Editors’ Picks
As documented in our most recent volume, in the fall of 1922, Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr were both notified that they had won a Nobel Prize in Physics: Einstein was awarded the prize for the year 1921, while Bohr won the one for 1922.
In the warm exchange of congratulations reproduced here, we find Bohr worrying that he would in fact receive the Nobel medal and certificate before Einstein, who at the time of the ceremonies, held on 10 December 1922, was on an extended trip to the Far East and Japan. Einstein charmingly reassures Bohr of his friendship and admiration. Selected by Issachar Unna. [Nobel Letters PDF] 10-05-12
CPAE in the Press
Volume 13 was featured on wired.com, in Adam Mann’s article “Window to Genius: New Einstein Papers Reveal Struggles With Fame" on September 25th.
EPP Senior Editor A. J. Kox was interviewed by Margriet van der Heijden for the September 29th article “Oase van rust in Japans juwelenkistje”. The article was featured in the NRC-Handelsblad, the Dutch equivalent to The New York Times. [PDF of article] 10-05-12
Press Release:
24 September 2012
New Volume of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein captures his journey to the Far East while dealing with the consequences of celebrity in turbulent political times 9-24-12
Volume 13: The Berlin Years: Writings & Correspondence, January 1922—March 1923, Documentary Edition
Edited by Diana Kormos Buchwald, József Illy, Ze'ev Rosenkranz, & Tilman Sauer
Princeton University Press, the Einstein Papers Project at California Institute of Technology, and the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, are pleased to be publishing the latest volume in the massively authoritative Einstein Papers Project THE COLLECTED PAPERS OF ALBERT EINSTEIN: Volume 13: The Berlin Years: Writings & Correspondence, January 1922—March 23, Documentary Edition on September 25, 2012.
When in the fall of 1922 it was announced that Albert Einstein had won the Nobel Prize in Physics, after more than a decade of nominations, Einstein was on a steamer headed for Japan. Although he was unofficially made aware of the upcoming award, he decided to leave Berlin, and makes no mention of the award in his detailed and poetic Travel Diary of his trip to the Far East, Palestine, and Spain, published here in its entirety for the first time. Together with a correspondence of 1,000 letters—most of which were never published before—with numerous colleagues, friends, and family members, the volume presents a rich trove of documents, central to understanding this period in Einstein’s life and work, heavily marked by the assassination of Germany’s foreign minister, his friend Walther Rathenau. As Einstein himself professed, the trip was an escape from the tense atmosphere in Berlin and rumored threats against his own life, as well as the fulfillment of his long-held desire to visit Japan.
Aside from his personal and political activities documented here, among which are his visit to Paris and his involvement in the League of Nations, Einstein was still heavily engaged in major current issues in theoretical physics. Thus, from among the thirty-six writings covering these fifteen months, a paper on the Stern-Gerlach experiment, written with Paul Ehrenfest, shows with uncompromising clarity that the experiment posed a problem that could not be solved by contemporary quantum theory and anticipates, in a sense, what later would become known as the quantum measurement problem. In relativity theory, Einstein continued to be concerned with its cosmological implications, and with the extent to which Mach’s principle would be vindicated in special solutions. He also began to investigate the possibilities and restrictions that relativity implied for a unified field theory of the gravitational and electromagnetic fields. During periods of leisure on board the steamer on his return trip from Japan, he completed a paper which further developed Arthur S. Eddington's recent reinterpretation of relativity as being based solely on the concept of the so-called affine connection.
About the SeriesThirteen volumes covering Einstein’s life and work up to his forty-fourth birthday have so far been published. They present more than 300 writings and 5,000 letters written by and to Einstein. Every document in The Collected Papers appears in the language in which it was written, while the introduction, headnotes, footnotes, and other scholarly apparatus is in English. Upon release of each volume, Princeton University Press also publishes an English translation of previously untranslated non-English documents.
About the Editors
At the California Institute of Technology, Diana Kormos Buchwald is professor of history; József Illy, Ze'ev Rosenkranz, and Tilman Sauer are senior researchers in history.
