more forcefully when tradition stands in the way.”
15. Fölsing, 617; Highfield and Carter, 208; Marianoff, 186. (Note: Fölsing spells her name Lenbach, which is not correct according to the Einstein archive copies.)
16. Elsa Einstein to Hermann Struck, 1929.
17. George Dyson, “Helen Dukas: Einstein’s Compass,” in Brockman, 85–94 (George Dyson was the son of Freeman Dyson, a physicist at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, and Dukas worked as his babysitter after Einstein died). See also Abraham Pais, “Eulogy for Helen Dukas,” 1982, American Institute of Physics Library, College Park, Md.
18. Einstein to Maurice Solovine, Mar. 4, 1930, AEA 21-202.
19. Einstein to Mileva Mari, Feb. 23, 1927, AEA 75-742.
20. Ibid.
21. Einstein to Hans Albert Einstein, Feb. 2, 1927, AEA 75-738, and Feb. 23, 1927, AEA 75-739.
22. Highfield and Carter, 227.
23. Einstein to Eduard Einstein, Dec. 23, 1927, AEA 75-748.
24. Einstein to Eduard Einstein, July 10, 1929, AEA 75-782.
25. Eduard Einstein to Einstein, May 1, Dec. 10, 1926. Both are in sealed correspondence folders that were released in 2006 and not catalogued in the archives.
26. Eduard Einstein to Einstein, Dec. 24, 1935. Also in the sealed correspondence folders released in 2006 and not catalogued in the archives.
27. Sigmund Freud to Sandor Ferenczi, Jan. 2, 1927. For an analysis of the interwoven influence of Freud and Einstein, see Panek 2004.
28. Viereck, 374; Sayen, 134. See also Bucky, 113: “I have many doubts about some of his theories. I think Freud placed too much emphasis on dream theories. After all, a junk closet does not bring everything forth . . . On the other hand, Freud was very interesting to read and he was also very witty. I certainly do not mean to be overly critical.”
29. Einstein to Eduard Einstein, 1936 or 1937, AEA 75-939.
30. Einstein to Eduard Einstein, Feb. 5, 1930, not catalogued; Highfield and Carter, 229, 234. See translation in epigraph source note on p. 565.
31. Einstein to Eduard Einstein, Dec. 23, 1927, AEA 75-748.
32. Einstein to Mileva Mari, Aug. 14, 1925, AEA 75-693.
33. Marianoff, 12. He apparently mistakes the year of his own wedding, as he refers to the fall of 1929 when it was in fact just before Einstein’s second visit to the United States in late 1930. Barbara Wolff of the Einstein archives at Hebrew University says she believes this anecdote to be embellished.
34. Elsa Einstein to Antonina Vallentin, undated, in Vallentin, 196.
35. Einstein, Trip Diary to the U.S.A., Nov. 30, 1930, AEA 29-134.
36. “Einstein Works at Sea,”New York Times , Dec. 5, 1930.
37. “Einstein Puzzled by Our Invitations,”New York Times , Nov. 23, 1930.
38. “Einstein Consents to Face Reporters,”New York Times , Dec. 10, 1930.
39. Einstein, Trip Diary, Dec. 11, 1930, AEA 29-134.
40. “Einstein on Arrival Braves Limelight for Only 15 Minutes,”New York Times , Dec. 12, 1930.
41. “He Is Worth It,”Time , Dec. 2, 1930.
42. Brian 1996, 204; “Einstein Receives Keys to the City,”New York Times , Dec. 14, 1930.
43. “Einstein Saw His Statue in Church Here,”New York Times , Dec. 28, 1930.
44. George Sylvester Viereck, profile of John D. Rockefeller, Liberty , Jan. 9, 1932; Nathan and Norden, 157. Einstein also mentions his visit to Rockefeller in a letter to Max Born, May 30, 1933, AEA 8-192.
45. Einstein, New History Society speech, Dec. 14, 1930, in Nathan and Norden, 117; “Einstein Advocates Resistance to War,”New York Times , Dec. 15, 1930, p. 1; Fölsing, 635.
