I N T R O D U C T I O N T O V O L U M E 1 4 l v i i of the events.[23] According to one report, Dickson, a seemingly deranged Russian author, tried to enter the Einsteins’ apartment forcibly on 30 January 1925 while allegedly brandishing a pistol. Elsa Einstein managed to calm her down, and Dickson stated she would return later to meet Einstein in person. The next day, she reappeared and was let into the apartment, where the police were waiting for her. She was taken into custody and Einstein asked that she be sent to a private asylum at his expense. Another press report claimed that Dickson tried to force her way into the apartment, was stopped by Elsa Einstein, and fled the scene, leaving behind a letter requesting Einstein’s financial assistance. She was later apprehended by the police. Dickson had been sending threatening letters to Einstein for the past six months. The French authorities had apparently deported Dickson to Belgium fol- lowing her assassination attempt on the Soviet envoy Leonid Krasin in Paris. The Belgian authorities, in turn, had subsequently accompanied her across the German border and released her in Aachen. In any event, Einstein seems to have become increasingly aware of his own mor- tality. He wrote two new wills, one in late July 1923 and another in March 1925 on the eve of his departure for South America (Docs. 91, 448). The volume also illuminates Einstein’s views on the role of work in his life. While in “banishment” in Leyden, he described his research as “a difficult search full of eternal doubts” (Doc. 160). He compared his life in Kiel, which he visited frequently, to that of a monastery (Doc. 247), where his sojourns provided him with the kind of tranquility he had previously found so appealing on both his sea voyag- es and at the Swiss Patent Office.[24] The crucial emotional role his work played for him was highlighted in the summer of 1924 during a sojourn at Lautrach Castle when he concluded that he “actually had no talent for lazing around” and needed “a sailing boat or so, not to fall into brooding” (Doc. 300). VII The bicentennial of Immanuel Kant’s birth was marked on 22 April 1924, and it may come as no surprise that during the years 1923 and 1924 Einstein was asked to review two books on (neo-)Kantianism and its relationship to relativity theory. In the course of these reviews, Einstein gave a detailed criticism of Kantianism. In particular, he explained why, in his view, the recent attempts by neo-Kantians to reconcile Kant with general relativity were ultimately futile. The reviews drew much attention. Arnold Berliner, quoting from a letter by Friedrich Klein to him (Abs. 462), tried to solicit a more extensive text from Einstein “opposing Kant”