Biographies of Albert Einstein -- Mastermind of Theoretical Physics
Galina Weinstein

TL;DR
This paper analyzes the sources and reliability of Einstein's biographies, emphasizing that documentary evidence does not always guarantee accuracy, and discusses the distinctions between different biography types.
Contribution
It categorizes Einstein biographies into documentary and non-documentary types, highlighting the complexities in assessing their reliability based on primary sources.
Findings
Documentary biographies are written by those who knew Einstein personally.
Reliability of biographies varies regardless of primary source usage.
Biographies written during Einstein's lifetime differ in reliability.
Abstract
Over the years many have written biographies of Einstein. They all based their biographies on primary sources, archival material: memories and letters of people who were in contact with Einstein, Einstein's own recollections; interviews that Einstein had given over the years, and letters of Einstein to his friends - youth friends like Marcel Grossman and Michele Besso and later friends and colleagues like Heinrich Zangger; and especially his love letters with Mileva Mari\'c. One can demarcate between two types of biographies, namely, Documentary biographies, and, Non-documentary biographies. Non-documentary biographies were written by people who based themselves on documentary biographies and on other non-documentary biographies. Documentary biographies were written by people who knew Einstein personally, and received information from him and from other people who were in personal…
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Taxonomy
TopicsScience and Climate Studies
