Typed letter signed ('A. Einstein') to Cornelius Lanczos, 112 Mercer Street, Princeton, 14 February 1955

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Typed letter signed ('A. Einstein') to Cornelius Lanczos, 112 Mercer Street, Princeton, 14 February 1955
In German. 1¼ pages, 280 x 216mm. Provenance: Sotheby's, 26 November 1980, lot 169.

A scathing letter on the intolerant and megalomaniac character of Erwin Schrödinger. Lanczos's letter saddened Einstein, but 'on the other hand I could not suppress a smile. The smile relates naturally to your disappointment over your experiences with our good friend Schrödinger. I have also had my experiences with him. He is an intuitively extraordinarily gifted man with a stormy temperament and not free from attacks of megalomania. His temperament brings him to identify himself at one time with a view A and a little later with the incompatible view B, so that one can often most strikingly refute Schrödinger with Schrödinger. A man like that cannot be tolerant and muster the necessary understanding for the independent views of others'. Einstein disapproves of Lanczos's intention to leave his position in Dublin, not least because finding a position in America where one can 'immerse oneself in problems' is not at all easy; and he urges his friend not to be too suspicious of others' attitudes towards him, even if 'it is well known that the Irish are very nationalistic ... For tradition ensures that the quiet scientist is valued as such (in Europe)'. Lanczos may curse Einstein's advice, but that 'can do no harm, as I have known and valued you for a long time now'.

Lanczos had taken over Schrödinger's post at the School of Theoretical Physics at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 1952, and in spite of some early difficulties was to remain there for the rest of his life. Einstein himself was in the last months of his life: he died just over two months after the present letter.