Abstract
This chapter examines Marie Benedict’s fictional recreation of the life of the Serbian mathematician, physicist, and first wife of Albert Einstein, Mileva Marić, in the biographical novel The Other Einstein (2016). Shedding a critical feminist perspective on Marić’s version of the female scientist’s life story, the chapter illuminates the author’s decision to use her artistic liberties as a novelist to explore in fiction what has become a widely held yet speculative and controversial assumption about the historical figure of Marić, namely that she was Einstein’s scientific assistant and collaborator as well as the true originator of the special theory of relativity and that she, like many women in the history of science, was cheated out of recognition by her spouse. As I will show, while apparently driven by the feminist desire to reveal Marić’s own intellectual brilliance and scientific productivity, Benedict’s fictional exploration of the “Mileva Story” in The Other Einstein serves mainly one purpose, which is to foster the tragic victim narrative that she creates about this female figure in the history of science. Ultimately, the deliberate if fictional “misrepresentation” of history runs the risk of lastingly damaging both Marić’s and Einstein’s cultural afterlives.
This chapter constitutes one of the chapters of my dissertation project on biofiction about historical female scientists currently undertaken by me at the University of Bremen. The dissertation project bears the working title: “Reimagining the Herstory of Science: Female Scientists in Contemporary Anglo-American Biographical Fiction.”
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Notes
- 1.
The phrase “Mutter der Relativitätstheorie” [Mother of the Theory of Relativity] is used by journalist Judith Rauch as the title of an article she had written for the German-speaking magazine EMMA. Rauch, “Mutter der Relativitätstheorie.” EMMA, May 1, 1990/2005. https://www.emma.de/artikel/frauen-der-wissenschaft-mutter-der-relativitaetstheorie-263153.
- 2.
The “Matilda Effect” is named for the American suffragist and feminist critic Matilda J. Cage (1826–1898), who had suffered and first written about this phenomenon in the nineteenth century. Margaret Rossiter, “The Matilda Effect in Science,” Social Studies of Science 23 (1993): 335ff.
- 3.
Ibid., 325ff.
- 4.
Ibid., 328–30.
- 5.
After their marriage in 1903, Mileva Marić added her husband’s last name to her own and was henceforth called Einstein-Marić or Marić-Einstein (the order of names is handled differently by historians and biographers indeed). Since the biographical novel discussed here covers not only the years after her marriage but also her life before that, I have chosen to refer to her as Mileva Marić throughout this study and to reserve the name Einstein for Albert.
- 6.
See, for example, Desanka Trbuhović-Gjurić, Im Schatten Albert Einsteins: Das tragische Leben der Mileva Einstein-Marić (Bern: Paul Haupt, 1988); Senta Troemel-Ploetz, “Mileva Einstein-Marić: The Woman Who Did Einstein’s Mathematics,” Women’s Studies International Forum 13, no. 5 (1990): 415–32; Evan H. Walker, “Mileva Marić’s Relativistic Role,” Physics Today 44, no. 2 (1991): 122–23.
- 7.
The notion of the “Mileva Story” is used by Allen Esterson and David C. Cassidy as an umbrella term for the various claims which argue “that Mileva Einstein-Marić contributed substantially to Albert Einstein’s scientific achievements, especially those of his ‘miracle year’ 1905, and that she should have been rightfully listed as a co-author of one or more of these papers.” Esterson and Cassidy, Einstein’s Wife: The Real Story of Mileva Einstein-Marić (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2019), xviii.
- 8.
See the authors cited in Note 6, among others.
- 9.
See, for example, Esterson and Cassidy, Einstein’s Wife; Alberto A. Martínez, “Handling Evidence in History: The Case of Einstein’s Wife,” School Science Review 86, no. 316: 49–56; Martínez, Science Secrets: The Truth about Darwin’s Finches, Einstein’s Wife, and Other Myths (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011).
- 10.
Rossiter, “Matilda Effect in Science,” 330.
- 11.
Ina Bergmann, “Historical Biofiction: Writing Lives in Diane Glancy’s Stone Heart (2003) and John May’s Poe & Fanny (2004),” in The American Novel in the 21st Century: Cultural Contexts—Literary Developments—Critical Analyses, ed. Michael Basseler and Ansgar Nünning (Trier: WVT, 2019), 311.
- 12.
Marie Benedict, The Other Einstein (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2016), 313.
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
Ibid., 311.
- 15.
Jürgen Renn and Robert Schulmann, Albert Einstein/Mileva Maric: The Love Letters, trans. Shawn Smith (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), xii.
- 16.
Benedict, The Other Einstein, 313.
- 17.
Esterson and Cassidy, Einstein’s Wife, xii.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
Ibid., xiii.
- 21.
Gerald Holton, “Of Physics, Love, and Other Passions: The Letters of Albert and Mileva,” in Einstein, History, and Other Passions, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 191.
- 22.
John Stachel, “Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić: A Collaboration that Failed to Develop,” in Creative Couples in the Sciences, ed. Helena M. Pycior, Nancy G Slack, and Pnina G. Abir-Am (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996), 207.
