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Overview
Blends the brilliance of the scientific genius with the compassion, playfulness, and wit of the private figure
"A fascinating read with more interesting material about Einstein as a human being than I have ever seen before."—Robert Jastrow, astrophysicist and bestselling author
"A thoughtful and captivating account of one whom I had the joy of knowing and loving."—George Wald, Nobel Prize Laureate
His face is one of the most recognized on the planet. His very name is synonymous with genius. Yet, for all the attention and countless biographies, our images of Albert Einstein rarely go beyond the eccentric and larger-than-life scientist unraveling one cosmic mystery after another.
In this engaging popular biography, Denis Brian draws on a wealth of new information recently opened to the public to bring us a broader, more authentic portrait of Einstein than previously available. The first full-scale Einstein life published in 20 years, it is also the first to integrate Einstein's genius with his private and public life to give us a complete impression of the real person.
We meet an Einstein with a gift for friendship, a romantic with a roving eye for women. We confront a man whose countless scientific triumphs were tempered by tragic ironies in his personal life. We encounter Einstein the humanist who showed compassion for the children of others yet neglected his own sons. We learn from his former assistants how they revered Einstein, how he worked at his science, and of his warm relationships with other physicists.
Based on information drawn from new access to the Einstein archives as well as exclusive interviews with colleagues and friends, Einstein: A Life reveals an endearing and sensititve man, but one slightly detached from even those closest to him, as if he inhabited his own world of lofty thoughts and cosmic dreams.
DENIS BRIAN (West Palm Beach, Florida) is the author of The True Gen: An Intimate Portrait of Hemingway by Those Who Knew Him and Genius Talk: Conversations with Nobel Scientists and Other Luminaries.
Synopsis
Acclaim for Einstein: A Life
"Denis Brian's convincing picture . . . only makes our wonder grow at Einstein's sublime achievements." —The Washington Post
"Does much to reveal the man behind the image . . . Brian's intimate work proves that in literature, as in science, taking a careful look can be a rewarding endeavor." —Detroit Free Press.
"A fascinating, vastly enjoyable, deeply researched and fair account of Einstein the man." —Physics World
"Exhaustively researched, almost obsessively detailed, written with unobtrusive informality, the book is exemplary as a record of Einstein's personal and professional life." —The Spectator (U.K.)
"An utterly fascinating life of a great scientist full of new insights and very readable." —Ashley Montagu
"A fascinating read with more interesting material about Einstein as a human being than I have ever seen before . . . Once I started it, I couldn't put it down." —Robert Jastrow astrophysicist and bestselling author
"A thoughtful and captivating account of one whom I had the joy of knowing and loving." —George Wald Nobel Laureate
Publishers Weekly
With his halo of white hair, Albert Einstein looked the part of the century's secular saint, and Brian quotes a child asking, "Is that the Lord?" As the successor to Copernicus and Newton in revolutionizing concepts of the physical universe, Einstein was possibly the next best thing. Aside from awkward paragraph transitions and some lazy shortcuts that use parts of interviews verbatim, Brian's anecdotal biography, with just enough science to make Einstein's achievements persuasive, humanizes the icon, whose private life was guarded by zealous executors after his death at 76 in 1955. Once Einstein's elegantly audacious relativity theory emerged in 1905, when he was an obscure 26-year-old Swiss Patent Office examiner, he was on his way to a reputation as "the Columbus of science," his every scrap of paper so treasured that some of his checks were not cashed. In a few strokes of his pen-E=MC2-he revolutionized physics, explaining, "Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter." Despite years of resistance from scientific and political reactionaries, deftly dramatized by Brian, observed phenomena would validate Einstein's equations. After his Nobel Prize in 1922, he unsuccessfully chased the holy grail of physics, a "unified field theory" that might mesh electromagnetism with gravitation. No more successful were his two marriages or his parenting. Eager to prove that the liberal, sometimes nave Jewish refugee from the Nazis was disloyal to his adopted country, J. Edgar Hoover would compile a 1160-page file, what Brian calls a jumble "of fact and fantasy, of lies, rumors, and ravings"-the largest and most unreliable of the dozens of biographies of Einstein. More the life than the work, Brian's unworshipful account is genial and judicious. (May)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
