E D I T O R I A L M E T H O D l v i i
We have included as texts certain documents representative of a given genre.
Due to the success of the solar eclipse expeditions confirming the general theory of
relativity, Einstein’s writings came into high demand beginning in late 1919. His
correspondence with several interested translators is shown, for example, in Docs.
220, 249, 330, and 393, while his extensive dealings with German publishers are
contained in the Calendar. Docs. 11 and 13 deal with two applications to the KWIP
for funding, each sponsored by a powerful member of the physics establishment
(Docs. 12 and 18), though one application is rejected by the board of directors and
the other by the board of trustees; Doc. 41 represents a nationalistic, crank response
to the KWIP solicitation for research proposals; Doc. 69 is a layman’s suggestion
for improving Einstein’s survey of special and general relativity for a general audi-
ence; Doc. 128 is the eager response of a layman to newspaper coverage of the gen-
eral theory of relativity; and last but not least, Docs. 83 and 241 are examples of a
woman’s successful application for KWIP funding.
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 Correspondence volume of that period, provide a separate item-
ized listing of these drafts and notes. The same is true for a few letters from the Ber-
lin period that can be dated only to an approximate period of several years.
ESTABLISHMENT OF TEXTS
It is our policy to work initially from a photocopy of a manuscript text, and then to
perfect our transcription against the original, if available. Most of the original texts
for Volume 1 were located in Switzerland and Israel, making it possible for the ed-
itors to implement a policy of perfecting all transcriptions against the originals. In
some subsequent cases, however, we have had to refer to photocopies of manu-
script texts without perfecting our transcription against the original.
If neither the original nor a photocopy is available, we base our text on a previ-
ously transcribed or printed version. If more than one such version is available, we
select the one that in our opinion agrees most closely with features characteristic of
the author’s style, orthography, and punctuation, departing from the text only to
correct unambiguous typographical errors.
In the case of published items, we take the first version published in the original
language as our primary text. Variations in later editions of Einstein’s publications
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