3 3 8 D O C U M E N T S 3 5 7 , 3 5 8 J A N U A R Y 1 9 2 9 357. To Hedwig Fischer Gatow, 4 January 1929 Dear Mrs. Fischer, I am delighted by the Shaw and would like to contribute to spreading awareness of the book and in the process use of my clunking name.[1] What would you think about a blurb that said: A. Einstein I would agree to this, and I believe it would be effective. If you think so too, talk it over with your husband.[2] The phrasing could be revised by mutual consent. I have read 2/3 of it with joyful admiration despite feverish work on my own prob- lems. 358. To Michele Besso Gatow [5 January 1929][1] Dear Michele, Thank you for your poetic letter, which indeed made me very happy. While most people with increasing age get grumpier and grumpier, in your case it is the exact opposite. I admire that and find it a source of joy. Nowadays I sit from time to time for a few weeks quite alone in an apartment in the countryside and cooking for my- self—like the hermits in olden days.[2] There one notices to his surprise how long the days are, and how superfluous a great part of the businesslike and leisurely ac- tivities in which we are engaged the rest of the time are. I have been reading the book on socialism by [G.] B. Shaw with much eagerness and enjoyment a splendid fellow with a great deal of insight into human activities. I am going to try to adver- tise it a bit.[3] But the best of what I have been cogitating on and calculating all the days and half the nights is now lying finished in front of me, compressed into 7 pages under the title “Unified Field Theory.”[4] That looks old-fashioned and my dear col- leagues as well as you, my dear fellow, will stick out your tongues as long as you can. For in these equations, there is absolutely no mention of Planck’s h. But when everyone has arrived at the limits of the statistical mania, they will come back to the space-time approach, full of remorse, and then these equations will be their starting point.[5] I have, namely, found a geometry that contains not only a Rieman- In this book the problem of our day time is dealt with simply, astutely, and with inner fervor. In it the Voltaire of our time speaks, and he will be heard.