26. Michelmore, 95; Fölsing, 485.
27. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, Dec. 24, 1919.
28. Einstein, “My First Impressions of the U.S.A.,”Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant , July 4, 1921, CPAE 7, appendix D; Einstein 1954, 3–7.
29. Einstein, “Einstein on His Theory,”The Times of London, Nov. 28, 1919.
30. Einstein to Hedwig and Max Born, Jan. 27, 1920; Einstein to Arthur Eddington, Feb. 2, 1920. Einstein graciously told an embarrassed Eddington, “The tragicomical outcome of the medal affair [is] insignificant compared to the self-sacrificing and fruitful labors you and your friends devoted to the theory of relativity and its verification.”
31. Frida Bucky, quoted in Brian 1996, 230.
32. Einstein, “The World as I See It” (1930), in Einstein 1954, 8. A different translation is in Einstein 1949a, 3.
33. This appraisal appears with slight variations in Infeld, 118; Infeld, “To Albert Einstein on His 75th Birthday,” in Goldsmith et al., 25; and in the Bulletin of the World Federation of Scientific Workers, July 1954.
34. Editorial note by Max Born in Born 2005, 127.
35. Abraham Pais, “Einstein and the Quantum Theory,”Reviews of Modern Physics (Oct. 1979). See also Pais, “Einstein, Newton and Success,” in French, 35; Pais 1982, 39.
36. Einstein, “Why Socialism?,”Monthly Review , May 1949, reprinted in Einstein 1954, 151.
37. Erik Erikson, “Psychoanalytic Reflections on Einstein’s Centenary,” in Holton and Elkana, 151.
38. This idea is from Barbara Wolff of the Einstein archives at Hebrew University.
39. Levenson, 149.
40. Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest, Jan. 17, 1922; Fölsing, 482.
41. Einstein to Eduard Einstein, June 25, 1923, Einstein family correspondence trust, unpublished, letter in possession of Bob Cohn, who provided me a copy. Cohn is a collector of Einstein material. The letters in his possession have been translated by Dr. Janifer Stackhouse. I am grateful for their help.
42. Michelmore, 79.
43. Einstein to Mileva Mari, May 12, 1924, AEA 75-629.
44. Einstein to Michele Besso, Jan. 5, 1924, AEA 7-346; Einstein to Hans Albert Einstein, Mar. 7, 1924.
45. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, Mar. 1920; Fölsing, 474; Highfield and Carter, 192; Clark, 243.
46. Paul Johnson, Modern Times (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), 1–3. This section is adapted from an essay I wrote when Einstein was chosen as Time’s Person of the Century: “Who Mattered and Why,”Time , Dec. 31, 1999. For a critique of this idea, which I also draw on in this section, see David Greenberg, “It Didn’t Start with Einstein,”Slate , Feb. 3, 2000, www.slate.com/id/74164/. Miller 2001 is also an important resource.
47. Charles Poor, professor of celestial mechanics, Columbia University, in the New York Times, Nov. 16, 1919.
48. New York Times , Dec. 7, 1919.
49. Isaiah Berlin, “Einstein and Israel,” in Holton and Elkana, 282. See also, from his stepson-in-law Reiser, 158: “The word relativity was confused in lay circles and, today, is still confused with the word relativism. Einstein’s work and personality, however, are far removed from the ambiguity and the concept of relativism, both in the theory of knowledge and in ethics . . . Ethical relativism, which denies all the generally obligatory moral norms, totally contradicts the high social idea which Einstein stands for and always follows.”
50. Haldane, 123. For a contemporary book treating, in more sophisticated depth, many of the same topics, and sharing a title, see Ryckman 2005.
51. Frank 1947, 189–190; Clark, 339–340.
52. Gerald Holton, “Einstein’s Influence on the Culture of Our Time,” in Holton 2000, 127, and also Holton and Elkana, xi.
53. Miller 2001, especially 237–241.
54. Damour 34; Marcel Proust to Armand de Guiche, Dec. 1921.
55. Philip Courtenay, “Einstein and Art,” in Goldsmith et al., 145; Richard Davenport-Hines, Proust at the Majestic (New York: Bloomsbury, 2006).
