EINSTEIN IN TIME AND SPACE

A new entry in the crowded field of books about Einstein takes an impressionistic approach.

Graydon, science editor of the Times Literary Supplement, presents a “mosaic biography…composed of short chapters of varying styles that deal with a particular moment or aspect of Einstein’s life.” Born to a prosperous, nonobservant German Jewish family, Einstein was, despite popular legend, probably a prodigy, which guaranteed difficulties in the rigid German and Swiss educational systems. By the time he entered college, he was fascinated by and highly accomplished in mathematics and physics, preoccupied by unsolved problems involving space, time, gravity, and light. Professorships in theoretical physics were rare in 1901, so it’s no surprise that he didn’t get one, but his patent office job paid well, made use of his scientific training, and gave him time to write papers that appeared in Europe’s leading physics journal even before the miraculous four published in 1905. Establishment scientists noticed, but matters moved slowly. He entered academia and rose steadily, occupying a prominent position in Berlin. He hit the jackpot in 1919 with his proof of general relativity, which enraptured the media and made him the world’s most famous scientist. Since his death in 1955, historians have turned up mildly unflattering material (an illegitimate child, some racism), but no revisionist biography has gained traction. Scholars tend to agree that Einstein’s discoveries were history’s most significant scientific achievements. Graydon’s research emphasizes secondary sources; perhaps the book’s outstanding feature is the extensive, opinionated bibliography, but those who choose this as their introduction to Einstein will not regret the experience—even though the author passes quickly over the science. Readers searching for a careful layperson’s explanation of relativity will find them in biographies by Abraham Pais and Dennis Overbye.

No one should pass through life without reading a biography of the immortal physicist, and this one will do fine.