12. Einstein, “A New Electrostatic Method for the Measurement of Small Quantities of Electricity,” Feb. 13, 1908, CPAE 2: 48; Overbye, 156. 13. Einstein to Paul and/or Conrad Habicht, Aug. 16, Sept. 2, 1907, Mar. 17, June, July 4, Oct. 12, Oct. 22, 1908, Jan. 18, Apr. 15, Apr. 28, Sept. 3, Nov. 5, Dec. 17, 1909; Overbye, 156–158. 14. Einstein, “On the Inertia of Energy Required by the Relativity Principle,” May 14, 1907, CPAE 2: 45; Einstein to Johannes Stark, Sept. 25, 1907. 15. Einstein to Bern Canton Education Department, June 17, 1907, CPAE 5: 46; Fölsing, 228. 16. Einstein 1922c. 17. Einstein, “Fundamental Ideas and Methods of Relativity Theory,” 1920, unpublished draft of a paper for Nature magazine, CPAE 7: 31. The phrase he used was “glücklichste Gedanke meines Lebens.” 18. “Einstein Expounds His New Theory,”New York Times , Dec. 3, 1919. 19. Bernstein 1996a, 10, makes the point that Newton’s thought experiments involving a falling apple and Einstein’s involving an elevator “were liberating insights that revealed unexpected depths in commonplace experiences.” 20. Einstein 1916, chapter 20. 21. Einstein, “The Fundaments of Theoretical Physics,”Science , May 24, 1940, in Einstein 1954, 329. See also Sartori, 255. 22. Einstein first used the phrase in a paper he wrote for the Annalen der Physik in Feb. 1912, “The Speed of Light and the Statics of the Gravitational Field,” CPAE 4: 3. 23. Janssen 2002. 24. The gravitational field would have to be static and homogeneous and the acceleration would have to be uniform and rectilinear. 25. Einstein, “On the Relativity Principle and the Conclusions Drawn from It,” Jahrbuch der Radioaktivität and Elektronik, Dec. 4, 1907, CPAE 2: 47; Einstein to Willem Julius, Aug. 24, 1911. 26. Einstein to Marcel Grossmann, Jan. 3, 1908. 27. Einstein to the Zurich Council of Education, Jan. 20, 1908; Fölsing, 236. 28. Einstein to Paul Gruner, Feb. 11, 1908; Alfred Kleiner to Einstein, Feb. 8, 1908. 29. Flückiger, 117–121; Fölsing, 238; Maja Einstein, xxi. 30. Alfred Kleiner to Einstein, Feb. 8, 1908. 31. Friedrich Adler to Viktor Adler, June 19, 1908; Rudolph Ardelt, Friedrich Adler (Vienna: österreichischer Bundesverlag, 1984), 165–194; Seelig 1956a, 95; Fölsing, 247; Overbye, 161. 32. Frank 1947, 75; Einstein to Michele Besso, Apr. 29, 1917. 33. Einstein to Jakob Laub, May 19, 1909; Reiser, 72. 34. Friedrich Adler to Viktor Adler, July 1, 1908; Einstein to Jakob Laub, July 30, 1908. 35. Einstein to Jakob Laub, May 19, 1909. 36. Alfred Kleiner, report to the faculty, Mar. 4, 1909; Seelig 1956a, 166; Pais 1982, 185; Fölsing, 249. 37. Alfred Kleiner, report to faculty, Mar. 4, 1909. 38. Einstein to Jakob Laub, May 19, 1909. 39. Einstein, verse in the album of Anna Schmid, Aug. 1899, CPAE 1: 49. 40. Einstein to Anna Meyer-Schmid, May 12, 1909. 41. Mileva Mari to Georg Meyer, May 23, 1909; Einstein to Georg Meyer, June 7, 1909; Einstein to Erika Schaerer-Meyer, July 27, 1951; Highfield and Carter, 125; Overbye, 164. 42. Mileva Mari to Helene Savi , late 1909, Sept. 3, 1909, in Popovi , 26–27. 43. Seelig 1956a, 92; Dukas and Hoffmann, 5–7. 44. Einstein to Arnold Sommerfeld, Jan. 14, 1908. I am grateful to Douglas Stone of Yale, who helped me with Einstein’s early work on the quanta. 45. Einstein lecture in Salzburg, “On the Development of Our Views Concerning the Nature and Constitution of Radiation,” Sept. 21, 1909, CPAE 2: 60; Schilpp, 154; Armin Hermann, The Genesis of the Quantum Theory (Cam-bridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1971), 66–69. 