“HERE I SIT IN ORDER TO WRITE, AT THE AGE OF 67, SOMETHING LIKE MY OWN OBITUARY”: EINSTEIN'S “ONE AND ONLY INTELLECTUAL BIOGRAPHY”

(EINSTEIN, Albert). Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist. Evanston: Library of Living Philosophers, 1949. Octavo, original blue cloth, original dust jacket. $2400.

First trade edition of this collection, including the only autobiography written by Einstein, "the greatest physicist of the 20th century" (PMM).

"Historians of modern science have good reason to be grateful to Paul Arthur Schilpp, professor of philosophy and Methodist clergyman but better known as the editor of a series of volumes on 'Living Philosophers,' which included several volumes on scientist-philosophers… to his everlasting credit, he persuaded Albert Einstein to do what he had resisted all his years: to sit down to write, in 1946 at age sixty-seven, an extensive autobiography" (Gerald Holton). "The greatest physicist of the 20th century" (PMM 408). An excellent study of Einstein's life as well as of his scientific and philosophic thought, illustrated with photographic portraits and plates. Includes Einstein's autobiographical notes in German and English; 24 descriptive and critical essays on Einstein's work (contributors include Wolfgang Pauli, Louis de Broglie, Max Born, Kurt Gödel and Niels Bohr), together with Einstein's responses; and a bibliography of his writings and index. With "First Edition" and code "L-G" on copyright page. This volume is the seventh in the "Library of Living Philosophers." Published the same year as the signed limited edition of 1000 copies. Small price sticker to rear pastedown.

Dust jacket with a few short closed tears and creases, spine very mildly toned. A near-fine copy.