- 23.
Ibid.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
Troemel-Ploetz, “Mileva Einstein-Marić,” 421–22.
- 26.
Esterson and Cassidy, Einstein’s Wife, 266.
- 27.
The Other Einstein is, in fact, only one example of what seems to be an unprecedented literary curiosity about the history of women in science. Further examples include Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable Creatures (2009), Carrie Brown’s The Stargazer’s Sister (2015), and Jennifer Chiaverini’s Enchantress of Numbers (2017).
- 28.
Renn and Schulmann, Albert Einstein/Mileva Maric, xv.
- 29.
“Herstorical biofictions” which seek to reclaim the “lost lives” of historical women who had long been overshadowed by the famous men they had loved and with whom they had spent (part of) their lives seem to be experiencing a veritable boom in recent years. Even a rather cursory search reveals numerous examples that could be cited as evidence here, among them Lynn Cullen’s Mrs. Poe (2013), Anne Girard’s Madame Picasso (2014), Naomi Wood’s Mrs. Hemingway (2014), or Betty Bolté’s Becoming Lady Washington (2020).
- 30.
Benedict, The Other Einstein, 314.
- 31.
Marie-Luise Kohlke, “Neo-Victorian Biofiction and the Special/Spectral Case of Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Hottentot Venus,” Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies 18, no. 3 (2013): 11.
- 32.
Bergmann, “Historical Biofiction,” 320.
- 33.
A couple of Mileva Marić’s private letters to Albert Einstein as well as to her friend and roommate Helene Kaufler-Savić (1871–1944) have survived and were published. For some of her correspondence with Einstein, see Renn and Schulmann, Albert Einstein/Mileva Maric. For the personal letters she exchanged with Kaufler-Savić, see Milan Popović, ed., In Albert’s Shadow: The Life and Letters of Mileva Marić, Einstein’s First Wife (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). These letters certainly give an idea of what occupied her emotionally and intellectually.
- 34.
Katherine Cooper and Emma Short, “Histories and Heroines: The Female Figure in Contemporary Historical Fiction,” in The Female Figure in Contemporary Historical Fiction, ed. Katherine Cooper and Emma Short (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 14.
- 35.
Kohlke, “Neo-Victorian Biofiction,” 6.
- 36.
Caitríona Ní Dhúill, “Gendered Narratives: ‘She’, ‘He’, and Their Discontents in Biography,” in Metabiography: Reflecting on Biography (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 192.
- 37.
Benedict, The Other Einstein, 323.
- 38.
Stephanie Bird, Recasting Historical Women: Female Identity in German Biographical Fiction (Oxford: Berg, 1998), 5.
- 39.
Ní Dhúill, “Gendered Narratives,” 194.
- 40.
Benedict, The Other Einstein, prologue, n. pag.
- 41.
Benedict, The Other Einstein, 312.
- 42.
Ibid., 308.
- 43.
Ibid., 309.
- 44.
Alberto A. Martínez, “Marie Benedict [Heather Terrell], The Other Einstein: A Novel,” Physics in Perspective 20 (2018): 211.
- 45.
Benedict, The Other Einstein, 321.
- 46.
Martínez, “Marie Benedict,” 210.
- 47.
Benedict, The Other Einstein, 321.
- 48.
Ibid., 312.
- 49.
Renn and Schulmann, Albert Einstein/Mileva Maric, xxiv.
- 50.
Martínez, “Handling Evidence in History,” 49.
- 51.
Rossiter, “Matilda Effect in Science,” 330.
- 52.
Renn and Schulmann, Albert Einstein/Mileva Maric, 39 and 41.
- 53.
Trbuhović-Gjurić, Im Schatten Albert Einsteins; Troemel-Ploetz, “Mileva Einstein-Marić”; Walker, “Mileva Marić’s Relativistic Role.”
- 54.
Martínez, “Handling Evidence in History”; Martínez, Science Secrets; Esterson and Cassidy, Einstein’s Wife.
- 55.
Michael Lackey, The American Biographical Novel (New York: Bloomsbury, 2016), 67.
- 56.
Michael Lackey, “Locating and Defining the Bio in Biofiction,” a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 31, no. 1 (2016): 7, https://doi.org/10.1080/08989575.2016.1095583.
- 57.
Martínez, Science Secrets, 206ff.
- 58.
Benedict, The Other Einstein, 313.
- 59.
Ibid., 217–18.
- 60.
Ibid., 221.
- 61.
Ibid., 235.
- 62.
Ibid., 256.
- 63.
Ibid., 313.
- 64.
Julia Novak, “The Notable Woman in Fiction: The Afterlives of Elizabeth Barrett Browning,” a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 31, no. 1 (2016): 85, https://doi.org/10.1080/08989575.2016.1092789.
- 65.
Benedict, The Other Einstein, 314.
- 66.
Marie-Luise Kohlke and Christian Gutleben, “Taking Biofictional Liberties: Tactical Games and Gambits with Nineteenth-Century Lives,” in Neo-Victorian Biofiction: Reimagining Nineteenth-Century Historical Subjects, ed. Marie-Luise Kohlke and Christian Gutleben (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 3.
