ALSO BY WALTER ISAACSON

A Benjamin Franklin Reader

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

Kissinger: A Biography

The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (with Evan Thomas)

Pro and Con

EINSTEIN

HIS LIFE AND UNIVERSE

WALTER ISAACSON

SIMON & SCHUSTER
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Copyright © 2007 by Walter Isaacson
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Endpapers: Alan Richards, Princeton University Library

Frontispiece: Ullstein Bilderdienst/The Granger Collection, New York

Illustration credits are on page 679.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Isaacson, Walter.
   Einstein : his life and universe / Walter Isaacson.
     p. cm.
   Includes bibliographical references and index.
   1. Einstein, Albert, 1879–1955. 2. Physicists—Biography. 3. Einstein, Albert, 1879–1955—Friends and associates. 4. Relativity (Physics). 5. Unified field theories. I. Title.

QC16.E5I76 2007
530.092—dc22
[B]

2006051264

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-6473-0
ISBN-10: 978-0-7432-6473-8
eISBN-13: 978-1-4165-3932-2

To my father, the nicest, smartest, and most moral man I know

In Santa Barbara, 1933

Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance you must keep moving.

—ALBERT EINSTEIN, IN A LETTER TO HIS SON EDUARD, FEBRUARY 5, 1930¹