Albert Einstein (1879-1955). Autograph correspondence card signed (‘Albert’) to Michele Besso, [Berlin], 24 June [1917].

In German, one page, 140 x 90mm. Address panel bearing Einstein’s autograph return address (‘Abs[ender]. A. Einstein’).

Please note this lot is the property of a private consignor.

Published in Pierre Speziali (ed.) Albert Einstein. Michele Besso. Correspondance 1903-1955. Paris: Hermann, 1972. No. 37

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Lot Essay

Delight at the prospect of a holiday in Switzerland.

Einstein alerts Besso to his arrival in Zurich between 5 and 7 July: 'I am unutterably delighted, even if the journey itself should be a great ordeal now'. His stay in Zurich will be short, 'because it is too wearing for my creaky carcass'; he will then go to Arosa with his elder son, Hans Albert (joining his younger son, Eduard, who was receiving treatment there), then to see his sister in Lucerne for a few weeks. He is very much looking forward to his conversations with Besso: 'Don't be angry that I write to you so little; it seems that's the only way it goes!'.

Einstein had been struggling with an abdominal disorder, and was concerned about his finances, which had been hit by wartime fluctuations in the exchange rates – to the extent that a proposed cure in a spa had been cancelled in favour of the stay with his sister Maja in Lucerne.