Partly-printed document, three pages on two adjoining sheets, 8.25 x 13.5, October 22, 1912. Memorandum of agreement between "Dr. L. Silberstein (hereinafter termed the Author)…and Macmillan and Company, Limited," granting the right to "produce and publish the work The Theory of Relativity which has been or is to be written, compiled, or edited by the Author." Signed at the conclusion by the firm's director, "Maurice Macmillan." In fine condition, with light staining and soiling.
Published by Macmillan in 1914, Silberstein's influential textbook on the Theory of Relativity was one of the first in the English language and helped to establish special relativity as a staple of university coursework. Based on a course of lectures he delivered at University College, London, in 1912-13, Silberstein's text drew connections between special relativity and the theories and ideas that preceded it, while providing some of the mathematical underpinnings of the modern theory. A second edition, revised and expanded to include developments in general relativity, was released by Macmillan in 1924.
From the collection of physicist Ludwik Siberstein.
