Mileva Maric Einstein: Life with Albert Einstein

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND EINSTEIN AS BOTH A MAN AND A GENIUS WITHOUT A DETAILED STUDY OF HIS WIFE MILEVA WHO ENABLED THE MOST CREATIVE AND DEFINING PERIOD OF EINSTEIN'S LIFE. This is the first in-depth study of Mileva Maric Einstein and her complex life-long relationship with her husband Albert Einstein. Mileva Maric had a promising future as the only woman in 1896 to enter the elite Polytechnic in Zurich. She was a person of extraordinary intelligence and talent. However, when Maric met Albert Einstein that year, her fate became bound to his life and ambition. Raised in a patriarchal Serbian family, she was willing to sacrifice her own academic career and even her visibility to the dream of achieving something even greater, together. Einstein wrote about her as an "equal" referring to "our theory," "our paper," "our work on relative motion." He also relied heavily on Mileva for emotional support at a critical time in his life. "Without you I lack self-confidence, pleasure in work . . . without you my life is no life." Einstein married Mileva in defiance of very strong opposition from his parents. She wasn't beautiful, she was older, she walked with a limp and she wasn't Jewish. Yet, Einstein was magnetically drawn to her independence, strength and formidable intellect during the most creative period of his entire life. As Einstein's reputation and adulation surged so did his womanizing. Einstein's conduct in ending their marriage was so brutal that it dismayed even their closest friends and came perilously close to destroying Mileva. Although Einstein resisted, the divorce decree awarded future Nobel Prize money to Mileva as her property. It represented a symbolic measure of recognition for her contributions to Einstein's scientific achievements. Despite their bitter divorce, Einstein sought the comfort of her company. While sometimes touchingly considerate, Einstein was vindictive and brutal when challenged or hurt. A true understanding of Einstein as both a man and a genius, is impossible without a detailed study of the woman who loved Einstein so deeply with such an emotional and intellectual bond that it bore a very rare fruit. It changed our view of the universe. "This biography is assuredly the first authoritative study of Einstein's first wife, Mileva Maric-Einstein. The author, Professor Milentijevic, has succeeded in bringing alive in magisterial and dramatic fashion the tragic course of Mileva's life. Professor Milentijevic's scrupulous use of sources, in particular, the recently opened family letters at the Hebrew University, give a unique and powerful dimension to the work, which is presented with genuine insight but without pathos." Professor Dr. Robert Schulmann Former Director of the Einstein Papers Project and Editor of "The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein" "Mileva Maric Einstein's story is an extremely important contribution not just to understand the importance of her personal life with Albert Einstein, but also to illuminate the larger historical context of the diminished lives of even the most brilliant of women. Like Rosalind Franklin whose research on DNA was largely credited to Francis Crick and James Watson, and like Ada Lovelace whose algorithm became the basis for computer programming for which Charles Babbage took credit, Mileva Maric Einstein's crucial contributions to her husband's work have long been ignored. At last, Radmila Milentijevic's meticulously documented biography shines the light on facts that might otherwise have been obliterated. It is both a redemption and a call to action to value women's abilities in all fields of endeavor." Gloria Feldt Co-Founder and President "Take The Lead" Women's Leadership Parity Movement New York Times best-selling author of "No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power"