In 1903, despite the vehement objections of his parents, Albert
Einstein married Mileva Maric, the companion, colleague, and
confidante whose influence on his most creative years has given rise
to much speculation. Beginning in 1897, after Einstein and Maric met
as students at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic, and ending shortly after
their marriage, these fifty-four love letters offer a rare glimpse
into Einstein's relationship with his first wife while shedding light
on his intellectual development in the period before the annus
mirabilis of 1905. Unlike the picture of Einstein the lone, isolated
thinker of Princeton, he appears here both as the burgeoning enfant
terrible of science and as an amorous young man beset, along with his
fiance, by financial and personal struggles--among them the
illegitimate birth of their daughter, whose existence is known only by
these letters. Describing his conflicts with professors and other
scientists, his arguments with his mother over Maric, and his
difficulty obtaining an academic position after graduation, the
letters enable us to reconstruct the youthful Einstein with an
unprecedented immediacy. His love for Maric, whom he describes as "a
creature who is my equal, and who is as strong and independent as I
am," brings forth his serious as well as playful, often theatrical
nature. After their marriage, however, Maric becomes less his
intellectual companion, and, failing to acquire a teaching
certificate, she subordinates her professional goals to his. In the
final letters Einstein has obtained a position at the Swiss Patent
Office and mentions their daughter one last time to his wife in
Hungary, where she is assumed to have placed the girl in the care of
relatives. Informative, entertaining, and often very moving, this
collection of letters captures for scientists and general readers
alike a little known yet crucial period in Einstein's life.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780691215037
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter