The Other Einstein

I just finished reading "The Other Einstein,"  a book about Albert Einstein's first wife, Mileva.  I couldn't put it down.  Even though it was a fictionalized version the Einsteins, from about 1900- 1920, it is based on exhaustive research by Marie Benedict of letters between the two of them, lab notes and other written documentation.  Bottom line, Albert Einstein was not a very nice man.

The old saying, "Behind every great man is a great woman."  Albert's first wife was quite a woman.  She overcame her gender and physical deformity (she walked with a limp) to be accepted at the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich and to outshine her male peers.  It was there that she met Albert.  They collaborated in 1905 on the theory of relativity.  In the paper they submitted for publication, they were co-authors.  In the paper that was published, her name was left off.  You'll have to read the book  to find out why.  Years later, when he received the Nobel Prize for the theory of relativity that he clearly developed with his wife, a brilliant mathematician and physicist, her name was never mentioned.  Even if this book is not completely true, enough is true to give one a picture of Albert Einstein that you had not heard before.  I highly recommend you read this fascinating book.  I'm looking forward to Marie Benedict's next book, about Andrew Carnegie.