Keyhole View of a Genius; January 1994; Scientific American Magazine; by Guterl; 2 Page(s)

Albert Einstein scholars have long been aware of troubled and troubling aspects of the great physicist's life. His first marriage, strongly disapproved of by his family, ended in divorce. The child of this union was put up for adoption. Letters and other documents in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, a compendium of Einstein's papers, published by Princeton University Press, contain hints of infidelity. Yet his scholars and biographers have focused on his work or turned discreetly away from this aspect of his life.

In doing so, they have left the field open. And Fleet Street abhors a vacuum. So instead of the kind of scholarship that would provide us with a rounded picture of this complicated, powerfully gifted human being, we have The Private Lives of Albert Einstein. In the book, which was published last August in Britain by Faber & Faber, two English journalists, Peter Highfield and Paul Carter, report the results of a quick foray they have made into The Collected Papers. (To date, three volumes have appeared; two more are expected.)