Description:

Einstein Albert

Albert Einstein and the Atom Bomb, ”the latest triumph of technical thinking, and this most recent manifestation has the advantage over the previous one, the atomic bomb”

 

1p ALS in German inscribed and signed by celebrated theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) as "A. Einstein" at center top. Including a note inscribed and signed by Einstein's stepdaughter Margot Einstein (1899-1986) at bottom. Written in Princeton, New Jersey on January 23, 1947. On watermarked cream stationery embossed "A. Einstein, 112, Mercer Street, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A." at top. In near fine condition, with expected light paper folds and two isolated foxed spots. Measures 8.5" x 11".

 

Albert Einstein wrote Ruth Daman this witty thank you note, mentioning both the atomic bomb and his close friend and fellow physicist Gustav Peter Bucky (1880-1963).

 

To the puckish Einstein, Ruth's gift--probably something healthy to eat--"represents in fact the latest triumph of technical thinking, and this most recent manifestation has the advantage over the previous one, the atomic bomb, [of a certain harmlessness. On a personal level, it holds my mission up in front of me, to keep myself conscientiously to the feeding bowl, so as not to kick the bucket ahead of time. This also corresponds with the diagnosis of the Doctors Bucky, senior and junior, which has been confirmed from experience through my recently eroded belly and the corresponding increase in vitality…"

 

The fact that Einstein jokes about nuclear weapons is a little surprising, considering that the committed pacifist rejected nuclear arms technology. Yet, so great were the fears of Einstein and other German expatriates about German atomic bomb research that they petitioned Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 to develop an equivalent American program. Historians believe that the expert opinion of the world's most famous physicist did much to galvanize the development of the Manhattan Project.

 

Gustav Peter Bucky had met Einstein during the treatment of Elsa Einstein. A fellow German émigré and physicist, the two shared a camera equipment patent. From the tone of this letter, we can also assume Bucky provided unsolicited medical advice to his close friend "so that he would not kick the bucket ahead of time." Bucky was by Einstein's bedside when he died.

 

Like Bucky, Einstein emigrated to the United States in 1933; he became a U.S. citizen in 1940. Einstein became a resident scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, where he continued his research until his death. Einstein lived in a 2-story farmhouse on Mercer Street between 1935-1955. Einstein's second wife and cousin Elsa Hoffman died there in 1936, and his stepdaughter Margot Einstein lived there until her death in 1986.

 

Margot Einstein, a sculptor, married one of her stepfather's assistants but later divorced him and returned to the Mercer Street House. Margot bequeathed approximately 1,400 of Einstein's letters to Jerusalem's Hebrew University for publication 20 years after her death.

 

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