Dear Professor Einstein: Albert Einstein鈥檚 letters to and from children edited by Alice Calaprice, Prometheus, $24, ISBN 11591020158 Reviewed by Michael Brooks
鈥淥UTSIDE all the birds are singing鈥nd here we sit learning that tan d is equal to something divided by something else.鈥� You can almost hear Tyfanny sigh as she writes to Einstein. 鈥淚 wish I understood maths, for it is needed in astronomical calculations, I believe.鈥�
Tyfanny loves astronomy and regularly breaks school rules to look at the stars using her friend鈥檚 telescope. Einstein writes back and encourages her to defy the eyes and ears of the authorities and carry on.
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It sounds like fiction, but it鈥檚 fact. Einstein may have been relatively busy with taming the Universe, but he nonetheless found time to respond to enquiries from children.
Dear Professor Einstein is a hugely rewarding book, liberally scattered with gems. Clotilde, the 12-year-old daughter of a Puerto Rican professor, surely made Einstein smile with her observations. 鈥淢y father took me to Jamaica to see the Queen of England,鈥� she told him. 鈥淗ere in this university they all say she鈥檚 nice, but that you are more useful to humanity.鈥� Forty-seven years have passed, Einstein is gone, the Queen鈥檚 still here, and that remains a valid viewpoint. If I haven鈥檛 convinced you to buy this yet, you should know that a portion of the cover price goes to UNICEF. What are you waiting for?