A remarkable collection of love letters from Albert Einstein to his first wife, revealing his raunchy side, has been put up for sale for £1 million.
The genius mathematician told Mileva Maric in an eyebrow-raising letter that he couldn’t wait for her to visit him on Lake Como so they could “wrap themselves in his dressing gown.”
It is believed that she became pregnant during her subsequent stay in Italy and gave birth to their daughter Lieserl in early 1902.
Einstein also gave a glimpse of his ingenious thinking when discussing his early academic career in the collection of 43 letters from 1898 to 1903.
In a letter he wrote: ‘My thoughts about radiation are starting to gain traction.’
In another he stated: ‘I am increasingly convinced that the electrodynamics of moving bodies, as presented today, is not correct, and that it should be possible to represent it in a simpler way. ‘
A remarkable collection of love letters from Albert Einstein (pictured) to his first wife, revealing his raunchy side, has been put up for sale for £1 million
In April 1901, he told Mileva (pictured, left) of his excitement about her upcoming visit to Lake Como, writing suggestively, “Come to me at Como and bring my blue dressing gown, in which we can wrap ourselves.”
The genius mathematician tells Mileva Maric in one letter that he can’t wait for her to visit him on Lake Como so they can “wrap themselves together in his dressing gown.”
He expanded on this theory in his seminal 1905 paper on special relativity.
The letters to his ‘doll’, signed ‘Albert’ and written in an old German Gothic style, are set to spark a bidding war at Christie’s auction house in London.
Einstein was a 16-year-old student at the Polytechnic University of Zurich in Switzerland when he met Mileva, one of the first female students on the physics and mathematics course.
Mileva, who was Serbian, was three years older than Einstein and their first letters in 1898 were quite formal.
As time went on, the letters reveal that their relationship became personal, much to the disapproval of Einstein’s family.
Einstein confided to Mileva that his mother told him, “You are ruining your future… That woman cannot have access to a decent family.”
But Einstein, showing his stubborn nature, ignored her pleas and applied for teaching posts in early 1901 so that he could earn enough money to marry Mileva.
In April 1901, he told Mileva of his excitement about her upcoming visit to Lake Como, writing suggestively, “Come to me at Como and bring my blue dressing gown, in which we can wrap ourselves.”
Einstein gave a glimpse of his ingenious thinking while discussing his early academic career in the collection of 43 letters from 1898 to 1903
Einstein was a 16-year-old student at the Polytechnic University of Zurich in Switzerland when he met Mileva, one of the first female students on the physics and mathematics course
In an October letter, Einstein shared his excitement about impending fatherhood and named their unborn baby Lieserl.
Mileva gave birth to their daughter in 1902, when Einstein had settled in Bern and was waiting for his job at the Patent Office.
On February 4, 1902, he wrote proudly: ‘You see, it really has become a Lieserl, just as you wished.
‘Is she healthy and is she crying properly yet?
‘What kind of small eyes does she have? Which of the two of us does she resemble most?’
Einstein and Mileva married in January 1903 and the last letter refers to her second pregnancy, a son named Hans Albert.
He also mentions that Leiserl had been ill with scarlet fever, which tragically killed her shortly afterwards.
Einstein and Mileva had a third child, Eduard, in 1910, but they divorced in 1919 after learning that he had been unfaithful to his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal.
Two years later he received the Nobel Prize for Physics and, as agreed in the divorce settlement, gave Mileva his winnings.
The letters remained in the family until they were sold at auction in 1996, where the seller acquired them.
The auctioneers say it is extremely rare to find Einstein correspondence from before 1905 that reveals so much about his “formative” years.
Thomas Venning, manuscript specialist at Christie’s, said: ‘The letters give you a complete picture of what Albert Einstein was like in his early years.
‘It is very rare to find letters from him before 1905 and that it is such an important correspondence, to such an important recipient, is simply amazing.
‘Even though he was only a teenager when he started writing them, you sense that he was already asking questions about different areas of physics.
‘He not only accepted previous scientific insights, but instead wanted to push the boundaries and challenge conventions.’
Einstein died in 1955.
The sale will take place on December 11.