46. “Einstein Considers Seeking a New Home,” Associated Press, Dec. 16, 1930.
47. Einstein,Trip Diary, Dec. 15–31, 1931, AEA 29-134; “Einstein Welcomed by Leaders of Panama,”New York Times , Dec. 24, 1930; “Einstein Heard on Radio,”New York Times , Dec. 26, 1930.
48. Brian 1996, 206.
49. Hedwig Born to Einstein, Feb. 22, 1931, AEA 8-190.
50. Amos Fried to Robert Millikan, Mar. 4, 1932; Robert Millikan to Amos Fried, Mar. 8, 1932; cited in Clark, 551.
51. Brian 1996, 216.
52. Seelig 1956a, 194. At the movie, Einstein “stared bewildered, utterly absorbed, like a child at a Christmas pantomime,” according to a vivid report by Cissy Patterson, an ambitious young journalist who had also described him sun-bathing nude. She would later own the Washington Herald. Brian 1996, 214, citing Washington Herald, Feb. 10, 1931.
53. Einstein address, Feb. 16, 1931, in Nathan and Norden, 122.
54. “At Grand Canyon Today,”New York Times , Feb. 28, 1931; Einstein at Hopi House, www.hanksville.org/sand/Einstein.html.
55. “Einstein in Chicago Talks for Pacifism,”New York Times , Mar. 4, 1931; Nathan and Norden, 123.
56. Fölsing, 641; Einstein talk to War Resisters’ League, Mar. 1, 1931, in Nathan and Norden, 123.
57. Nathan and Norden, 124.
58. Marianoff, 184.
59. Einstein to Mrs. Chandler and the Youth Peace Federation, Apr. 5, 1931; Nathan and Norden, 124; Fölsing, 642. For an image of the note, see www.alberteinstein.info/db/ViewImage.do?DocumentID=21007&Page=1.
60. Einstein interview with George Sylvester Viereck, Jan. 1931, in Nathan and Norden, 125.
61. Einstein to Women’s International League, Jan. 4, 1928, AEA 48-818.
62. Einstein to London chapter of War Resisters’ International, Nov. 25, 1928; Einstein to the League for the Organization of Progress, Dec. 26, 1928.
63. Einstein statement, Feb. 23, 1929, in Nathan and Norden, 95.
64. Manifesto of the Joint Peace Council, Oct. 12, 1930; Nathan and Norden, 113.
65. Einstein, “The 1932 Disarmament Conference,”The Nation , Sept. 23, 1931; Einstein 1954, 95; Einstein, “The Road to Peace,”New York Times , Nov. 22, 1931.
66. Nathan and Norden, 168; “Einstein Assails Arms Conference,”New York Times , May 24, 1931.
67. Einstein to Kurt Hiller, Aug. 21, 1931, AEA 46-693; Nathan and Norden, 143.
68. Jerome, 144. See in particular chapter 11, “How Red?”
69. Einstein, “The Road to Peace,”New York Times , Nov. 22, 1931; Einstein 1954, 95.
70. Thomas Bucky interview with Denis Brian, in Brian 1996, 229.
71. Einstein to Henr
72. Einstein to Isaac Don Levine, after Jan. 1, 1925, AEA 28-29.00 (for image of handwritten document, see www.alberteinstein.info/db/ViewImage.do? DocumentID=21154&Page=1; Roger Baldwin and Isaac Don Levine, Letters from Russian Prisons (New York: Charles Boni, 1925); Robert Cottrell, Roger Nash Baldwin and the American Civil Liberties Union (New York: Columbia, 2001), 180.
73. Einstein to Isaac Don Levine, Mar. 15, 1932, AEA 50-922.
74. Einstein, “The World As I See It,” originally published in 1930, reprinted in Einstein 1954, 8.
75. “Ask Pardon for Eight Negroes,”New York Times , Mar. 27, 1932; “Einstein Hails Negro Race,”New York Times , Jan. 19, 1932, citing an Einstein piece in the forthcoming Crisis magazine of Feb. 1932.