- 67.
Jenni Ogden, “The Thin Line Between Fiction and Fact,” Psychology Today, September 2, 2016, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/trouble-in-mind/201609/the-thin-line-between-fiction-and-fact.
References
Benedict, Marie. The Other Einstein. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2016.
Bergmann, Ina. “Historical Biofiction: Writing Lives in Diane Glancy’s Stone Heart (2003) and John May’s Poe & Fanny (2004).” In The American Novel in the 21st Century: Cultural Contexts—Literary Developments—Critical Analyses, edited by Michael Basseler and Ansgar Nünning, 309–22. Trier: WVT, 2019.
Bird, Stephanie. Recasting Historical Women: Female Identity in German Biographical Fiction. Oxford: Berg, 1998.
Cooper, Katherina, and Emma Short. “Histories and Heroines: The Female Figure in Contemporary Historical Fiction.” In The Female Figure in Contemporary Historical Fiction, edited by Katherine Cooper and Emma Short, 1–20. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Esterson, Allen, and David C. Cassidy. Einstein’s Wife: The Real Story of Mileva Einstein-Marić. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2019.
Holton, Gerald. “Of Physics, Love, and Other Passions: The Letters of Albert and Mileva.” In Einstein, History, and Other Passions, 2nd ed., 170–93. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
Kohlke, Marie-Luise, and Christian Gutleben. “Taking Biofictional Liberties: Tactical Games and Gambits with Nineteenth-Century Lives.” In Neo-Victorian Biofiction: Reimagining Nineteenth-Century Historical Subjects, edited by Marie-Luise Kohlke and Christian Gutleben, 1–53. Leiden: Brill, 2020.
Kohlke, Marie-Luise. “Neo-Victorian Biofiction and the Special/Spectral Case of Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Hottentot Venus.” Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies 18, no. 3 (2013): 4–21.
Lackey, Michael. The American Biographical Novel. New York: Bloomsbury, 2016.
———. “Locating and Defining the Bio in Biofiction.” a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 31, no. 1 (2016): 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989575.2016.1095583.
Martínez, Alberto A. “Handling Evidence in History: The Case of Einstein’s Wife.” School Science Review 86, no. 316 (2005): 49–56.
———. “Marie Benedict [Heather Terrell], The Other Einstein: A Novel.” Physics in Perspective 20 (2018): 208–17.
———. Science Secrets: The Truth about Darwin’s Finches, Einstein’s Wife, and Other Myths. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011.
Ní Dhúill, Caitríona. “Gendered Narratives: ‘She’, ‘He’, and Their Discontents in Biography.” In Metabiography: Reflecting on Biography, 171–209. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.
Novak, Julia. “The Notable Woman in Fiction: The Afterlives of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.” a/b: Auto/Biography Studies 31, no. 1 (2016): 83–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989575.2016.1092789.
Odgen, Jenni. “The Thin Line Between Fiction and Fact.” Psychology Today, September 2, 2016. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/trouble-in-mind/201609/the-thin-line-between-fiction-and-fact.
Popović, Milan, ed. In Albert’s Shadow: The Life and Letters of Mileva Marić, Einstein’s First Wife. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Rauch, Judith. “Mutter der Relativitätstheorie.” EMMA, May 1, 1990/2005. https://www.emma.de/artikel/frauen-der-wissenschaft-mutter-der-relativitaetstheorie-263153.
Renn, Jürgen, and Robert Schulmann, eds. Albert Einstein/Mileva Maric: The Love Letters. Translated by Shawn Smith. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Rossiter, Margaret. “The Matilda Effect in Science.” Social Studies of Science 23 (1993): 325–41.
Stachel, John. “Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić: A Collaboration that Failed to Develop.” In Creative Couples in the Sciences, edited by Helena M. Pycior, Nancy G Slack, and Pnina G. Abir-Am, 207–19. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1996.
Stephan, Inge. “‘Ich glaube, daß eine Frau eine Karriere machen kann wie ein Mann …’ Das Leben der Mileva Marić-Einstein (1875–1948).” In Das Schicksal der begabten Frau: im Schatten berühmter Männer, 91–107. Stuttgart: Kreuz Verlag, 1989.
Trbuhović-Gjurić, Desanka. Im Schatten Albert Einsteins: Das tragische Leben der Mileva Einstein-Marić. Bern: Paul Haupt, 1988.
Troemel-Ploetz, Senta. “Mileva Einstein-Marić. The Woman Who Did Einstein’s Mathematics.” Women’s Studies International Forum 13, no. 5 (1990): 415–32.
Walker, Evan H. “Mileva Marić’s Relativistic Role.” Physics Today 44, no. 2 (1991): 122–23.
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Müller, C. (2022). The “Mother of the Theory of Relativity”? Re-imagining Mileva Marić in Marie Benedict’s The Other Einstein (2016). In: Novak, J., Ní Dhúill, C. (eds) Imagining Gender in Biographical Fiction. Palgrave Studies in Life Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09019-6_12
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