January 2020 Auction Ends Thursday, January 30th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/30/2020
Elsa Einstein autograph letter signed, undated but shortly after the death of her daughter Ilse Einstein, who passed from cancer in June 1934. Albert Einstein had a curious relationship with his step-daughter Ilse, based on the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein held at Princeton University; since Einstein began an affair with Elsa beginning in 1912, he likely knew Ilse beginning when she was an adolescent. He seemed to have developed an infatuation with the young girl, and even considered breaking off the engagement to her mother and proposing to Ilse instead, when Ilse was 20 years old. Eventually though, Einstein adopted Ilse and Elsa's other daughter Margot, and thereafter seemed to take a paternal role in her life, rather than considering her as a romantic partner. Writing from Zandvoort, Netherlands during her and Einstein's exile from Germany, Elsa writes to her cousin Erich, translated from German in full,
''Dear Erich! I thank you for the little photos that you sent me. My Albert looks really lighthearted and serene in them. May good fortune continue to be with him! Otherwise, he would not be able to think up such intricate things. Life must not harm him in any way! - Here, though, everything has ended with Ilse's passing. We go on living in the old familiar ways because that is all we can do. For Margot and me, however, almost everything that makes life worth living has passed away with her. No horrible fate could ever have wounded Margot as deeply as Ilse's death did. She considered her the best and most important part of her life on this earth! I think that this weighty burden will express itself in her art; she will completely bury herself in it.
We are still here because my son-in law cannot cope enough to survive. He idolized Ilse. I do not know how well you knew Ilse. She was one of the most sensitive and generous women who ever existed. A very strong and highly intelligent personality. Albert, who was never able to get another secretary of her caliber, knows that as well.
Her dying was brutal; she had to experience her own death in the most harrowing way, almost up to the very end. Moreover, these hours were the most ghastly experience of my own life.
We - that is Margot and I - will be traveling back to America on the 24th, but we are not going out among people anymore, we are living in complete seclusion now. This is the only way that I can bear it all to some degree. / Warm greetings / Your cousin Elsa''. Two-page letter on a single sheet measures 8.25'' x 10.5''. Folds and light creasing, else near fine condition.
Elsa Einstein 1933 Autograph Letter Signed After the Passing of Her Daughter, Ilse -- ''...most sensitive and generous...A strong and highly intelligent personality. Albert...knows that as well...''
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