Einstein: An Intimate Study of a Great Man, first published in 1944, recounts the personal life of physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955). The book was written by Einstein’s son-in-law, who married his daughter Margot in Berlin in 1930. Einstein was a simple, direct man, but remains today larger-than-life, and as author Marianoff writes, “Einstein’s life is not an exciting one. It is not filled with the rush and sweep of spectacular adventures. It has none of the scope and danger of the explorer, who freezes and suffers and agonizes in his search. It is not filled with the stir and headiness of eventful, flamboyant episodes. It is not a colorful panorama of the human pilgrimage...It has no color at all except the color of greatness...It is a mighty epic journey of science—a steady, breathtaking march whose heroic altitude is of such heights that it precludes the ecstatic language so often applied to singular human endeavors...It has no thrill in it, except the thrill of having changed the tide of man’s history and created new channels for his growth...It has no drama in it, except the overpowering drama of a conquest so immeasurable that as long as man remains on earth he will have benefited by it.”