76. Brian 1996, 219.
77. Einstein to Chaim Weizmann, Nov. 25, 1929, AEA 33-411.
78. Einstein, “Letter to an Arab,” Mar. 15, 1930; Einstein 1954, 172; Clark, 483; Fölsing, 623.
79. Einstein to Sigmund Freud, July 30, 1932, www.cis.vt.edu/modernworld/d/Einstein.html.
80. Sigmund Freud to Einstein, Sept. 1932, www.cis.vt.edu/modernworld/d/Einstein.html.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: EINSTEIN’S GOD
1. Charles Kessler, ed., The Diaries of Count Harry Kessler (New York: Grove Press, 2002), 322 (entry for June 14, 1927); Jammer 1999, 40. Jammer 1999 provides a thorough look at the biographical, philosophical, and scientific aspects of Einstein’s religious thought.
2. Einstein, “Ueber den Gegenwertigen Stand der Feld-Theorie,” 1929, AEA 4-38.
3. Neil Johnson, George Sylvester Viereck: Poet and Propagandist (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1968); George S. Viereck, My Flesh and Blood: A Lyric Autobiography with Indiscreet Annotations (New York: Liveright, 1931).
4. Viereck, 372–378; Viereck first published the interview as “What Life Means to Einstein,”Saturday Evening Post , Oct. 26, 1929. I have generally followed the translation and paraphrasing in Brian 2005, 185–186 and in Calaprice. See also Jammer 1999, 22.
5. Einstein, “What I Believe,” originally written in 1930 and recorded for the German League for Human Rights. It was published as “The World As I See It” in Forum and Century, 1930; in Living Philosophies (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1931); in Einstein 1949a, 1–5; in Einstein 1954, 8–11. The versions are all translated somewhat differently and have slight revisions. For an audio version, see www.yu.edu/libraries/digital_library/einstein/credo.html.
6. Einstein to M. Schayer, Aug. 5, 1927, AEA 48-380; Dukas and Hoff-mann, 66.
7. Einstein to Phyllis Wright, Jan. 24, 1936, AEA 52-337.
8. “Passover,”Time , May 13, 1929.
9. Einstein to Herbert S. Goldstein, Apr. 25, 1929, AEA 33-272; “Einstein Believes in Spinoza’s God,”New York Times , Apr. 25, 1929; Gerald Holton, “Einstein’s Third Paradise,”Daedalus (fall 2002): 26–34. Goldstein was the rabbi of the Institutional Synagogue in Harlem and the longtime president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
10. Rabbi Jacob Katz of the Montefiore Congregation, quoted in Time, May 13, 1929.
11. Calaprice, 214; Einstein to Hubertus zu Löwenstein, ca. 1941, in Löwenstein’s book, Towards the Further Shore (London: Victor Gollancz, 1968), 156.
12. Einstein to Joseph Lewis, Apr. 18, 1953, AEA 60-279.
13. Einstein to unknown recipient, Aug. 7, 1941, AEA 54-927.
14. Guy Raner Jr. to Einstein, June 10, 1948, AEA 57-287; Einstein to Guy Raner Jr., July 2, 1945, AEA 57-288; Einstein to Guy Raner Jr., Sept. 28, 1949, AEA 57-289.
15. Einstein, “Religion and Science,”New York Times , Nov. 9, 1930, reprinted in Einstein 1954, 36–40. See also Powell.
16. Einstein, speech to the Symposium on Science, Philosophy and Religion, Sept. 10, 1941, reprinted in Einstein 1954, 41; “Sees No Personal God,” Associated Press, Sept. 11, 1941. A yellowed clipping of this story was given to me by Orville Wright, who was a young naval officer at the time and had kept it for sixty years; it had been passed around his ship and had notations from various sailors saying such things as, “Tell me, what do you think of this?”
17. “In the mind there is no absolute or free will, but the mind is determined by this or that volition, by a cause, which is also determined by another cause, and this again by another, and so on ad infinitum.” Baruch Spinoza, Ethics , part 2, proposition 48.
