New Window on the Inner Life of Albert Einstein

Einstein Letters Reveal Inner Thoughts NPR Feature Story

Newly released documents reveal Einstein's most intimate moments and deepest feelings.
The more than 3,500 pages of correspondence and photos between Albert Einstein and his two wives and children were released at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The release was made in accordance with the will of Albert Einstein's stepdaughter, Margot.


Michele Norris talks with Walter Isaacson, who wrote a piece in this week's Time magazine about the newly released letters.

Listen to the NPR Feature Story: Einstein Letters Reveal Inner Thoughts

Einstein In His Own Words Time Magazine Feature Story

Posted Friday, Jul. 7, 2006After 1915, Albert Einstein continued to rely on his good friend Heinrich Zangger, a professor of forensic medicine in Zurich, to serve as mediator between him and his estranged first wife, Mileva. These three letters to Zangger, published here for the first time, allow us to track Einstein's fitful relationship with his elder son, Hans Albert, and his anxiety about the health on his younger son, Eduard (Tete), whom historians believe was suffering from the early stages of schizophrenia.

To: Heinrich Zangger[Berlin,] 11 July [1916]Dear Friend,Your long letter, in which you informed me about how my boys are faring, pleased me very much, but it also filled me with a certain concern in one respect. Whenever my wife confided in any one of my friends, I almost always had to give him up for lost. ... So don't allow the slightest drop of venom into your subconsciousness. It would be such a pity on our fine relations. Surely not that I believed the woman would complain about me outright; it's a matter of indirect influence on the emotions, by which women so often get the better of us. My relations with the boys have frozen up completely again. Following an exceedingly nice Easter excursion, the subsequent days in Zurich brought on a complete chilling in a way that is not quite explicable to me. It's better if I keep my distance from them; I have to content myself with the knowledge that they are developing well. How much better off I am than countless others, who have lost their children in the war! Planck [physicist Max Planck, the father of quantum mechanics] also lost a son like that, the other one has been languishing in French captivity for almost 2 years. ... Concerning science, I'm only working on smaller things now, living a more contemplative life and appreciating the work of others. The general theory of relativity has now penetrated to the point where I can regard my task in this connection completed.

I shut my eyes as best I can to the insane goings-on in the world at large, having completely lost my social consciousness. How can anyone merge in such a social monstrosity if one is a decent person? A fleeting glance at the newspaper is enough to make one disgusted with our contemporaries. One can find solace only in certain individuals.
Cordial greetings, yours,Einstein

Read the rest of the story in Time Magazine