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE WANDERING ZIONIST
1. The Times of London, Nov. 28, 1919.
2. Kurt Blumenfeld, “Einstein and Zionism,” in Seelig 1956b, 74; Kurt Blumenfeld, Erlebte Judenfrage (Stuttgart: Verlags-Anstalt, 1962), 127–128.
3. Einstein to Paul Epstein, Oct. 5, 1919.
4. Einstein to German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, Apr. 5, 1920, CPAE 7: 37.
5. Einstein, “Anti-Semitism: Defense through Knowledge,” after Apr. 3, 1920, CPAE 7: 35.
6. Einstein, “Assimilation and Anti-Semitism,” Apr. 3, 1920, CPAE 7: 34. See also Einstein, “Immigration from the East,” Dec. 30, 1919, an article in Berliner Tageblatt, CPAE 7:29.
7. Einstein, “Anti-Semitism: Defense through Knowledge,” after Apr. 3, 1920, CPAE 7: 35; Hubert Goenner, “The Anti-Einstein Campaign in Germany in 1920,” in Beller et al., 107.
8. Elon, 277.
9. Hubert Goenner, “The Anti-Einstein Campaign in Germany in 1920,” in Beller et al., 121.
10. New York Times , Aug. 29, 1920.
11. Frank 1947, 161; Clark, 318; Fölsing, 462; Brian 1996, 111.
12. “Einstein to Leave Berlin,”New York Times , Aug. 29, 1920; the story, datelined Berlin, begins, “Local newspapers state that Professor Albert Einstein will leave the German capital on account of the many unfair attacks made against his relativity theory and himself.”
13. Einstein, “My Response,” Aug. 27, 1920, CPAE 7: 45.
14. See, in particular, Philipp Lenard to Einstein, June 5, 1909.
15. Einstein, “My Response,” Aug. 27, 1920, CPAE 7: 45.
16. Seelig 1956a, 173.
17. Hedwig Born to Einstein, Sept. 8, 1920.
18. Paul Ehrenfest to Einstein, Sept. 2, 1920.
19. Einstein to Max and Hedwig Born, Sept. 9, 1920.
20. Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest, before Sept. 9, 1920.
21. Arnold Sommerfeld to Einstein, Sept. 11, 1920.
22. Jerome, 206–208, 256–257.
23. Born 2005, 35; Einstein to Max Born, Oct. 26, 1920.
24. Clark, 326–327; Fölsing, 467; Bolles, 73.
25. Fölsing, 523; Adolf Hitler, Völkischer Beobachter , Jan. 3, 1921.
26. Dearborn (Mich.) Independent, Apr. 30, 1921, on display at the “Chief Engineer of the Universe” exhibit, Kronprinzenpalais, Berlin, May–Sept. 2005. A headline at the bottom of the page reads, “Jew Admits Bolshevism!”
27. Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest, Nov. 26, 1920, Feb. 12, 1921, AEA 9-545; Fölsing, 484. The Einstein letters after 1920 have not yet been published in the CPAE series, and I identify these unpublished letters by the Albert Einstein Archives (AEA) call numbers.
28. Clark, 465–466.
29. Einstein to Maurice Solovine, Mar. 8, 1921, AEA 9-555.
30. Einstein statement to Abba Eban, Nov. 18, 1952, AEA 28-943.
31. Fritz Haber to Einstein, Mar. 9, 1921, AEA 12-329.
32. Einstein to Fritz Haber, Mar. 9, 1921, AEA 12-331.
33. Seelig 1956a, 81; Fölsing, 500; Clark, 468.
34. New York Times , Apr. 3, 1921.
35. Illy, 29.
36. Philadelphia Public Ledger , Apr. 3, 1921.
37. These quotes and descriptions are taken from the Apr. 3, 1921, stories in the New York Times, New York Call, Philadelphia Public Ledger, and New York American.
38. Weizmann, 232.
39. “Einstein Sees End of Time and Space,”New York Times , Apr. 4, 1921.
