origin in "Miza,"
one
of the Serbian diminutives for "Mileva"
(which
was never
used by Einstein in the correspondence,
however).
Because
it
is also
a
standard South
German
expression
for
"pussycat"
and
may
have
been used by Einstein with this meaning,
we
thought it best
to
leave
the term untranslated. Also, Einstein frequently referred
to
himself
(and
was
addressed by
Mileva)
as
"Johonzel"
or
"Johannzel" (with
variations in
spelling).
The
origin
of this term,
equivalent
to
"Johnny,"
is not known, and
we
left it untranslated.
Misspelled
names
of
persons
and
places (quite frequent,
particularly in Einstein's
letters and
even
in his scientific
notes
and papers)
are
routinely
corrected without comment; other misspellings, of
course,
could not be
maintained in translation.
Many technical
expressions
used in the
original
documents
are
outdated (see editorial
notes
in Volume
1).
Wherever possible,
we
have
not replaced them by the modern English
ones;
instead,
we
have used
the
expressions employed in the technical literature of the time, if
known,
or
provided
a
literal
translation. Similarly, "Israelit" and
"israelitisch"
are
rendered
as
"Israelite,"
since these
were
terms
used in Central Europe in the 19th and
early
20th
century.
We
only rarely had to insert comments; these
appear
in
square
brackets
[]. Figures, graphs, and drawings had
to
be omitted for
technical
reasons;
their
approximate
location,
corresponding
as
closely
as
possible
to
that in the
original,
is indicated by
"[Fig.]." All formulas
were
included in
a
form
as
similar
to
that in
Volume
1
as
possible
with
the word
processor
at
our
disposal,
including
all
the
errors
in the
original
documents.
In the translation of the Weber
notes
(Document
No.
37)
the
bracketed number
at
the top left hand
corner
of
every
10th
page
indicates
the equivalent
page
number of the German text of this
document.
We
are
indebted
to
John Stachel, Editor, and Robert
Schulmann,
Associate
Editor of the Einstein
Project;
and
to
Herbert S.
Bailey,
Jr., retired
Director,
and Alice Calaprice, Senior Editor, of
Princeton
University Press, for their help and
encouragement.
Anna Beck
Peter Havas
March 1987
xiv