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Einstein: Relatively Speaking, a Complicated Life

Two on a Party: Recently unveiled letters reveal that Albert Einstein, with wife Elsa on a trip to Egypt circa 1935, wasn't shy about telling her about his extramarital affairs.
Topical Press Agency/Getty
Two on a Party: Recently unveiled letters reveal that Albert Einstein, with wife Elsa on a trip to Egypt circa 1935, wasn't shy about telling her about his extramarital affairs.

Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of Time magazine and author of best-selling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger, has turned his attention to the 20th century's scientific poster boy: Albert Einstein, whose family life was as difficult as his career was distinguished.

Isaacson's book Einstein: His Life and Universe represents the first complete history of the theoretical-physicist-turned- refugee to draw upon all of Einstein's papers, many of which were unsealed last summer.

In what Booklist calls an "extraordinarily encompassing and profoundly affecting biography," Isaacson creates a portrait of the private as well as the public Einstein; he talks to guest host Dave Davies about the man he discovered in the course of his research.

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