The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein
Volume 13: The Berlin Years: Writings & Correspondence, January 1922—March 1923, Documentary Edition
Cloth $125.00 • £85.00 | ISBN: 978-0-691-15673-6
904 pp. | 7 ½ x 10 | 24 halftones
ENGLISH TRANSLATION SUPPLEMENT
Translated by Ann M. Hentschel & Osik Moses, Klaus Hentschel, consultant
Paper $45.00 • £30.95 | ISBN: 978-0-691-15674-3
456 pages | 7 ½ x 10
Publication Date: September 25, 2012
press.princeton.edu
Hebrew University & Einstein Papers Project Launch New Einstein Website
New website will, for the first time, make records of all archived Einstein documents available to the general public 3-19-12
On March 19, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem launched Albert Einstein's digital archive in commemoration of his 133rd birthday. The site, www.alberteinstein.info will contain the complete catalog of more than 80,000 records of all the documents currently held jointly in the Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University and at the Einstein Papers Project at Caltech.
Records include: more than 40,000 documents contained in the personal papers of Albert Einstein (1879-1955) and over 30,000 additional Einstein and Einstein-related documents discovered, since the 1980s, by the editors of The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, and the staff of the Einstein Archive at the Hebrew University.
Collaborating with the Einstein Papers Project and Princeton University Press, the site was originally launched in 2003. Until now it has presented 43,000 records of documents and 900 manuscripts in Einstein’s own hand; the digitization of which was made possible by a generous contribution from the David and Fela Shapell Family Foundation in Los Angeles, California.
Advanced search technology on the updated site will enable display various display modes. "The archives can be explored via a new user friendly and customized interface which provides easy navigation through the life and scientific career of Albert Einstein" explained Dalia Mendelsson, Project Manager.
New Book by Senior Editor, József Illy: The Practical Einstein: Experiments, Patents, Inventions 3-13-12
Albert Einstein may be best known as the wire-haired wacky physicist who gave us the theory of relativity, but that’s just one facet of this genius’s contribution to human knowledge and modern science. As József Illy expertly shows in this book, Einstein had an eminently practical side as well.
As a youth, Einstein was an inveterate tinkerer in the electrical supply factory his father and uncle owned and operated. His first paid job was as a patent examiner. Later in life, Einstein contributed to many inventions, including refrigerators, microphones, and instruments for aviation. In published papers, Einstein often provided ways to test his theories and fundamental problems of the scientific community of his times. He delved deeply into a variety of technological innovations, most notably the gyrocompass, and consulted for industry in patent cases and on other legal matters. Einstein also provided explanations for common and mundane phenomena, such as the meandering of rivers. In these and other hands-on examples culled from the Einstein Papers, Illy demonstrates how Einstein enjoyed leaving the abstract world of theories to wrestle with the problems of everyday life.
While we may like the idea of Einstein as a genius besotted by extra dimensions and too out-of-this-world to wear socks, The Practical Einstein gives ample evidence that this characterization is both incomplete and an unfair representation of a man who sought to explore the intricacies of nature, whether in theory or in practice.
About the Author
Senior Editor of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, József Illy is also the editor of Albert Meets America: How Journalists Treated Genius during Einstein's 1921 Travels, also published by Johns Hopkins
Links:
Johns Hopkins University Press
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New Book by Senior Editor, Ze'ev Rosenkranz: Einstein Before Israel: Zionist Icon or Iconoclast? 5-26-11
Einstein Before Israel: Zionist Icon or Iconoclast? examines Albert Einstein’s association with Jewish nationalism during his European years. Initially skeptical (and even disdainful) of Zionism and the Zionists, Einstein became affiliated with this political movement, which advocated a national homeland for the Jews in their historic homeland, immediately after World War I. But what enticed this most prominent of scientists, who repeatedly avowed his opposition to every form of nationalism, to radically change his attitude toward this controversial political ideology? And did he actually become a fully-fledged member of the movement? Did he convert to Zionism?
This innovative study, based on a plethora of predominantly unpublished sources held in numerous repositories, follows Einstein’s affiliation with Jewish nationalism from his initial involvement in 1919 through to his emigration from Germany in the wake of Hitler’s rise to power in 1933.
Despite dealing with a highly divisive topic – Zionism - and a most illustrious individual – Albert Einstein – this meticulous and conscientious study steers away from propaganda and presents a reconstruction of this specific case study based on the pertinent historical documents. It utilizes Einstein’s own writings, his voluminous correspondence, contemporary press coverage, and memoirs. A significant contribution to the growing literature on Einstein’s nonscientific endeavors, this book examines the genesis of the intractable Arab-Israeli conflict through the eyes of one of history’s most illustrious celebrities.
About the Author
Senior Editor of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Ze'ev Rosenkranz is also the author of The Einstein Scrapbook, published by Johns Hopkins and an editor of Albert Through the Looking Glass: The Personal Papers of Albert Einstein published by the Jewish National and University Library.
Links:
Published by Princeton University Press
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