l i v E DITORIAL METHOD
Poems authored by Einstein are presented in Writings volumes. Poems sent to
Einstein are presented in Correspondence volumes if they are an integral part of a
letter; otherwise, they are described in the annotation and entered in the Calendar.
Authors and dates of known but unavailable items are cited, and any extant, im-
portant excerpts from the original are printed.
Einstein’s postscripts that serve only to extend greetings, have no independent
character, or are appended to letters by other authors are abstracted in the Calendar.
Letters whose content is clearly intended for publication are printed in the
Writings series, while those composed for a restricted audience appear in the
Correspondence series.
Prefaces to collective editions in whose composition Einstein took an active part
are included. Einstein’s prefaces to works other than his own, or to translations of
his own work, are excluded but calendared, unless their content warrants inclusion
as texts in a Writings volume. Excerpts are not published as texts.
Statements cited in an interview and presented in an unbroken block of text with-
out interjections from the interviewer are presented as texts in the Writings. Inter-
views that contain substantial blocks of quotations by Einstein, but are in the more
typical interview format, or juxtapose Einstein’s various pronouncements on a sub-
ject, are placed in the Appendix. Inimitable expressions by Einstein in an interview
are placed in the Calendar of the relevant Correspondence volume.
Einstein became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics (KWIP) in
October 1917. As in previous volumes, Einstein’s correspondence as director of the
KWIP in the present volume is substantial. Routine financial and administrative ex-
changes with Einstein, as well as grant applications or solicitations to him, are
omitted but calendared. Unless they have particular significance in understanding
Einstein’s deliberations or actions, all letters to and from Einstein as a member of
the board of directors (Direktorium) of the KWIP, or from him to the board of trust-
ees (Kuratorium) and to other members of the board of directors of the KWIP, as
well as third-party documentation of his role as director of the KWIP, are abstracted
in the Calendar.
In the case of texts or text fragments for which we have transcriptions, but where
the dating ascription conflicts with the content of the document in question, we
note the existence of the text in the Calendar and do not include it as a text.
About seventy items in the Einstein Archives are fragments and in most cases
are datable only by decade. At the end of Einstein’s Berlin period (1933), the edi-
tors will, in the last volume of that period, provide a separate itemized listing of
these drafts and notes. The same is true for a few letters from the Berlin period that
can be dated only to an approximate period of several years.