18. Einstein, statement to the Spinoza Society of America, Sept. 22, 1932.
19. Sometimes translated as “A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.” I cannot find this quote in Schopenhauer’s writings. The sentiment, nevertheless, comports with Schopenhauer’s philosophy. He said, for example, “A man’s life, in all its events great and small, is as necessarily predetermined as are the movements of a clock.” Schopenhauer,“On Ethics,” in Parerga and Paralipomena: Short Philosophical Essays (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 2:227.
20. Einstein, “The World As I See It,” in Einstein 1949a and Einstein 1954.
21. Viereck, 375.
22. Max Born to Einstein, Oct. 10, 1944, in Born 2005, 150.
23. Hedwig Born to Einstein, Oct. 9, 1944, in Born 2005, 149.
24. Viereck, 377.
25. Einstein to the Rev. Cornelius Greenway, Nov. 20, 1950, AEA 28-894.
26. Sayen, 165.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE REFUGEE
1. Einstein trip diary, Dec. 6, 1931, AEA 29-136.
2. Einstein trip diary, Dec. 10, 1931, AEA 29-141.
3. Flexner, 381–382; Batterson, 87–89.
4. Abraham Flexner to Robert Millikan, July 30, 1932, AEA 38-007; Abraham Flexner to Louis Bamberger, Feb. 13, 1932, in Batterson, 88.
5. Einstein trip diary, Feb. 1, 1932, AEA 29-141; Elsa Einstein to Rosika Schwimmer, Feb. 3, 1932; Nathan and Norden, 163.
6. Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest, Apr. 3, 1932, AEA 10-227.
7. Clark, 542, citing Sir Roy Harrod.
8. Flexner, 383.
9. Einstein to Abraham Flexner, July 30, 1932; Batterson, 149; Brian 1996, 232.
10. Elsa Einstein to Robert Millikan, June 22, 1932, AEA 38-002.
11. Robert Millikan to Abraham Flexner, July 25, 1932, AEA 38-006; Abraham Flexner to Robert Millikan, July 30, 1932, AEA 38-007; Batterson, 114.
12. “Einstein Will Head School Here,”New York Times , Oct. 11, 1932, p. 1.
13. Frank 1947, 226.
14. Woman Patriot Corporation memo to the U.S. State Department, Nov. 22, 1932, contained in Einstein’s FBI file, section 1, available at foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/einstein.htm. This episode is nicely detailed in Jerome, 6–11.
15. Reprinted in Einstein 1954, 7. Einstein’s relationship with Louis Lochner of United Press is detailed in Marianoff, 137.
16. New York Times , Dec. 4, 1932.
17. “Einstein’s Ultimatum Brings a Quick Visa,” “Consul Investigated Charge,” and “Women Made Complaint,” all in New York Times, Dec. 6, 1932; Sayen, 6; Jerome, 10.
18. This was uncovered by Richard Alan Schwartz of Florida International University, who did the original research into Einstein’s FBI files. The versions he received were redacted by 25 percent. Fred Jerome was able to get fuller versions under the Freedom of Information Act, which he used in his book. Schwartz’s articles on the topic include “The F.B.I. and Dr. Einstein,”The Nation , Sept. 3, 1983, 168–173, and “Dr. Einstein and the War Department,” Isis (June 1989): 281–284. See also Dennis Overbye, “New Details Emerge from the Einstein Files,”New York Times , May 7, 2002.
19. “Einstein Resumes Packing,”New York Times , Dec. 7, 1932; “Einstein Embarks, Jests about Quiz” and “Stimson Regrets Incident,”New York Times , Dec. 11, 1932.
20. Einstein (from Caputh) to Maurice Solovine, Nov. 20, 1932, AEA 21-218; Frank 1947, 226; Pais 1982, 318, 450. Both Frank and Pais recount Einstein’s prophetic words to Elsa about Caputh, and each likely heard the anecdote directly from them. Pais, among others, says they carried t