46. Einstein to Arnold Sommerfeld, July 1910. As Einstein’s friend Banesh Hoffmann quipped in The Strange Story of the Quantum (New York: Dover, 1959), “They could but make the best of it, and went around with woebegone faces sadly complaining that on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays they must look upon light as a wave; on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, as a particle. On Sundays they simply prayed.” 47. Discussion following Sept. 21, 1909, lecture in Salzburg, CPAE 2: 61. 48. Einstein to Jakob Laub, Nov. 4 and 11, 1910. 49. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, May 20, 1912. CHAPTER EIGHT: THE WANDERING PROFESSOR 1. The best and original work about Duhem’s influence on Einstein is by Don Howard. See Howard 1990a, 2004. 2. Friedrich Adler to Viktor Adler, Oct. 28, 1909, in Fölsing, 258. 3. Seelig 1956a, 97. 4. Seelig 1956a, 113. 5. Seelig 1956a, 99–104; Brian 1996, 76. 6. Seelig 1956a, 102; Einstein to Arnold Sommerfeld, Jan. 19, 1909. 7. Overbye, 185; Miller 2001, 229–231. 8. Hans Albert Einstein interview, Gazette and Daily (York, Pa.), Sept. 20, 1948; Seelig 1956a, 104; Highfield and Carter, 129. 9. Einstein to Pauline Einstein, Apr. 28, 1910. 10. Student petition, University of Zurich, June 23, 1910, CPAE 5: 210. 11. Repeated in lecture by Max Planck, Columbia University, spring 1909; Pais 1982, 192; Fölsing, 271. 12. Einstein to Jakob Laub, Aug. 27, Oct. 11, 1910; Count Karl von Stürgkh to Einstein, Jan. 13, 1911; Frank 1947, 98–101; Clark, 172–176; Fölsing, 271–273; Pais 1982, 192. 13. Frank 1947, 104. Frank has the visit occuring in 1913, but in fact it occurred in Sept. 1910 when Einstein was in Vienna for his official interview about the Prague professorship. See notes in CPAE 5 (German version), p. 625.
14. Einstein to Hendrik Lorentz, Jan. 27, 1911. 15. Einstein to Jakob Laub, May 19, 1909. 16. Einstein to Hendrik Lorentz, Feb. 15, 1911. 17. Pais 1982, 8; Brian 1996, 78; Klein 1970a, 303. The Ehrenfest description is from a draft of his eulogy for Lorentz. 18. Einstein, “Address at the Grave of Lorentz” (1928), in Einstein 1954, 73; Einstein, “Message for Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Lorentz” (1953), in Einstein 1954, 73. See also Bucky, 114. 19. Mileva Mari to Helene Savi , Jan. 1911, in Popovi , 30; Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, Apr. 7, 1911. 20. Frank 1947, 98. 21. Max Brod, The Redemption of Tycho Brahe (New York: Knopf, 1928); Seelig 1956a, 121; Clark, 179; Highfield and Carter, 138. 22. Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest, Jan. 26, Feb. 12, 1912. 23. Einstein, “Paul Ehrenfest: In Memoriam,” written in 1934 for a Leiden almanac and reprinted in Einstein 1950a, 132. 24. Klein 1970a, 175–178; Seelig 1956a, 125; Fölsing, 294; Clark, 194; Brian 1996, 83; Highfield and Carter, 142. 25. Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest, Mar. 10, 1912; Einstein to Alfred Kleiner, Apr. 3, 1912; Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest, Apr. 25, 1912. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, Mar. 17, 1912: “I would like to see him my successor here. But his fanatical atheism makes that impossible.” Zangger’s letter was part of material released in 2006 and is published as CPAE 5: 374a in a supplement to vol. 10. 26. Dirk van Delft, “Albert Einstein in Leiden,”Physics Today , Apr. 2006, 57. 27. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, Nov. 7, 1911. 28. An invitation from Ernest Solvay, June 9, 1911, CPAE 5: 269; Einstein to Michele Besso, Sept. 11, Oct. 21, 1911. 29. 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. 30. Discussion following Einstein lecture, Nov. 3, 1911, CPAE 3: 27. 31. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, Nov. 7 and 15, 1911. 32. Einstein to Michele Besso, Dec. 26, 1911. 