Books For The Road - The Other Einstein by Marie BenedictA

Not sure what to expect, I began reading The Other Einstein with great curiosity. I had never thought about Albert Einstein as a husband or father and so I'd never really wondered about his wife or if he even had one. Marie Benedict has taken her research into the marriage of Albert to Mileva Maric and created a fascinating look at what their relationship may have been like.

Mileva was a brilliant physics/math student at Polytechnic in Zurich, Switzerland, when Einstein met her in the early 1900s. A romance blossomed albeit a little quirky with two such great minds centered on science and the most pressing theories of the day.

In the 1980s, some correspondence between Albert and Mileva was discovered that began to stir a controversy in the scientific world. In it Albert refers to several of his theories. Some he refers to as "my theory" and others, "our theory." It all sparked speculation that perhaps Mileva had contributed heavily to his theory on relativity.

Benedict plays off of that discovery of the letters and explores the possibility that Mileva had a lot to do with the theory. She also delves into what it must have been like to be a woman in a scientific world of men and the choices that a woman had to make between family and career--not terribly unlike what we have today although today's woman is not looked upon quite so unfavorably when she chooses to juggle family and career. Still daunting, then and today.

This is a great read although Albert does not win any great accolades for husband or father of the year.