ALBERT EINSTEIN INSCRIBES ONE OF HIS FAVORITE BOOKS WITH A POEM TO A SCIENTIST HE HELPED ESCAPE NAZI GERMANY
STANDEN, ANTHONY. Science is a Sacred Cow. New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1950.
8vo. Original boards and dustcover in unusually fine condition.
FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED BY EINSTEIN WITH A FOUR-LINE POEM to friend Rolf-Helmut Ehrmann. In full: “Ach herrje wie schauderhaft/ kommt der weg die wissenschaft/ Hatte selbst viel Spass daran/ Drum du Ketzer schau dirs an.” [Trans: My goodness, how dreadful comes the way of science, I myself have much fun with it, and for that reason you heretic, take a look at it.] Einstein was a friend to Ehrmann as well as his father Rudolf Ehrmann, and was instrumental in helping them escape Germany in the late 1930s, as well as in securing them jobs in America. Science is a Sacred Cow, a humorous critique of the world of science, suggests that any group of people who take themselves so seriously should be looked at with a healthy amount of skepticism. Einstein was a great fan of the book.
From a review of the book, ‘Scientists believe they possess in unique degree the qualities of accuracy, observation, reasoning power, intellectual curiosity, tolerance and even humility. They suppose these admirable qualities can best be imparted to others by giving them courses in science. In his fascinating, amusing and best-selling book, Anthony Standen – himself a scientist – analyzes these and other scientific claims and delicately punctures a great many assumptions on which they rest. He has done brilliantly a job which badly needed doing. What makes Science Is a Sacred Cow even more delightful and rewarding is the author’s sense of humor. He is not an angry, slashing critic, but an urbane and cultured one.’
