'The brilliance of younger years is past': on the pleasures of life in America, but also grief at the condition of his son Eduard and the death, that day, of his stepdaughter Ilse.

Life in America is pleasant, especially in Rhode Island: 'We live here quiet and happy, and I sail every day – my favourite pleasure – around a great bay, sometimes also outside. A glorious coast, reminiscent of Italy. Life in America generally pleases me very much, especially since I am gradually ceasing to be a "sensation" for others. I am also happy with my work, even if there and in other matters I begin to feel that the brilliance of younger years is past'. A sort of contemplative life is in prospect, 'which also has its own magic, especially if one does not let worries come too close'.

Maja's letter about his younger son, Eduard ('poor Tetel') has very much touched Einstein. 'You should have seen how bright and sensitive he was before this destructive affliction came over him. Now he is constantly overwrought and the finer reactions are gone. Much better dead than to live like that'. The news of his stepdaughter Ilse is also discouraging: 'changeable, but always bad'. He feels that psychoanalysis has played a role in her decline: 'It also costs a crazy amount of money'. It is uncertain when Elsa will return from Paris, where she is tending to her daughter: 'she can actually do nothing to help there and only burns herself out, especially as she herself is not at all strong'. A postscript later that day adds that news has come by telegram of Ilse Einstein's death 'after indescribable sufferings', though no one knows what her disease was. He cannot imagine what will become of his other stepdaughter, Margot, as they were very close. 'It also touches me deeply. She was a sensitive, good and intelligent person ...'. The senior judge Irving Lehman, brother of Governor Herbert H. Lehman of New York, may come to see Maja in Florence, as he is holidaying there.
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