Newly Discovered Letter Gives A Rare Glimpse Into Einstein’s Personal Views On Life

Albert Einstein was a prolific letter-writer, accumulating a ton of correspondence. But his letters can generally be lumped into several broad categories. One, Einstein wrote a lot about his scientific work, obviously — his letters covered topics ranging from his theory of relativity to the Unified Theory (popularized in the show The Big Bang Theory). Secondly, Einstein devoted a lot of time to writing about world peace and his concern with nuclear proliferation. Although he had taken part in the creation of the atomic bomb, as he grew older, he spent much of his time warning against the use of it. He also spent a lot of time writing about the dangers facing Jews and other refugees attempting to escape Germany to America, as well as general philosophical concepts.

Deep, interesting topics, all of them — one would expect no less from a mind as deep and interesting as Einstein’s.

But at the age of 71, Einstein received a letter which touched his heart and caused him to think about what he believed actually makes life worthwhile — what makes life worth living.

The letter Einstein received is not available, although what the letter said is easily inferred by Einstein’s response. And his response is revealing.

“I was really moved by your letter. It is true that the number of people striving ardently for the right and the worthwhile things is small. But the existence of these few is what makes life worthwhile.”

He signed it “Sincerely Yours, Albert Einstein.”

The Einstein Papers Project, a group of scholars devoted to collecting and transcribing Einstein’s works and publishing The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein both online and in printed format, have collected thousands of Einstein’s letters, both those from him and to him.

But this exchange is new.

Furthermore, the exchange doesn’t appear in any published biographies of Einstein or any other works related to Einstein. The letter was completely undiscovered until just this last summer, when the family of the letter’s recipient, Mrs. Elsie Anthes, decided to part with it. The letter was sent to the Raab Collection, a firm that deals primarily in historical autographs and documents. Einstein’s letter was sold to a private collector for an undisclosed amount. The Einstein Papers Project “conjecture that Einstein must have had a substitute secretary that day, and she threw away the Anthes letter and failed to retain a copy of Einstein’s reply.”

This is only the second instance of Einstein speaking about what he believed made life worthwhile. The first time resulted in what became a famous Einstein quote, when he told The New York Times,“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

Einstein’s letter to Mrs. Anthes, though, goes deeper and may have roots in Einstein’s religion, based on the Talmudic statement that in every generation there are only 36 people who are righteous and who can greet the Divine Presence. Furthermore, it is said that the world is upheld for their sake and based on their merit. And it is these 36 righteous people who justify the purpose of humankind in the eyes of God.

[Images via The Telegraph and Forbes]