Berlin, 23 June 1918

On the pleasures of friendship, praise of Hermann Weyl, and disposing of the Nobel Prize proceeds, four years before it was awarded to him.

'When I see your handwriting, it gives me a very particular sort of pleasure, because no one is so close to me as you and knows me so well and with such good intentions'. Einstein writes in praise of the influential mathematician Hermann Weyl: 'Weyl is a brilliant, astute type ... I would have loved to have heard his lecture: everything he does is so original and well-turned. And he is an amazing calculator!!'. Einstein does not have the patience to write a book on statistical mechanics: he recommends instead the classic work by J.W. Gibbs. The letter goes on to discuss the details for the contract for his divorce from Mileva, mentioning (a key element of the divorce settlement) her rights to financial proceeds of a 'hypothetical Nobel prize', and discussing the financial situation of Mileva and the children if he himself were to die. As it happens, his health is better than it was, and Elsa (his future second wife) is looking after him carefully. He looks forward to the end of the war, and to being able to travel more easily: it pains him not to see his sons, although in spite of what Mileva says on the subject he suspects that the boys themselves are not too bothered by this. His younger son Eduard has just sent his first ever letter, and Einstein asks his friend to buy the boy a book on his behalf, as it is complicated to send one from Germany.

It was not until 1922 that Einstein received the Nobel prize for physics, albeit it was awarded retrospectively for 1921: it is striking that he was sufficiently confident of the award to include it in his divorce negotiations in 1918.