Einstein (132 page)

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Authors: Walter Isaacson

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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 thirty pieces of luggage. Elsa, in her call to reporters after the U.S. consulate interrogation, said she had packed six trunks, but she may not have been finished packing, or may have been referring only to trunks, or may have understated the number so as not to inflame German authorities (or Pais may have been wrong). Barbara Wolff of the Einstein archives in Jerusalem thinks the tale that she packed thirty trunks is a fabrication, as is the tale that Einstein told her to “take a very good look at it” when they left Caputh (private correspondence with the author).

21
. “Einstein Will Urge Amity with Germany,”
New York Times
, Jan. 8, 1933.

22
. Nathan and Norden, 208; Clark, 552.

23
. “Einstein’s Address on World Situation” (text of speech) and “Einstein Traces Slump to Machine,”
New York Times
, Jan. 24, 1933.

24
. Fölsing, 659.

25
. Einstein to Margarete Lebach, Feb. 27, 1933, AEA 50-834.

26
. Evelyn Seeley, interview with Einstein,
New York World-Telegram
, Mar. 11, 1933; Brian 1996, 243.

27
. Marianoff, 142–144.

28
. Michelmore, 180. Michelmore got much of his material from Hans Albert Einstein, though this quote may have been exaggerated.

29
. Einstein, Statement against the Hitler regime, Mar. 22, 1933, AEA 28-235.

30
. Einstein to the Prussian Academy, Mar. 28, 1933, AEA 36–55.

31
. Max Planck to Einstein, Mar. 31, 1933.

32
. Max Planck to Heinrich von Ficker, Mar. 31, 1933, cited in Fölsing, 663.

33
. Prussian Academy declaration, Apr. 1, 1933. The exchanges are reprinted in Einstein 1954, 205–209.

34
. Einstein to Prussian Academy, Apr. 5, 1933.

35
. Frank 1947, 232.

36
. Prussian Academy to Einstein, Apr. 7 and 13, 1933; Einstein to Prussian Academy, Apr. 12, 1933.

37
. Max Planck to Einstein, Mar. 31, 1933, AEA 19-389; Einstein to Max Planck, Apr. 6, 1933, AEA 19-392.

38
. Einstein to Max Born, May 30, 1933, AEA 8-192; Max Born to Einstein, June 2, 1933, AEA 8-193.

39
. Einstein to Fritz Haber, May 19, 1933, AEA 12-378. For a good profile of the Einstein-Haber relationship and this final episode, see Stern, 156–160. Also very useful is John Cornwall,
Hitler’s Scientists
(New York: Viking, 2003), 137–139.

40
. Fritz Haber to Einstein, Aug. 1, 1933, AEA 385; Einstein to Fritz Haber, Aug. 8, 1933, AEA 12-388.

41
. Einstein to Willem de Sitter, Apr. 5, 1933, AEA 20-575; Frank 1947, 232; Clark, 573.

42
. Vallentin, 231.

43
. Frank 1947, 240–242.

44
. Einstein to Maurice Solovine, Apr. 23, 1933, AEA 21-223.

45
. Einstein to Paul Langevin, May 5, 1933, AEA 15-394.

46
. “Einstein Will Go to Madrid,”
New York Times
, Apr. 11, 1933; Abraham Flexner to Einstein, Apr. 13, 1933, AEA 38-23; Pais 1982, 493.

47
. Abraham Flexner to Einstein, Apr. 26 and 28, 1933, AEA 38-25, 38-26.

48
. “Einstein Lists Contracts; Princeton, Paris, Madrid, Oxford Lectures Are Only Engagements,”
New York Times
, Aug. 5, 1933; Einstein to Frederick Lindemann, May 1, 1933, AEA 16-372.

49
. Hannoch Gutfreund, “Albert Einstein and Hebrew University,” in Renn 2005d, 318.

