'THE SUDDENLY FAMOUS DOCTOR EINSTEIN' 309
example, The New York Times Index contains no mention of him until November
9, 1919. From that day until his death, not one single year passed without his
name appearing in that paper, often in relation to science, more often in relation
to other issues. Thus the birth of the Einstein legend can be pinpointed at Novem-
ber 7, 1919, when the London Times broke the news.
The article in The New York Times (hereafter called the Times) of November
9 was a sensible report which contained only one embellishment. J. J. Thomson
was alleged to have said, 'This is one of the greatest—perhaps the greatest—of
achievements in the history of human thought' The words I italicized were not
spoken by Thomson, but they sell better (and may even be true). The Times of
November 9 contains a lead article on 'World outbreak plotted by Reds for
November 7/Lenin's emissaries sought to start rising all over Europe' and a col-
umn on Einstein under the sixfold headline 'Lights all askew in the heavens/Men
of science more or less agog over results of eclipse observation/Einstein theory
triumphs/Stars not where they seem or were calculated to be, but nobody need
worry/A book for 12 wise men/No more in all the world could comprehend it,
said Einstein when his daring publishers accepted it.' The article reported that
'one of the speakers at the Royal Society's meeting suggested that Euclid was
knocked out' (not so, but, again, it sells) and concluded as follows: 'When he [Ein-
stein] offered his last important work to the publishers, he warned them that there
were not more than twelve persons in the whole world who would understand it,
but the publishers took the risk.' Perhaps this story was invented by a reporter.
I think ii. more probable, however, that this often-quoted statement indeed origi-
nated with Einstein himself and was made sometime in 1916, when he published
a pamphlet (with Earth in Leipzig) and a 'popular' book on relativity (with
Vieweg in Braunschweig). At any rate, when in December 1919 a Times corre-
spondent interviewed him at his home and asked for an account of his work that
would be accessible to more than twelve people, 'the doctor laughed good-
naturedly but still insisted on the difficulty of making himself understood by lay-
men' [N5].
Editorials in the Times now begin to stress that quality of distance between the
common man and the hero which is indispensable for the creation and perpetua-
tion of his mythical role. November 11: 'This is news distinctly shocking and
apprehensions for the safety of confidence even in the multiplication table will
arise. ... It would take the presidents of two Royal Societies to give plausibility
or even thinkability to the declaration that as light has weight space has limits. It
just doesn't, by definition, and that's the end of that—for commonfolk, however it
may be for higher mathematicians.' November 16: 'These gentlemen may be great
astronomers but they are sad logicians. Critical laymen have already objected that
scientists who proclaim that space comes to an end somewhere are under obliga-
tion to tell us what lies beyond it.' November 18: the Times urges its readers not
to be offended by the fact that only twelve people can understand the theory of
'the suddenly famous Dr Einstein.' November 25: a news column with the head-