"Since that deluge of newspaper articles I have been so
flooded with questions, invitations, suggestions, that I
keep dreaming I am roasting in Hell, and the mailman is
the devil eternally yelling at me, showering me with more
bundles of letters at my head because I have not answered
the old ones."
Cartoon |
Announcement of the eclipse results caused a
sensation, and not only among scientists. It brought home to
the public a transformation of physics, by Einstein and others,
that was overturning established views of time, space, matter,
and energy. Einstein became the world's symbol of the new physics.
Some journalists took a perverse delight in exaggerating the
incomprehensibility of his theory, claiming that only a genius
could understand it. More serious thinkers -- philosophers,
artists, ordinary educated and curious people -- took the trouble
to study the new concepts. These people too chose Einstein as
a symbol for thought at its highest. |
"I have become rather like King Midas, except that
everything turns not into gold but into a circus."
Click on any image
With his second wife, Elsa, Einstein toured the US in 1921 like
a celebrity. His name and face became familiar even in cartoons
and advertisements.
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