50
. Einstein to Fritz Haber, Aug. 9, 1933, AEA 37-109; Einstein to Max Born, May 30, 1933, AEA 8-192.

51
.
Jewish Chronicle
, Apr. 8, 1933; Chaim Weizmann to Einstein, Apr. 3, 1933, AEA 33-425; Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest, June 14, 1933, AEA 10-255.

52
. Einstein to Herbert Samuel, Apr. 15, 1933, AEA 21-17; Einstein to Chaim Weizmann, June 9, 1933, AEA 33-435.

53
. “Weizmann Scores Einstein’s Stand,”
New York Times
, June 30, 1933.

54
. “Albert Einstein Definitely Takes Post at Hebrew University,” Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, July 3, 1933; Abraham Flexner to Elsa Einstein, July 19, 1933, AEA 33-033; “Einstein Accepts Chair: Dr. Weizmann Announces He Has Made Peace with Hebrew University in Jerusalem,”
New York Times
, July 4, 1933.

55
. Einstein to the Rev. Johannes B. Th. Hugenholtz, July 1, 1933, AEA 50-320.

56
. Nathan and Norden, 225.

57
. The queen’s name has been spelled Elizabeth in many books, but as carved on her statue and national monument in Brussels, and in most official sources, it is Elisabeth.

58
. Einstein to Elsa Einstein, Nov. 1, 1930, uncatalogued new material provided to author.

59
. Einstein to King Albert I of Belgium, Nov. 14, 1933, in Nathan and Norden, 230.

60
. Einstein to Alfred Nahon, July 20, 1933, AEA 51-227.

61
.
New York Times
, Sept. 10, 1933.

62
. Einstein to E. Lagot, Aug. 28, 1933, AEA 50-477.

63
. Einstein to Lord Ponsonby, Aug. 28, 1933, AEA 51-400.

64
. Einstein to A. V. Frick, Sept. 9, 1933, AEA 36-567.

65
. Einstein to G. C. Heringa, Sept. 11, 1933, AEA 50-199.

66
. Einstein to P. Bernstein, Apr. 5, 1934, AEA 49-276.

67
. Romain Rolland, Sept. 1933 diary entry, in Nathan and Norden, 232.

68
. Michele Besso to Einstein, Sept. 18, 1932, AEA 7-130; Einstein to Michele Besso, Oct. 21, 1932, AEA 7-370.

69
. Einstein to Frederick Lindemann, May 9, 1933, AEA 16-377.

70
. Einstein to Elsa Einstein, July 21, 1933, AEA 143-250.

71
. Locker-Lampson speech, House of Commons, July 26, 1933; “Einstein a Briton Soon: Home Secretary’s Certificate Preferred to Palestine Citizenship,”
New York Times
, July 29, 1933; Marianoff, 159.

72
.
New York World Telegram
, Sept. 19, 1933, in Nathan and Norden, 234.

73
. “Dr. Einstein Denies Communist Leanings,”
New York Times
, Sept. 16, 1933; “Professor Einstein’s Political Views,”
Times
of London, Sept. 16, 1933, in Brian 1996, 251.

74
. Einstein, Appreciation of Paul Ehrenfest, written in 1934 for a Leiden almanac and reprinted in Einstein 1950a, 236.

75
. Clark, 600–605; Marianoff, 160–163; Jacob Epstein,
Let There Be Sculpture
(London: Michael Joseph, 1940), 78.

76
. Dukas and Hoffmann, 56.

77
. Einstein, “Civilization and Science,” Royal Albert Hall, Oct. 3, 1933;
Times
of London, Oct. 4, 1933; Calaprice, 198; Clark, 610–611. Clark’s version is more faithful to the way the speech was given than the written version, which had two references to Germany that Einstein, diplomatically, decided to omit.

CHAPTER NINETEEN: AMERICA

1
. Abraham Flexner telegram to Einstein, Oct. 1933, AEA 38-049; Abraham Flexner to Einstein, Oct. 13, 1933, AEA 38-050.