With his halo of white hair, Albert Einstein looked the part of the century's secular saint, and Brian quotes a child asking, "Is that the Lord?" As the successor to Copernicus and Newton in revolutionizing concepts of the physical universe, Einstein was possibly the next best thing. Aside from awkward paragraph transitions and some lazy shortcuts that use parts of interviews verbatim, Brian's anecdotal biography, with just enough science to make Einstein's achievements persuasive, humanizes the icon, whose private life was guarded by zealous executors after his death at 76 in 1955. Once Einstein's elegantly audacious relativity theory emerged in 1905, when he was an obscure 26-year-old Swiss Patent Office examiner, he was on his way to a reputation as "the Columbus of science," his every scrap of paper so treasured that some of his checks were not cashed. In a few strokes of his pen-E=MC2-he revolutionized physics, explaining, "Time and space and gravitation have no separate existence from matter." Despite years of resistance from scientific and political reactionaries, deftly dramatized by Brian, observed phenomena would validate Einstein's equations. After his Nobel Prize in 1922, he unsuccessfully chased the holy grail of physics, a "unified field theory" that might mesh electromagnetism with gravitation. No more successful were his two marriages or his parenting. Eager to prove that the liberal, sometimes nave Jewish refugee from the Nazis was disloyal to his adopted country, J. Edgar Hoover would compile a 1160-page file, what Brian calls a jumble "of fact and fantasy, of lies, rumors, and ravings"-the largest and most unreliable of the dozens of biographies of Einstein. More the life than the work, Brian's unworshipful account is genial and judicious. (May)Library Journal
The making of the mythology of Albert Einstein began well before his death and shows no sign of abating. One of these books aims to cut through the myth; the other to capitalize on it. Brian's ambitious and well-researched work is a refreshing change from the recent glut of revisionist Einstein biographies, like Roger Highfield and Paul Carter's tawdry The Private Lives of Albert Einstein (LJ 5/1/94). Brian does a fine job of depicting the man, not the myth. Each of his 42 vividly detailed chapters covers a very specific period in Einstein's life. Brian is strong in covering the full range of Einstein's personal, political, and professional activities, and he offers insight into his thinking. This is not, however, a scientific biography, and little is offered by way of explanation of his theories. For that, the best work remains Abraham Pais's Subtle Is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein (LJ 8/82). Still, most general readers will probably prefer the personal, nontechnical style of Brian's book. Recommended for all libraries. Eddington's Essential Einstein is, essentially, fluff. It contains around 90 duotone photographs, in which Einstein is shown as gentle, unkempt, avuncular, eccentric, and visionary-in short, it portrays all of the standard characteristics of the Einstein image that permeates popular culture. Next to the photos are quotes taken from his speeches and writings. True, many of the photos are captivating, so buy this book for your coffee table if you want, but not for your library.-Gregg Sapp, Univ. of Miami Lib., Coral Gables, Fla.Kirkus Reviews
This new biography attempts a balanced assessment of the most famous scientist of modern times.Brian (Genius Talk: Conversations with Nobel Scientists and Other Luminaries, 1995) draws on material recently released from Einstein's archives, much of it concerning less than flattering aspects of his private life. The reader learns of rumors of a daughter, Liserl, who may have been given up for adoption; of his mentally ill son Eduard, who died in a Swiss psychiatric hospital; of a long string of affairs; of the recent allegations that his first wife, Mileva, was an unacknowledged collaborator in the discovery of the Relativity Theory. Brian does not try to make too much of this material, most of which is at best peripheral to Einstein's life and achievement. (The allegations concerning Mileva, which have been trumpeted by feminist critics, he dismisses as unfounded.) Nor does he much alter our perception of the key issues of Einstein's scientific work—relativity and the search for a Unified Field Theory, which dominated the last three decades of his career. Einstein's flight from Nazi persecution, the letter to FDR that spurred the creation of the Manhattan Project, and his tireless work on behalf of the founding of Israel are given full and illuminating treatment. Likewise, we get a clear picture of his humble, almost bohemian, daily life; of his playful sense of humor and his love of music; and of the awe he inspired in many of those close to him. We also get a disturbing look at the fear and hatred he inspired in others, illustrated by excerpts from his voluminous FBI file. Brian draws on an impressive range of sources, from ordinary people who happened to cross Einstein's path to the scientists with whom he worked. The only serious shortcoming is Brian's style, which occasionally borders on the soporific.
Sometimes slow-moving, but a comprehensive and evenhanded treatment of Einstein in the wake of recent charges against his character.