Acknowledgements

his book would not have been possible without the cooper- ation of the Albert Einstein Archives in Jerusalem, which T made available to me Einstein’s articles, lectures and letters, some of which are unpublished, plus related material and letters to Einstein. Its archivists, Barbara Wolff and Chaya xiv | Becker, were consistently helpful while I was researching both this book and Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity. My deepest gratitude goes to their colleague Or Orith Burla, who not only retrieved much archival material at my request but also suggested material I was not aware of and on occasion helped me to trans- late it from German into English. Her assistance with my research was generous, invaluable and particularly welcome to a freelance author. I am also grateful to the fellows of Christ Church, Lady Margaret Hall and Nuffield College in Oxford, to the Rhodes House Trustees and to the English-Speaking Union, for permis- sion to quote correspondence relating to Einstein’s visits to Oxford, notably the Oxford diary of Margaret Deneke and the letters of Frederick Lindemann (Lord Cherwell). Sebastian Born, on behalf of the Born family, generously granted permission to quote passages from the letters written by his grandfather Max Born to Einstein, originally published in English translation as The Born–Einstein Letters. ‘I’m sure he ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS would have been, and we are, happy that your work continues to reveal his thought and insight in these conversations with his great friend Einstein.’ Many archivists, based mainly in Britain, have been unusually helpful with my research. It is a pleasure to thank: Nicolas Bell (Trinity College, Cambridge), Judith Curthoys (Christ Church, Oxford), Gavin Fuller (Telegraph Media Group, London), Emma Huber (Taylor Institution Library, Oxford), Michael Hughes (Bodleian Library, Oxford), Clare Kavanagh (Nuffield College, Oxford), Suzanne Keyte (Royal Albert Hall, London), Oliver Mahony (Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford), Charlotte Oxendale (Rhodes House, Oxford), Niels Sampath (Oxford Union Library), Michael Simonson (Leo Baeck Institute, New York) and Anna

Towlson (London School of Economics). Others include: Frank | xv Baker (John Rylands Library, Manchester), Jessica Borge (King’s College, London), Rosemary Dixon (Archant Library, Norwich), Melissa Downing (Rhodes House, Oxford), Heidi Egginton (Churchill Archives, Cambridge), Robyn Haggard (Museum of the History of Science, Oxford), Stephen Hebron (Bodleian Library, Oxford), Laura Hilton-Smith (Leeds University Library), Loma Karklins (Caltech Archives, Pasadena), Lee Macdonald (Museum of the History of Science, Oxford), Wilma Minty (Bodleian Library, Oxford), Alistair Murphy (Cromer Museum), Laura Outterside (Royal Society, London), Emma Quinlan (Nuffield College, Oxford), Ed Smithson (Nuffield College, Oxford), Jean-Michel de Tarragon (École Biblique, Jerusalem), Bridget Whittle (McMaster University, Hamilton) and Harry Wright (Friends House, London). In the world of Einstein scholarship, it was a delight to discuss a range of issues with someone as well informed, open- minded and amusing as Robert Schulmann, former director of the Einstein Papers Project, author of influential books on Einstein and contributor to Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity, who shares ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

my curiosity about Einstein’s attitude to Britain. I also enjoyed interacting with Robert’s former colleagues at the Einstein Papers Project: Alice Calaprice, editor of The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, who, despite her retirement from Princeton University Press, was always willing to answer my questions about Einstein quotations (genuine, probable and invented); and David Rowe, co-editor with Robert Schulmann of Einstein on Politics, who drew my attention to Antonina Vallentin’s arresting account of Einstein in 1933, plus other sources. Among the current members of the Einstein Papers Project I am grateful to its director, Diana Kormos Buchwald, another contributor to Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity, for her general support, and to its assistant director, Ze’ev Rosenkranz, who took trouble to advise me on Einstein’s xvi | travel diaries, his relationship to Palestine and other matters. In Oxford, Robert Fox was a generous source of information while he was researching an article on Einstein in Oxford for the Royal Society’s journal, Notes and Records. In the wider academic world, beyond Einstein studies, I owe a special debt to the physicist and historian of science Graham Farmelo, fellow author, biographer and journalist, who wrote excellent book reviews for me when I was literary editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement. Graham introduced me to Yale University Press. Other friends and contacts inside and outside academe who deserve thanks for their advice on Einstein and/or Einstein- related matters are: Joanna Ashbourn, Jonathan Bowen (Edmund Bowen), Paul Cartledge, Jodie Collins (Oliver Locker-Lampson), David Dunmur (Frederick Lindemann), David Dutton (Austen Chamberlain), Josef Eisinger (Einstein’s travel diaries), Mordechai Feingold (Isaac Newton), Nancy Greenspan (Max Born), Hanoch Gutfreund (The Hebrew University), Richard Hawkins (Samuel Untermyer), Gordon Johnson (Isaiah Berlin), David Levey, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Jonathan Locker- Lampson, Alex May (entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), Michael Musgrave (Marie Soldat), Cormac O’Raifeartaigh (Einstein’s cosmology), David Robinson (Einstein’s lecture at King’s College, London), Tom Wakeford and Thomas Weber (Adolf Hitler). At Christ Church, Oxford, my old friend James Lawrie organised a talk for me at the college on Einstein in Oxford in 2015, the centenary of general relativity, followed by an article in the college magazine, Christ Church Matters, commissioned by his colleague Simon Offen. Among writers and journalists, various individuals in Norfolk kindly helped me in researching Einstein’s stay near Cromer in September–October 1933, in particular Glenys Hitchings, Stuart

McLaren, Steve Snelling and Del Styan. Stuart kindly supplied me | xvii with a copy of the rare souvenir booklet published (presumably by Oliver Locker- Lampson) to commemorate Einstein’s speech at the Albert Hall meeting in October 1933. The BBC journalists David Edmonds and John Eidinow provided further information about this meeting regarding the role of Locker-Lampson. Thanks, too, to various editors who have recently published arti- cles of mine about Einstein and related subjects, in particular: Sara Abdulla (Nature), Marina Benjamin (Aeon), Tushna Commissariat (Physics World), Barb Kiser (Nature), James McConnachie (The Author) and Valerie Thompson (Science). It has been a distinct pleasure to work with the editorial staff of Yale University Press for the first time. My editor, Julian Loose – evidently fascinated by Einstein’s personality and British adventures – was imaginatively involved with the book from its commissioning to its completion. Marika Lysandrou did sterling work on the illustrations. Rachael Lonsdale and Clarissa Sutherland were remarkably careful and efficient editors. xviii |