33. Bernstein 1996b, 125. 34. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, Nov. 7, 1911. 35. Einstein to Marie Curie, Nov. 23, 1911. (This letter is included at the beginning of CPAE vol. 8, not vol. 5, where it would have fit chronologically had this letter been available when that volume was published.) 36. Mileva Mari to Einstein, Oct. 4, 1911. 37. Overbye, 201. Einstein’s quote is from a letter to Carl Seelig, May 5, 1952. 38. Reiser, 126. 39. Highfield and Carter, 145. 40. Einstein to Elsa Einstein Löwenthal, Apr. 30, 1912; regarding her keeping the letters, CPAE 5: 389 (German edition), footnote 12. 41. Einstein to Elsa Einstein, Apr. 30, 1912; Einstein “scratch notebook,” CPAE 3 (German edition), appendix A; CPAE 5: 389 (German edition), footnote 4. 42. Einstein to Elsa Einstein, May 7 and 12, 1912. 43. Einstein to Michele Besso, May 13, 1911; Einstein to Hans Tanner, Apr. 24, 1911; Einstein to Alfred and Clara Stern, Mar. 17, 1912. 44. Mileva Mari to Helene Savi , Dec. 1912, in Popovi , 106. 45. Willem Julius to Einstein, Sept. 17, 1911; Einstein to Willem Julius, Sept. 22, 1911. 46. Heinrich Zangger to Ludwig Forrer, Oct. 9, 1911; CPAE 5: 291 (German edition), footnote 2; CPAE 5: 305 (German edition), footnote 2. 47. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, Nov. 15, 1911. 48. Einstein to Willem Julius, Nov. 16, 1911. 49. Marie Curie, letter of recommendation, Nov. 17, 1911; Seelig 1956a, 134; Fölsing, 291; CPAE 5: 308 (German edition), footnote 3. 50. Henri Poincaré, letter of recommendation, Nov. 1911; Seelig 1956a, 135; Galison, 300; Fölsing, 291; CPAE 5: 308 (German edition), footnote 3. 51. Einstein to Alfred and Clara Stern, Feb. 2, 1912. 52. Articles appeared in Vienna’s weekly paper Montags-Revue on July 29, 1912, and Prague’s Prager Tagblatt on May 26 and Aug. 5, 1912. CPAE 5: 414 (German edition), footnotes 2, 3, 11; Einstein statement, Aug. 3, 1912. 53. Einstein to Ludwig Hopf, June 12, 1912. 54. Overbye, 234, 243; Highfield and Carter, 153; Seelig 1956a, 112. 55. In a letter from Einstein to Elsa Einstein, July 30, 1914, he recalls how she kidded him for including his new address in the May 7, 1912, letter in which he declared they must quit corresponding. 56. Einstein to Elsa Einstein, ca. Mar. 14, 1913. 57. Einstein to Elsa Einstein, Mar. 23, 1913. 58. Seelig 1956a, 244; Levenson, 2; CPAE 5: 451 (German edition), footnote 2; Clark, 213; Overbye, 248; Fölsing, 329. The editors of the collected papers use the white handkerchief, based on a letter by Nernst’s daughter, while other accounts use the red rose, based on the account that Seelig was given. 59. Max Planck, Walther Nernst, Heinrich Rubens, and Emil Warburg to the Prussian Academy, June 12, 1913, CPAE 5: 445. 60. Seelig 1956a, 148. 61. Einstein to Jakob Laub, July 22, 1913. 62. Einstein to Paul Ehrenfest, late Nov. 1913. 63. Einstein to Hendrik Lorentz, Aug. 14, 1913. 64. Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, June 27, 1914, CPAE 8: 5a, released in 2006 and published as a supplement to CPAE vol. 10. 65. Einstein to Elsa Einstein, July 14, 19, before July 24, and Aug. 13, 1913. 66. Einstein to Elsa Einstein, after Aug. 11, 1913. 67. Einstein to Elsa Einstein, after Aug. 11 and Aug. 11, 1913. 68. Eve Curie, Madame Curie (New York: Doubleday, 1937), 284; Fölsing, 325; Highfield and Carter, 157. 69. The baptism took place at the St. Nicholas Church in Novi Sad on Sept. 21, 1913. Hans Albert Einstein to Dord Krstic, Nov. 5, 1970; Elizabeth Einstein, 97; Highfield and Carter, 159; Overbye, 255; Einstein to Heinrich Zangger, Sept. 20, 1913; Seelig 1956a, 113. 70. Einstein to Elsa Einstein, Oct. 10, 1913.
