Albert Einstein, the Human Side: New Glimpses from His Archives [Paperback]

Helen Dukas (Editor), Banesh Hoffman (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0691023689 | ISBN-13: 978-0691023687 | Publication Date: May 1981

Modesty, humor, compassion, and wisdom are the traits most evident in these personal papers, most of them never before published, from the Einstein archives. The illustrious physicist wrote as thoughtfully to an Ohio fifth-grader, distressed by her discovery that scientists classify humans as animals, as to a Colorado banker, who asked whether he believed in a personal God. Witty rhymes, and exchange about fine music with Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, and expressions of his devotion to Zionism are but some of the highlights found in this rare, warm enriching book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

[This book] presents itself in such a modest and loving tone that it is fitting for the memory of the man it lets us hear. It is a fresh and delicious little anthology of citations from the body of Einstein's letters, journal entries and other written comment.... These varied, penetrating, warm and open remarks to queens and schoolchildren, friends and antagonists, philosophers and sophomores have been sensitively chosen by two old friends of Einstein's and well translated. The German originals are included. -- Scientific American



[This book] compiled by two of his closest colleagues in later life, Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffmann, aims to show what kind of a person Einstein was. By a series of quotations from letters, jottings and unpublished documents, for example, Dukas and Hoffmann demonstrate as clearly as anybody could expect that Einstein was a courteous, kindly, witty, fearless and lonely man.... It is a bedside book. -- Washington Post Book World

Product Details

• Paperback: 167 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (May 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691023689
• ISBN-13: 978-0691023687
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #344,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( E ) > Einstein, Albert

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Einstein the mensch, June 25, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Albert Einstein, the Human Side: New Glimpses from His Archives (Paperback)

Einstein's longtime secretary (1928-1955) Helen Dukas and Professor Banesh Hoffman who together had written a biography of Einstein here collect some of his correspondance, his very humane replies on a great variety of subjects.
The work is small but it does reveal Einstein's character. His humor and modesty and wisdom are everywhere in evidence. Einstein's writing often has an aphoristic quality, and there are many memorable sayings in the work.
A small sample of them follow:

" As for the search for truth ,I know from my own painful searching , with its many blind alleys, how hard it is to take a reliable step, be it ever so small, towards the understanding of that which is truly significant."

"With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course, is a very common phenomenon. There is far too great a disproportion between what one is, and what others think one is, or at least what they say they think one is.But one has to take it all with good humor"

"Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of Art and Science. If what is seen and experienced is portrayed in the language of logic, we are engaged in science. If it is communicated through forms whose connections are not accessible to the conscious mind but recognized intuitively as meaningful ,then we are engaged in art.Common to both is the loving devotion to that which transcends personal concern and volition."

This volume touches upon many sides of Einstein, his humanitarianism, devotion to peace, his Zionism, his sense of the beauty that is to be revealed through the objective understanding of the universe."

The book takes the form of the questions his correspondents asked ( Most often given in paraphrased form by the authors of the book) and Einstein's responses to their questions.

If I had one question to ask him it would be, " How is it that it was given to one human being in one relatively short period of time to totally transform Mankind's understanding of nature? Why do you think that you were the one given this miraculous power?

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Human Side To Us All, January 26, 2009

By 

Kregg Jorgenson "Writetrak" (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Albert Einstein, the Human Side: New Glimpses from His Archives (Paperback)

With its brief 115 pages of social commentary and personal glimpses from his archives (and accompanying 46 pages in the original German) as selected by two of his closest associates-Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, we get a better and at times an amazingly modest look into the everyday mind of Albert Einstein.
This is a quick read and one that will keep you nodding and smiling at the wisdom, humor, and social grace contained in its painfully few pages. From science we know his sense of genius, even if and when we don't readily understand the complexity of his theories. But with this book we get some timeless eloquence that holds up well today.
A brilliant scientist is able to dissect the secret workings of the universe while the gifted philosopher looks at the fragments of being and tries to make some sense of it all. With Albert Einstein we were fortunate enough to have gotten both.

5.0 out of 5 stars Einstein, Eine Kleine Notizen, February 14, 2011

By 

HIRAM "The Widow's Son" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Albert Einstein, the Human Side: New Glimpses from His Archives (Paperback)

Albert Einstein, the Human Side: New Glimpses from His Archives is an excellent, slim little pocket volume of Einstein's correspondence to all and sundry. It is a necessary book to keep at hand in any library - for here, we read in Einstein's own words his ideas and his compassion for others.

The work is well organized and carefully selected from an unbelievable archive, and it is no wonder that Einstein's secretary and literary executrix Helen Dukas, with the help of Einstein's colleague Banesh Hoffman, gave us this precious gift of Einstein's personal letters to admirers all over the world.