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Albert Einstein

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:15,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
Albert Einstein

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Auction Date:2016 Apr 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, 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
ALS in German, signed “Papa,” one page, 8.5 x 8.25, no date. Letter to his son Eduard Einstein, nicknamed “Tetel,” in full (translated): "I was very happy about your letter and about your aphorisms. You seem to keep knocking about with the Eternal-Feminine. But don’t stick with the older girlfriend, who is also too sophisticated for you. Rather look for a harmless girlfriend, because she is more like a friendly game, otherwise you may well get into trouble. Toni worries about you a little bit as well, because she is taking the hereditary taint of the Einsteins into account. I liked the aphorisms in all, some of them are very good.” In fine condition.

This intensely personal letter reveals one of the great tragedies of Einstein’s family life—his son’s lifelong struggle with mental illness. Eduard was an admirer of Freud and hoped to enter the fledgling field of psychiatry, but was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1930 at age twenty, rendering him a patient rather than a practitioner. The diagnosis came after Eduard’s first major breakdown, spurred by the heartbreak of a mistaken affair with an older woman. In this letter—alluded to in The Private Lives of Albert Einstein by co-authors Roger Highfield and Paul Carter and in Walter Isaacson’s definitive biography Einstein: His Life and Universe—Einstein seems to sense the impending catastrophe and appeals to Eduard’s intellectual tendency toward theory by invoking the psychological archetype of the “Eternal-Feminine.” Sadly, Eduard would end up spending the rest of his life institutionalized for his affliction. Overall, this is an incredible piece that offers insight into Einstein’s family and demonstrates him as a kind, caring father.