'THE SUDDENLY FAMOUS DOCTOR EINSTEIN' 301Mileva remained in Zurich for the rest of her life. Initially she took on her own
family name, Marity, but by decree of the cantonal government of Zurich dated
December 24, 1924, she was given permission to revert to the name Einstein. On
occasional visits to his children, Einstein would stay in her home. She was a dif-
ficult woman, distrustful of other people and given to spells of melancholy. (Her
sister Zorka suffered from severe mental illness.) She died in 1948. Some years
thereafter Einstein wrote of her, 'She never reconciled herself to the separation
and the divorce, and a disposition developed reminiscent of the classical example
of Medea. This darkened the relations to my two boys, to whom I was attached
with tenderness. This tragic aspect of my life continued undiminished until my
advanced age' [El6].
Albert and Elsa were married on June 2, 1919. He was forty, she forty-three.
They made their home in Elsa's apartment, to which were added two rooms on
the floor above, which served as Einstein's quarters for study and repose. On
occasion, his stomach pain would still flare up [E17], but in 1920 he wrote to
Besso that he was in good health and good spirits [El8]. Perhaps the most remark-
able characteristic of this period of illness is the absence of any lull in Einstein's
scientific activity.
Elsa, gentle, warm, motherly, and prototypically bourgeoise, loved to take care
of her Albertle. She gloried in his fame. Charlie Chaplin, who first met her in
1931, described her as follows: 'She was a square-framed woman with abundant
vitality; she frankly enjoyed being the wife of the great man and made no attempt
to hide the fact; her enthusiasm was endearing' [Cl]. The affectionate relationship
between her husband and her daughters added to her happiness. Albert, the gypsy,
had found a home, and in some ways that did him much good. He very much
liked being taken care of and also thoroughly enjoyed receiving people at his apart-
ment—scientists, artists, diplomats, other personal friends. In other ways, how-
ever, this life was too much for him. A friend and visitor gave this picture: 'He,
who had always had something of the bohemian in him, began to lead a middle-
class life ... in a household such as was typical of a well-to-do Berlin family...
in the midst of beautiful furniture, carpets, and pictures.... When one entered
. .. one found Einstein still remained a "foreigner" in such a surrounding—a
bohemian guest in a middle-class home' [Fl]. Elsa gave a glimpse of their life to
another visitor: 'As a little girl, I fell in love with Albert because he played Mozart
so beautifully on the violin.... He also plays the piano. Music helps him when
he is thinking about his theories. He goes to his study, comes back, strikes a few
chords on the piano, jots something down, returns to his study. On such days,
Margot and I make ourselves scarce. Unseen, we put out something for him to
eat and lay out his coat. [Sometimes] he goes out without coat and hat, even when
the weather is bad. Then he comes back and stands there on the stairs' [SI]. One
does not have a sense of much intimacy between the two. The bedroom next to
Elsa's was occupied by her daughters; Albert's was down the hall [HI]. Nor do
they appear to have been a couple much given to joint planning and deliberation.
'Albert's will is unfathomable,' Elsa once wrote to Ehrenfest [E19]. In marked