Letter from Albert Einstein to Rukeyser

Title

eng Letter from Albert Einstein to Rukeyser

Description

eng A photocopy of a typewritten two-page letter, dated September 12th, 1942. The letter is from Albert Einstein to Muriel Rukeyser. The background information on this letter is that Muriel Rukeyser had asked Albert Einstein to write a foreword to her biography of the theoretical scientist Willard Gibbs. Rukeyser asked Einstein to “lend his name to her effort to make Gibbs known to a time that needed the story of his achievement." Without reading Rukeyser’s book, Einstein refused, saying that “In my view, there is but one way to bring a great scientist to the attention of the larger public: it is to discuss and explain, in language which will be generally understood, the problems and solutions which have characterized his life-work. This can only be done by someone who has a fundamental grasp of the material.” Einstein acknowledges that "the personal side must be taken account of," but it can’t be the whole focus of the book, or the work becomes “banal hero-worship, based on emotion and not on insight” and that Einstein has learned “by my own experience how hateful and ridiculous it is, when a serious man, absorbed in important endeavors, is ignorantly lionized.” In the end, Einstein refuses Rukeyser’s request, writing that “I cannot give my public endorsement to such an undertaking. It would seem to me less than honourable. That sounds harsh: I even fear that you will take my inability for unjustifiable unkindness. But so I am, and cannot be otherwise.” Kertesz found this letter during her research in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library. She bracketted the first part of the letter, and attached a sticky note to the back of the paper that says, “Einstein.” Page 1 of 2.

Identifier

eng 018_LK_01_10_001.jpg

Creator

eng Albert Einstein

Date Created

eng September 12th, 1942

Medium

eng Photograph

Subject

eng Albert Einstein, Muriel Rukeyser, Female Poets, Correspondence, Photography

Is Part Of

eng 018.LK, Louise Kertesz papers

Contributor

eng Andrew Schick