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ALSO BY WALTER ISAACSON A Benjamin
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SIMON & SCHUSTER Rockefeller Center
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In Santa Barbara, 1933 Life is like
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN Nobel Laureate, 19
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their countless acts of support ove
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ABRAHAM FLEXNER (1866-1959). Americ
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CHAPTER ONE THE LIGHT-BEAM RIDER
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The Swabian CHAPTER TWO CHILDHOOD 1
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during the years he lived alone in
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elementary school seemed to me like
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fulfill my wishes and expectations,
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taken out of the black case. It pro
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one of her female friends in Zurich
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Summer Vacation, 1900 CHAPTER FOUR
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The first of these papers was on a
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Lake Como, May 1901 “You absolute
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molecular forces, which used calcul
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His office in Bern’s new Postal a
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affection, and it concluded on that
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Turn of the Century CHAPTER FIVE TH
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These packets or bundles of energy
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though it did not help him get an a
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elative to the medium (the water or
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finally he added, “I guess I just
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Suppose that at the exact instant (
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With all this talk of distance and
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his one-sentence drunken postcard t
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was better suited to theorizing. Fo
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Adler made sure that the Zurich aut
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Zurich, 1909 CHAPTER EIGHT THE WAND
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invitation to stay with Lorentz and
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As Einstein wandered around Europe
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The visitors made their case during
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Mari accepted the terms. When Haber
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When Einstein moved back to Zurich
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indistinguishable from a case where
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Haber’s son in math. 45 But when
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Part of Einstein’s genius was his
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the Annalen der Physik, “The gene
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e a heavy blow for my boys. Therefo
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“The Nobel Prize—in the event o
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Germany’s new left-wing governmen
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Cosmology and Black Holes, 1917 CHA
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quanta involved probability rather
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“Lights All Askew” CHAPTER TWEL
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celebrity, were thrilled that the n
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a “single-minded and single-hande
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Kinship CHAPTER THIRTEEN THE WANDER
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(There was one odd coda to this eve
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Einstein drew packed crowds whereve
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1920s was not a good place or time
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The 1921 Prize CHAPTER FOURTEEN NOB
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photoelectrical effect has been ext
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Atoms emit radiation in a spontaneo
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The Quest CHAPTER FIFTEEN UNIFIED F
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even now. He also gave an interview
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Its shortcoming was that it “make
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Caputh CHAPTER SIXTEEN TURNING FIFT
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later declared. Although she could
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Einstein said, “encases the mind
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His fears were realized. The confer
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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN EINSTEIN’S GOD
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with, his scientific work. “The c
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Christ Church, his college at Oxfor
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new chancellor of Germany. Einstein
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directed to the cottage amid the du
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friends. Most of it was about poor
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Princeton CHAPTER NINETEEN AMERICA
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Flexner’s interference infuriated
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the mailman.” 38 “The professor
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Nassau Inn refused her a room. So E
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Wolfgang Pauli wrote Heisenberg a l
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12 Hiking in Switzerland with Madam
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