As Usual, Anything But Ordinary

THE COLLECTED PAPERS OF ALBERT EINSTEIN Volume I: The Early Years, 1879-1902. John Stachel, ed. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1987. German-language volume: 433 pp. $52.50 HB. English translation: 196 pp. $22.50 PB (can only be purchased with German volume). Microfiche: $10. The publication of the first volume of the long-awaited, long-delayed Einstein papers is a most welcome event. And if this first volume is a taste of things to come, the complete set will represent a most important and significant source of primary data for rewriting the history of physics of the first half of the 20th century. As with all the other dimensions that define Einstein’s life, his published papers are anything but ordinary. The editors estimate that the collected papers will require a total of some 40 volumes organized chronologically in two series. (I am reminded of Lady Macbeth’s ranting, ... who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.”) One series will contain Einstein’s “writings”—formal writings, research notebooks and “reliable records” of speeches, interviews and other oral statements. The second series, “correspondence,” will include “all available letters written by Einstein and all non-trivial letters to him” plus “third-party letters and documents that contain important information bearing on his activities.” The organization of the first volume is an exception, containing all available “writings” and “non-trivial” correspondence from Einstein’s birth to when he obtained the position of “Technical Expert 3rd Class” at the Swiss Federal Republic patent office in Bern. It is the period in his life about which the least has been known. Thanks to the hard work and persistence of John Stachel and his team of editors, much new material has been turned up in the form of personal letters, chiefly between Einstein and his fixture first wife Mileva Maríc. The most startling revelation from this cache of new material is the fact that Mileva had a daughter by Einstein a year before they were married—a daughter of whom there is now no trace. In judging the value of this first volume of the Einstein papers, two sets of criteria must be used, each directed toward a different audience. The first audience is, of course, professional historians of physics. The second is the rest of the reading public. Einstein, after all, belonged to the world in a way that is unique among 20th century scientists. Little more could be asked of the editors by the professional audience. The volume begins with a clear description of editorial methods and criteria. The methods of documentation are exacting and the annotations are rigorous. Many new things are learned about Einstein. For example, in his teens, Einstein was already Einstein— able to concentrate with uncommon focus and to blend sharp physical intuition with philosophical sophistication. He was committed to a hard-nosed realism without losing sight of the fact that physical theories were abstractions necessarily divorced from direct contact with the world of experience He also had the will to block out ruthlessly the draining pressures that distract most of us from our intellectual endeavors. By the time Einstein was 16, the main features of his lifelong philosophical-physical program had been elucidated and he already had hewed out clear and explicit ground rules for dealing with the rest of the world. As he wrote to Mileva in 1901, “One must shun such stupefying business.” For the scholar the only tool lacking in this first volume is a comprehensive bibliography of secondary literature. For the non-German-reading general audience things are less than satisfactory. A paperback English translation of the text is available only to those who buy the German-language volume. The translations were done under a grant from the National Science Foundation; neither the publisher nor the editor takes any responsibility for them. The translations have been proofread poorly and are too literal to be read comfortably by a late-20th century audience. Unfortunately the translations contain no notes. In order to understand what is going on, one must be able at least to locate necessary annotations in the German-language edition. But the notes contain no English translation of German quotations. All this cuts off a sizable audience from apprehending the person behind the Einstein myth. Given the never-ending public fascination with Einstein, I urge the editors and the publisher to make available a complete, English-language edition of the correspondence series. In spite of shortcomings for the lay audience, I take my hat off to the team that put this volume together. While the shrouds of mystery surrounding Einstein’s early life have not been completely dissipated, the group’s fine scholarship, detective work and sensitivity have allowed us to begin penetrating the fog. Goldberg, author of Understanding Relativity: Origins and Impacts of a Scientific Revolution (Birkhauser, 1984) is a consultant at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, Washington, DC 20560. See THE SCIENTIST, August 10, 1987, pp. 22-23, for excerpts from The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein on Einstein’s search for a job.

As Usual, Anything But Ordinary

THE COLLECTED PAPERS OF ALBERT EINSTEIN

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