Albert Einstein to Heinrich Zangger

Einstein writes to his friend Zangger (1874-1957), professor of physiology at the University of Zürich, the day after he submits the final version of the general theory of relativity to the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences. While Einstein speaks of the theory’s “incomparable beauty,” his judgments of people are dark. He complains bitterly of his separated wife’s malign influence on their children and of what he takes to be David Hilbert’s plagiarism.