Newly discovered diary chronicles Einstein's last years

by Steven Schultz
Librarians at Princeton University have discovered a diary written by one of Albert Einstein's closest friends, a woman who recorded the scientist's day-to-day thoughts and activities during the last year and a half of his life.

The diary, written by Johanna Fantova, a former Princeton librarian, relates Einstein's musings on subjects, profound and mundane, from physics and current events to the tribulations of growing old. Fantova, who knew Einstein for more than 25 years, chronicled their regular conversations in more than 200 diary entries.

In an introduction to the diary, Fantova wrote that she intended it to "cast some additional light on our understanding of Einstein, not the great man who became a legend during his own lifetime, not on Einstein the renowned scientist, but on Einstein, the humanitarian."

Fantova met Einstein in the 1920s in Europe and then renewed the friendship in the United States during World War II. The two ate dinners and went sailing together in Princeton; she cut his hair, and he wrote poems to her. They also spoke by telephone two or three evenings a week. She compiled notes from their conversations into a 62-page manuscript, which is written in German and covers the period from October 1953 to Einstein's death in April 1955 at age 76.

Fantova tried unsuccessfully to publish the manuscript before her death in 1981, but did not make its existence widely known. A Princeton librarian conducting research on Fantova discovered the manuscript earlier this year in Fantova's archived employment file.

In their conversations, Einstein and Fantova often discussed the many old friends, acquaintances and strangers who visited the Einstein household. Einstein spoke regularly with Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the Institute for Advanced Study where Einstein worked. Oppenheimer, whom Einstein held in high regard, had led the U.S. effort to build the atomic bomb but was later persecuted by Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. In Fantova's accounts, the McCarthy hearings were a frequent subject of conversation. "This political persecution of his associate was a source of bitter disillusionment," she wrote.

Read the full story in the Weekly Bulletin.