ALS in German, signed “Albert,” one page both sides, 8.5 x 11, no date but circa autumn 1937. Letter to his sister, Maja Winteler-Einstein, whom he has not written in some time, reporting on his time and experience in America. A significant letter on topics ranging from science to money and anti-Semitism. After reporting on the “awful humid heat” of the summer, Einstein indicates that he has overcome “the atmosphere of sensation which bothered me in the first period of my time” at Princeton and now lives a somewhat isolated life. He has found “new and promising avenues” in his scientific work, which he is developing together with two collaborators—a reference to his major paper 'The Gravitational Equations and the Problems of Motion,' which Einstein wrote with the assistance of Leopold Infeld and Banesh Hoffmann. (During this period Einstein also co-authored with Infeld the popular book The Evolution of Physics).
After mentioning that his oldest son, Hans Albert, is coming to join him in America, Einstein expresses the uncertain hope that his son can find a way to make a living there—both because the times are very difficult (given the Great Depression) and because ”significant anti-Semitism in the business world…also blooms in this free land.” Moreover, Einstein adds: “My fame will not help him, as in truth nothing counts here except money, and my stance on political-social matters is well known and not really popular in the related crises.” In fine condition.
Hans Albert Einstein emigrated from Switzerland to Greenville, South Carolina, in 1938, and found work with the US Department of Agriculture. He later became a professor of hydraulic engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. A fascinating, detail-filled Einstein family letter, touching on both successes and struggles in his newfound home in America.
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