40. “City’s Welcome for Dr. Einstein,”New York Evening Post , Apr. 5, 1921.
41. Talmey, 174.
42. New York Times , Apr. 11 and 16, 1921.
43. The memorial, at the corner of Constitution Avenue and Twenty-second Street N.W.near the Mall, is a hidden treasure of Washington.(See picture on p.605.) The sculptor was Robert Berks, who also did the bust of John Kennedy at the Kennedy Center nearby, and the landscape architect was James Van Sweden. On the tablet that Einstein holds are three equations, describing the photoelectric effect, general relativ
ity, and of course E=mc2. On the marble steps where the statue reclines are three quotes, including: “As long as I have any choice in the matter, I shall live only in a country where civil liberty, tolerance, and equality of all citizens before the law prevail.” See www.nasonline.org.
44. Washington Post , Apr. 7, 1921;New York Times , Apr. 26 and 27, 1921; Frank 1947, 184. An account of the Academy dinner by Caltech astronomer Harlow Shapley is at the Einstein papers in Pasadena.
45. Charles MacArthur, “Einstein Baffled in Chicago: Seeks Pants in Only Three Dimensions, Faces Relativity of Trousers,”Chicago Herald and Examiner ,May 3, 1921.
46. Chicago Daily Tribune , May 3, 1921.
47. Memorandum of Agreement, Einstein and Princeton University Press, May 9, 1921. The deal was an exclusive one; no other venue in the United States was permitted to publish any of his lectures. The four lectures appeared as The Meaning of Relativity. It is now in its fifth edition.
48. Philadelphia Evening Bulletin , May 14, 1921.
49. Einstein to Oswald Veblen, Apr. 30, 1930, AEA 23-152. Pais 1982, 114, gives a history of this phrase, which is recounted in a memo prepared for the Einstein archives by Einstein’s secretary Helen Dukas. The fireplace is in room 202, the faculty lounge of what is now called Jones Hall at Princeton and was earlier known as Fine Hall, until that name moved to a newer math building.
50. Seelig 1956a, 183; Frank 1947, 285; Clark, 743.
51. New York Times , July 31, 1921.
52. Einstein to Felix Frankfurter, May 28, 1921, AEA 36-210.
53. See Ben Halpern, A Clash of Heroes: Brandeis, Weizmann and American Zionism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).
54. Boston Herald , May 19, 1921.
55. New York Times , May 18, 1921; Frank 1947, 185; Brian 1996, 129; Illy, 25–32.
56. Hartford (Conn.) Daily Times, May 23, 1921. Also, Hartford Daily Courant , May 23, 1921.
57. Cleveland Press , May 26, 1921.
58. Illy, 185.
59. Fölsing, 51.
60. Einstein, “How I Became a Zionist,” interview in Jüdische Rundschau, June 21, 1921, conducted on May 30, CPAE 7: 57.
61. Einstein to Mileva Mari, Aug. 28, 1921, Einstein family trust correspondence, letter in possession of Bob Cohn. On this trip, in deference to Elsa’s feelings, he decided at the last moment not to stay at Mari’s apartment.
62. Einstein to Walther Rathenau, Mar. 8, 1917; Walther Rathenau to Einstein, May 10, 1917.
63. Reiser, 146, describes the Weizmann-Rathenau-Einstein discussions. See also Fölsing, 519; Elon, 364.
64. Weizmann, 288; Elon, 268.
65. Frank 1947, 192.
66. Reiser, 145.
67. Milena Wazeck, “Einstein on the Murder List,” in Renn 2005d, 222; Einstein to Max Planck, July 6, 1922, AEA 19-300.
68. Einstein to Maurice Solovine, July 16, 1922, AEA 21-180.
69. Einstein to Marie Curie, July 4, 1922, AEA 34-773; Marie Curie to Einstein, July 7, 1922, AEA 34-775.
70. Fölsing, 521.
71. Nathan and Norden, 54.
72. Hermann Struck to Pierre Comert, July 12, 1922; Nathan and Norden, 59. (Einstein sent word to League press official Comert through their mutual friend, the painter Struck.)
