Albert Einstein Mileva Maric

by Einstein, Albert; Renn, Jurgen; Schulmann, Robert

• ISBN13: 9780691087603
• ISBN10: 0691087601
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-04-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

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 fiancee, 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 thecare 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.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Martin J. Klein
Introduction	xi
Textual Note	xxix
Translator's Note	xxxi
The Letters
Maric to Einstein, after 20 October 1897	3	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 16 February 1898	4	(2)
Einstein to Maric, after 16 April 1898	6	(1)
Einstein to Maric, after 16 April 1898	6	(1)
Einstein to Maric, after 28 November 1898	7	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 13 to 20 March 1899	7	(2)
Einstein to Maric, early August 1899	9	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 10? August 1899	10	(2)
Maric to Einstein, after 10 August--before 10 September 1899	12	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 10 September 1899	13	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 28? September 1899	15	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 10 October 1899	17	(1)
Maric to Einstein, 1900?	18	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 29? July 1900	19	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 1 August 1900	21	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 6 August 1900	22	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 9? August 1900	24	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 14? August 1900	25	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 20 August 1900	27	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 30 August or 6 September 1900	29	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 13? September 1900	31	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 19 September 1900	33	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 3 October 1900	35	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 23 March 1901	36	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 27 March 1901	38	(3)
Einstein to Maric, 4 April 1901	41	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 10 April 1901	42	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 15 April 1901	44	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 30 April 1901	46	(2)
Maric to Einstein, 2 May 1901	48	(1)
Maric to Einstein, 3 May 1901	49	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 9 May 1901	50	(1)
Einstein to Maric, second half of May? 1901	51	(1)
Maric to Einstein, second half of May? 1901	52	(1)
Einstein to Maric, second half of May? 1901	53	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 28? May 1901	54	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 4? June 1901	55	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 7? July 1901	56	(1)
Maric to Einstein, ca. 8 July 1901	57	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 22? July 1901	59	(1)
Maric to Einstein, 31? July 1901	60	(2)
Maric to Einstein, early November 1901	62	(1)
Maric to Einstein, 13 November 1901	63	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 28 November 1901	65	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 12 December 1901	66	(3)
Einstein to Maric, 17 December 1901	69	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 19 December 1901	70	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 28 December 1901	72	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 4 February 1902	73	(2)
Einstein to Maric, 8? February 1902	75	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 17? February 1902	76	(1)
Einstein to Maric, 28 June 1902 or later	77	(1)
Einstein-Maric to Einstein, 27 August 1903	78	(1)
Einstein to Einstein-Maric, 19? September 1903	78	(3)
Notes	81	(22)
Literature Cited	103