The Book Prize Index

"Subtle is the Lord ...": The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein

Abraham Pais

Since the death of Albert Einstein in 1955 there have been many books and articles written about the man and a number of attempts to "explain" relativity. In this new major work Abraham Pais, himself an eminent physicist who worked alongside Einstein in the post-war years, traces the development of Einstein's entire oeuvre. This is the first book which deal comprehensively and in depth with Einstein's science, both the successes and the failures. Running through the book is a completely non-scientific biography (identified in the table of contents by italic type) including many letters which appear in English for the first time, as well as other information not published before. Throughout the preparation of this book, Pais has had complete access to the Einstein Archives (now in the possession of the Hebrew University) and the invaluable guidance of the late Helen Dukas--formerly Einstein's private secretary.

ScienceScience · medium confidenceScience81 signalsLlm Classifier: Science -> ScienceOpen Library: Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: Physics -> ScienceScience & DiscoveryTechnology, Computing & AIMental Health & Psychology

Award History

1 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
National Book Award for Science HardcoverMajor1983WinnerSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Albert Einstein95%
    Show lower-confidence suggestions

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Helen Dukas38%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Hebrew University40%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    Pais argues he traces the development of Einstein's entire oeuvre comprehensively, in depth, covering both the successes and failures of Einstein's science, alongside a non-scientific biography using largely unpublished letters and archival access.

    Model confidence 62%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    70 / 100 academic

    Academic

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 78%.