Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Pais turns his attention to the great physicist's life outside of science, with an informal, almost kalaidoscopic portrait of Einstein--his personal life and his public persona ("my mythical namesake who has made my life so burdensome"), his scientific contributions, and his thoughts on religion, philosophy, and politics, on Israel and Zionism, on the rise of Nazism and McCarthyism, and on much more. Pais offers a candid look at Einstein's troubled personal life--his two failed marriages, his first child Lieserl, who was born out of wedlock (and of whom all trace has vanished), his estranged son Hans Albert, also a scientist, who felt his father had abandoned the family, and his son Eduard, who gradually descended into madness. Of course, any book on Einstein must touch upon science, and Pais includes several illuminating chapters, one of which offers general readers an accessible explanation of relativity, and another traces the long road to Einstein's Nobel Prize (after being nominated almost every year from 1909 to 1920, he finally won in 1921--not for relativity, but for his work on the photoelectric effect). On the lighter side, Pais includes samples from Einstein's "curiosity file," in which he kept crank letters, marriage proposals, hate mail (one began "You are the prince of idiocy, the count of imbecility, the duke of cretinism, the baron of morons"), and the like. But the heart of the book is the final section, where Pais traces Einstein's life as seen through the media. Here we not only meet Einstein the living legend--receiving the keys to New York City from flamboyant Mayor Jimmy Walker, attending the Hollywood premier of City Lights with Charlie Chaplin--but also witness his extensive involvement in the issues of his day.
Hardcover. London, Frank Cass & Co., reprint, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Three hardcover volumes, a facsimile reprint of the third edition published in 1857 with an index added in part three. Red cloth covers with gilt lettering in black box on spine. Previous owner's signature on each front fly leaf, otherwise clean. Fading to red cloth on spines.
Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, First Edition, 1989, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 398 pages. Hardcover compilation of 6 essays that originated from the Eranos Conferences in the years 1952 to 1960. Brown & black cloth covers with gilt titles. Ivory dust jacket with toning to spine, and in very good condition. Clean text.
Hardcover. Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, silver boards with white lettering on spine. In a worn dust jacket with chipping and fading. The 16 articles in this book were prepared for the Conference of Newtonian Studies, held at the University of Texas, 300 years after what Newton himself described as his best year (1665), when he returned to his hometown to escape the plague in Cambridge. Articles cover Newton's life and society, his scientific achievements, philosophical analyses of his scientific achievements, and Newton's influence. B&w illustrations. Mild soil to edges of front fly leaf, otherwise clean, no markings.
