Details
EINSTEIN, ALBERT. Autograph letter signed ("Papa") to Eduard Einstein, [Princeton], 10 April 1936. 2 pages, 4to, 280 x 215 mm. (11 x 8½ in.), half of verso slightly browned, otherwise in very good condition.
"I HARDLY HEAR ANYTHING FROM GERMANY DIRECTLY, FOR WHAT WAS FAMILIAR TO ME THERE IS DEAD OR SCATTERED ALL OVER THE WORLD"
From Princeton, Einstein writes: "...I'm sitting here in my study, covered with a blanket but still freezing because they never heat properly in spring. Nevertheless I quite like it here because you can live on your own so nicely. I am only pestered by mail, otherwise I always work with the same young man on the same problems, which are so difficult that one is surprised at one's own courage. When I run out of steam, I look outside through a big window and see a meadow with trees, a respectable piece of sky and a huge tower in the distance which decorates a university building in imitation of an English university. Here, in general, people only have respect for England. If you say you are from Switzerland, they think that is funny because they think there is only cheese and chocolate there...I often read the Basler Nationalzeitung, sometimes also the Züricher... On the other hand, I rarely get around to reading books. Science absorbs one totally, especially when the elasticity of youth is gone. In the end your own brain leads you around by the nose, but one is thus all the more independent from people. I hardly hear anything from Germany directly, for what was familiar to me there is dead or scattered all over the world... Freud will soon turn 80. I have come to realize that his main thesis is correct..." Einstein ends by complimenting his son for his awareness of the importance of Freud's theories. Einstein blames his own failure to recognize their significance on the fact that his own private life was "for so long and so thoroughly eliminated from my thoughts (not only repressed but rather forgotten) that I had no live material at hand to work with".
"I HARDLY HEAR ANYTHING FROM GERMANY DIRECTLY, FOR WHAT WAS FAMILIAR TO ME THERE IS DEAD OR SCATTERED ALL OVER THE WORLD"
From Princeton, Einstein writes: "...I'm sitting here in my study, covered with a blanket but still freezing because they never heat properly in spring. Nevertheless I quite like it here because you can live on your own so nicely. I am only pestered by mail, otherwise I always work with the same young man on the same problems, which are so difficult that one is surprised at one's own courage. When I run out of steam, I look outside through a big window and see a meadow with trees, a respectable piece of sky and a huge tower in the distance which decorates a university building in imitation of an English university. Here, in general, people only have respect for England. If you say you are from Switzerland, they think that is funny because they think there is only cheese and chocolate there...I often read the Basler Nationalzeitung, sometimes also the Züricher... On the other hand, I rarely get around to reading books. Science absorbs one totally, especially when the elasticity of youth is gone. In the end your own brain leads you around by the nose, but one is thus all the more independent from people. I hardly hear anything from Germany directly, for what was familiar to me there is dead or scattered all over the world... Freud will soon turn 80. I have come to realize that his main thesis is correct..." Einstein ends by complimenting his son for his awareness of the importance of Freud's theories. Einstein blames his own failure to recognize their significance on the fact that his own private life was "for so long and so thoroughly eliminated from my thoughts (not only repressed but rather forgotten) that I had no live material at hand to work with".