A letter handwritten by physicist Albert Einstein, expressing his views on religion, is to be sold on eBay this month.
Known as the God Letter, the correspondence offers insights into the private thoughts about religion, God and tribalism of one of the world's most brilliant minds. The LA-based auction agency handling the sale said the letter, written a year before Einstein's death, is expected to fetch much more than the opening bid of $3 million (?2.3m). Auction Cause President Eric Gazin said: "This letter, in my opinion, is really of historical and cultural significance as these are the personal and private thoughts of arguably the smartest man of the 20th century. "The letter was written near the end of his life, after a lifetime of learning and thought," he added. Einstein wrote the letter in German on 3 January, 1954, on Princeton University letterhead to philosopher Eric Gutkind after he read Gutkind's book, Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt. "The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can (for me) change this," wrote the German-born scientist, who in 1921 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The anonymous seller of the letter, which will be auctioned with the original envelope, stamp and postmark, purchased it from Bloomsbury Auctions in London in 2008 for $404,000 (?312,000). Since that time, the letter has been stored in a temperature-controlled vault at a public institution. Mr Gazin said he expects the letter will fetch double or triple the $3m amount during the 8-18 October auction. The last major Einstein letter sold for more than $2m (?1.5m) ten years ago. ------------------------------------ Post message: prole...@egroups.com Subscribe : proletar-subscr...@egroups.com Unsubscribe : proletar-unsubscr...@egroups.com List owner : proletar-ow...@egroups.com Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: proletar-dig...@yahoogroups.com proletar-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: proletar-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
