'A difficult but uncommonly important piece of work': his immersion in science, and his wife's serious illness.
Maja has cancelled a planned visit, but Einstein's feelings are not hurt – indeed, it would have been impossible: 'We have in Elsa a serious invalid in the house. Apart from that I have to lend financial aid on all sides, so that everything must be reduced to what is practically essential'. Einstein himself would not have been good company, as he is 'more than usually exhausted by a difficult but uncommonly important piece of work'. His holiday quarters [probably at Saranac Lake, NY] are in a 'curious little sound (large and colourful), in which one has the most curious human experiences, even when one lives as retired a life as I do. It pleases me very much, especially as one now better than ever feels how little "Europe's whited courtesy" means ... Here people are little interested by what goes on outside this continent'.
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