73. Nathan and Norden, 70.
74. Einstein, “Travel Diary: Japan-Palestine-Spain,” AEA 29-129. All quotes in this section from Einstein’s diary are from this document.
75. Joan Bieder, “Einstein in Singapore,” 2000, www.onthepage.org/outsiders/einstein_in_singapore.htm.
76. Fölsing, 527; Clark, 368; Brian 1996, 143; Frank 1947, 199.
77. Einstein to Hans Albert and Eduard Einstein, Dec. 12, 1922, AEA 75-620.
78. Frank 1947, 200.
79. Einstein, “Travel Diary: Japan-Palestine-Spain,” AEA 29-129.
80. Clark, 477–480; Frank 1947, 200–201; Brian 1966, 145; Fölsing, 528–532.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: NOBEL LAUREATE
1. Svante Arrhenius to Einstein, Sept. 1, 1922, AEA 6-353; Einstein to Svante Arrhenius, Sept. 20, 1922, AEA 6-354.
2. Pais 1982, 506–507; Elzinga, 82–84.
3. R. M. Friedman 2005, 129. See also Friedman’s book, The Politics of Excellence: Behind the Nobel Prize in Science (New York: Henry Holt, 2001), especially chapter 7, “Einstein Must Never Get a Nobel Prize!”; Elzinga; Pais 1982, 502.
4. Pais 1982, 508; Hendrik Lorentz and Dutch colleagues to the Swedish Academy, Jan. 24, 1920; Niels Bohr to the Swedish Academy, Jan. 30, 1920; Elzinga, 134.
5. Brian 1996, 143, citing research and interviews by the writer Irving Wallace for his novel The Prize.
6. Elzinga, 144.
7. R. M. Friedman, 130. See also Pais 1982, 508.
8. Arthur Eddington to the Swedish Academy, Jan. 1, 1921.
9. Pais 1982, 509; R. M. Friedman, 131; Elzinga, 151.
10. Marcel Brillouin to the Swedish Academy, Jan. 1922; Arnold Sommerfeld to the Swedish Academy, Jan. 11, 1922.
11. Christopher Aurivillius to Einstein, Nov. 10, 1922. In another translation and version, the actual Nobel citation sent to Einstein includes the phrase “independent of the value that (after eventual confirmation) may be credited to the relativity and gravitation theory.”
12. Elzinga, 182.
13. Svante Arrhenius, Nobel Prize presentation speech, Dec. 10, 1922, nobel prize.org/physics/laureates/1921/press.html.
14. Einstein, “Fundamental Ideas and Problems of the Theory of Relativity,” Nobel lecture, July 11, 1923.
15. Einstein to Hans Albert and Eduard Einstein, Dec. 22, 1922, AEA 75-620. The full story of the Nobel money was complex and over the years caused considerable disputes, as became clear in letters between Einstein and Mari released in 2006. According to the divorce agreement, the Nobel money was to go to a Swiss bank account. Mari was supposed to have use of the interest, but she could spend the capital only with Einstein’s consent. In 1923, after consultation with a financial adviser, Einstein decided to place only part of the money in Switzerland and have the rest invested in an American account. That scared Mari and caused frictions that were calmed by friends. With Einstein’s consent she bought a Zurich apartment house in 1924 using the Swiss money and a big loan. The rents covered the loan payments, as well as the maintenance of the house and a part of the family’s livelihood. Two years later, again with Einstein’s consent, Mari bought two more houses using another 40,000 Swiss francs from the Nobel money and an additional loan. The two new houses turned out to be bad investments and had to be sold to avoid endangering ownership of the first house, where Mari lived with Eduard. In the meantime, the Great Depression in America reduced the value of the account and investments made there. Einstein continued to pay considerable sums to Mari and Eduard, but Mari’s fears for her financial security were understandable. At the end of the 1930s, Einstein created a holding company to buy from Mari the remaining apartment house, where she still lived, and to take over her debts in order to save the house from being repossessed by the bank. Mari could continue to live in the same apartment and receive the excess rental proceeds. In addition, Einstein sent a monthly contribution for Eduard’s support. This arrangement lasted until the late 1940s, when Mileva was no longer able to care for the house and the income from the rents no longer covered the expenses. With Einstein’s consent Mari sold the house but not the right to her apartment. The money from that sale was eventually found under Mari’s mattress. Some critics have accused Einstein of allowing Mari to die impoverished. Although Mari at times certainly felt impoverished, Einstein did try to protect her and Eduard from financial worries, not only by paying what he was obliged to pay, but also by subsidizing their living expenses. I am grateful to Barbara Wolff of the Hebrew University Einstein archives for help researching this topic. See also Alexis Schwarzenbach, Das verschmähte Genie: Albert Einstein und die Schweiz (Berlin: DVA, 2003).
16. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, Dec. 6, 1917.
17. “All the really great discoveri
es in theoretical physics—with a few exceptions that stand out because of their oddity—have been made by men under thirty.” Bernstein 1973, 89, emphasis in the original. Einstein finished his work on general relativity when he was 36, but his initial step, what he called his “happiest thought” about the equivalence of gravity and acceleration, came when he was 28. Max Planck was 42 when, in Dec. 1900, he gave his lecture on the quantum.
18. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, Aug. 11, 1918; Clive Thompson, “Do Scientists Age Badly?,”Boston Globe , Aug. 17, 2003. John von Neumann, a founder of modern computer science, once claimed that the intellectual powers of mathematicians peaked at the age of 26. One study of a random group of scientists showed that 80 percent did their best work before their early forties.
19. Einstein to Maurice Solovine, Apr. 27, 1906.
20. Aphorism for a friend, Sept. 1, 1930, AEA 36-598.
21. Einstein to Hendrik Lorentz, June 17, 1916; Miller 1984, 55–56.
22. Einstein, “Ether and the Theory of Relativity,” speech at University of Leiden, May 5, 1920, CPAE 7: 38.
23. Einstein to Karl Schwarzschild, Jan. 9, 1916.
24. Einstein, “Ether and the Theory of Relativity,” speech at University of Leiden, May 5, 1920, CPAE 7: 38.
25. Greene 2004, 74.
26. Janssen 2004, 22. Einstein made this clearer in his 1921 Princeton lectures, but also continued to say, “It appears probable that Mach was on the right road in his thought that inertia depends on a mutual action of matter.” Einstein 1922a, chapter 4.
27. Einstein, “Ether and the Theory of Relativity,” speech at University of Leiden, May 5, 1920, CPAE 7: 38.
28. Einstein, “On the Present State of the Problem of Specific Heats,” Nov. 3, 1911, CPAE 3: 26; the quote about “really exist in nature” appears on p. 421 of the English translation of vol. 3.
29. Robinson, 84–85.
30. Holton and Brush, 435.
31. Lightman 2005, 151.
32. Clark 202; George de Hevesy to Ernest Rutherford, Oct. 14, 1913; Einstein 1949b, 47.
33. Einstein, “Emission and Absorption of Radiation in Quantum Theory,” July 17, 1916, CPAE 6: 34; Einstein, “On the Quantum Theory of Radiation,” after Aug. 24, 1916, CPAE 6: 38, and also in Physikalische Zeitschrift 18 (1917). See Overbye, 304–306; Rigden, 141; Pais 1982, 404–412; Fölsing, 391; Clark, 265; Daniel Kleppner, “Rereading Einstein on Radiation,”Physics Today (Feb. 2005): 30. In addition, in 1917 Einstein wrote a paper on the quantization of energy in mechanical theories called “On the Quantum Theorem of Sommerfeld and Epstein.” It shows the problems that the classical quantum theory encountered when applied to mechanical systems we would now call chaotic. It was cited by earlier pioneers of quantum mechanics, but has since been largely forgotten. A good description of it and its importance in the development of quantum mechanics is Douglas Stone, “Einstein’s Unknown Insight and the Problem of Quantizing Chaos,”Physics Today (Aug. 2005).
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