Fifty years ago, on 18 April 1955, Albert Einstein died; hence it is timely to welcome this new edition of his correspondence with Max Born. Both men were renowned physicists, both were awarded a Nobel prize, both were born in Germany of Jewish parents and forced into exile by Hitler. They shared many interests, including music, Einstein playing the violin, Born the piano, when they both lived in Berlin many years ago. Although they sometimes strongly disagreed on scientific as well as political issues, their amicable correspondence reveals a deep-rooted friendship that stretched across half a century.
The present book, edited by Born’s son Professor Gustav Born, of the William Harvey Research Institute at London University, follows the previous edition of 1971, itself a translation by Born’s daughter Irene Newton-John, mother of the popular singer Olivia Newton-John, of the original German edition of 1969. The latter also contained several German poems by Max Born’s wife Hedwig, generally known as Hedi. The translation of these letters as well as Born’s commentaries, many of them full of technical scientific detail, was no mean achievement and deserves the highest praise. The 1971 edition also contained some fine photographs of Einstein, of Max and Hedi Born, and of the assembled members of the Fifth International Solvay Congress of Physicists. This also figured on the dust jacket of the original German edition and is reproduced in miniature on the jacket of the present book. The two English editions also include the 1924 drawing of Einstein by Max Born’s brother Wolfgang.
In addition to the original foreword by Bertrand Russell and the introduction by Born’s one-time colleague Werner Heisenberg, the new edition is introduced by Gustav Born and features a lengthy new preface, by Diana Buchwald and Kip S. Thorne, which emphasises the valuable testimony of the letters to the development of modern science as well as portraying the writers’ views on contemporary political and philosophical concerns.
The tone of the letters is friendly throughout, although Einstein, long settled at Princeton University in the United States, reacted rather vehemently when the Borns decided in 1953 to return to live in Germany. After Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein had emigrated to the US and never returned to Germany, while the Born family had moved to Britain. After some years in Cambridge, Max Born was appointed Darwin’s successor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. On his retirement Max