EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955). Typed letter signed ("A. Einstein") to Albert K. Bender, Princeton, 12 November 1952.

One page, 165 x 140mm on Institute for Advanced Study letterhead. With the original transmittal envelope.

A terse but polite reply to the President of the International Flying Saucer Bureau. Einstein, evidently responding to a request to join what is believed to be the first major civilian UFO club in 1952 (or at least write a statement on its behalf), politely declines the invitation, writing that he had "no experience and only superficial knowledge in the field." Bender (1921-2016), was a collector, editor and the founder of the short-lived International Flying Saucer Bureau. He shut it down a year later, after he was supposedly visited by "three men in black." According to Bender, he had planned to publish "the truth" about a government coverup in the October 1953 issue of the Bureau's magazine, Space Review, but the three shadowy figures managed to intimidate Bender into ceasing publication. Bender's experiences were published by his associate Gary Barker in They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers (1956) which helped place the "men in black" firmly into UFO folklore.