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Albert Einstein

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:8,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Albert Einstein

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Auction Date:2014 Jan 15 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
TLS in German, signed “A. Einstein,” two pages, 8.5 x 11, blind-stamped personal letterhead from his Princeton address, June 10, 1938. Letter to Dr. Gustaf Strömberg at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California. In full (translated): “I have already written and told you why I have resolved not to write a foreword to your book. The distinction between real things, which must undergo certain process of idealistic guidance, and to which certain independent existence is credited, is evident in your solution attempt. This concept must serve a certain understanding, which would balance the procedures within the organic and inorganic nature. I must reject this attempt because the opinion on the inorganic area (quantum-theory) seems to be misleading to me. It is a certain double-principle which, in my view, resembles much more than a superficial explanation of the primitive and is fundamentally opposed to modern science. However, there exists presently a certain tendency toward a mystical view, which is being publicized in the popular scientific literature. I do not want anything to feed this tendency. I spoke to my colleague Weyl about your suggestion that he write the foreword instead of me, and I also explained openly my reasons for the rejection. Perhaps this has contributed to his decision not to be available to compose the foreword. The reason he gave was that he presently was not fluent in scientific endeavors.” In fine condition, with intersecting folds, one through a single letter of signature, some light edge toning, and a staple hole to top right. Accompanied by six related items: an unsigned 10 x 8 photo of over 80 men in front of Cal Tech’s Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics at the California Institute of Technology, with Einstein seated next to Dr. Robert Millikan in the first row; an invitation to the May 22, 1955, UCLA Memorial Meeting honoring Einstein’s memory; a program and a ticket admitting two to the UCLA Memorial Meeting; an 8 x 10 bust portrait of Dr. Gustaf Stromberg; and a booklet entitled Emergent Energy by Stromberg, reprinted from ‘The Journal of the Franklin Institute,’ May 1946.

Distinguished for his investigations into the movements and luminosity of the stars and the structure of the universe, Dr. Gustaf Stromberg originally published his book The Soul of the Universe in 1938, in it presenting a scientific work supporting the fundamental principles of Theosophy. By applying the principles of Relativity and the Quantum Theory to biology and the relationship between mind and matter, he arrived at ‘the inevitable conclusion that there exists a World Soul or God.’ While Einstein, who met Stromberg in 1931 on his first visit to the Mount Wilson Observatory, where Stromberg had been on staff since 1916, respected Stromberg’s scientific pursuits, he strongly disagreed with this “mystical view,” “resembling much more than a superficial explanation of the primitive and…fundamentally opposed to modern science.” A fascinating letter from physics’ most brilliant mind, refusing to attach his name to what he calls a “misleading” presentation of quantum theory.
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