2
. “Einstein Arrives; Pleads for Quiet / Whisked from Liner by Tug at Quarantine,”
New York Times
, Oct. 18, 1933.

3
. “Einstein Views Quarters,”
New York Times
, Oct. 18, 1933; Rev. John Lampe interview, in Clark, 614; “Einstein to Princeton,”
Time
, Oct. 30, 1933.

4
. Brian 1996, 251.

5
. “Einstein Has Musicale,”
New York Times
, Nov. 10, 1933. The sketches that Einstein made for Seidel are now in the Judah Magnes Museum, endowed by the president of Hebrew University with whom Einstein fought.

6
. Bucky, 150.

7
. Thomas Torrance,“Einstein and God,” Center for Theological Inquiry, Princeton, ctinquiry.org/publications/reflections_volume_1/torrance.htm. Torrance says a friend related the tale to him.

8
. Eleanor Drorbaugh interview with Jamie Sayen, in Sayen, 64, 74.

9
. Sayen, 69; Bucky, 111; Fölsing, 732.

10
. “Had Pronounced Sense of Humor,”
New York Times
, Dec. 22, 1936.

11
. Brian 1996, 265.

12
. Abraham Flexner to Einstein, Oct. 13, 1933, in Regis, 34.

13
. “Einstein, the Immortal, Shows Human Side,” (Newark)
Sunday Ledger
, Nov. 12, 1933.

14
. Abraham Flexner to Elsa Einstein, Nov. 14, 1933, AEA 38-055.

15
. Abraham Flexner to Elsa Einstein, Nov. 15, 1933, AEA 38-059. Flexner also wrote to Herbert Maass, an Institute trustee, on Nov. 14, 1933: “I am beginning to weary a little of this daily necessity of ‘sitting down’ on Einstein and his wife. They do not know America. They are the merest children, and they are extremely difficult to advise and control. You have no idea the barrage of publicity I have intercepted.” Batterson, 152.

16
. Abraham Flexner to Einstein, Nov. 15, 1933, AEA 38-061.

17
. “Fiddling for Friends,”
Time
, Jan. 29, 1934; “Einstein in Debut as Violinist Here,”
New York Times
, Jan. 18, 1934.

18
. Stephen Wise to Judge Julian Mack, Oct. 20, 1933.

19
. Col. Marvin MacIntyre report to the White House Social Bureau, Dec. 7, 1933, AEA 33-131; Abraham Flexner to Franklin Roosevelt, Nov. 3, 1933; Einstein to Eleanor Roosevelt, Nov. 21, 1933, AEA 33-129; Eleanor Roosevelt to Einstein, Dec. 4, 1933, AEA 33-130; Elsa Einstein to Eleanor Roosevelt, Jan. 16, 1934, AEA 33-132; Einstein to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, Jan. 25, 1934, AEA 33-134; “Einstein Chats about Sea,”
New York Times
, Jan. 26, 1934.

20
. Einstein to Board of Trustees of the IAS, Dec. 1–31, 1933.

21
. Johanna Fantova, Journal of conversations with Einstein, Jan. 23, 1954, in Calaprice, 354.

22
. Einstein to Max Born, Mar. 22, 1934; Erwin Schrödinger to Frederick Linde-mann, Mar. 29, 1934, Jan. 22, 1935.

23
. Einstein to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, Nov. 20, 1933, AEA 32-369. The line is usually translated as “puny demigods on stilts.” The word Einstein uses,
stelzbeinig
, means stiff-legged,
as if
the legs were wooden stilts. It has nothing to do with height. Instead, it evokes the gait of a peacock.

24
. Einstein, “The Negro Question,”
Pageant
, Jan. 1946. In this essay, he was juxtaposing the generally democratic social tendency of Americans to the way they treated blacks. That became more of an issue for him than it was back in 1934, as will be noted later in this book.

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