From Isaacson, the bestselling author of “Benjamin Franklin,” comes the first full biography of Albert Einstein since all his papers have become available—a fully realized portrait of a premier icon of his era.

By the author of the acclaimed bestseller “Benjamin Franklin,” this is the first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available.

How did his mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson's biography shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom.

Based on newly released personal letters of Einstein, this book explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk — a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate — became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos, the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals.

These traits are just as vital for this new century of globalization, in which our success will depend on our creativity, as they were for the beginning of the last century, when Einstein helped usher in the modern age.

Review
“Once again Walter Isaacson has produced a most valuable biography of a great man about whom much has already been written. It helps that he has had access to important new material. He met the challenge of dealing with his subject as a human being and describing profound ideas in physics. His biography is a pleasure to read and makes the great physicist come alive.” — Murray Gell-Mann, winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics and author of “The Quark and the Jaguar”

Walter Isaacson, the CEO of the Aspen Institute, has been chairman of CNN and the managing editor of “Time” magazine. He is the author of “Steve Jobs”;“ Einstein: His Life and Universe”; “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life”; and “Kissinger: A Biography”.

Evan Thomas is the author of “The”“Very Best Men: Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the C.I.A.”; "Robert Kennedy: His Life; The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst and the Rush to Empire, 1989";“ Sea of Thunder: The Last Great Naval Command, 1941-1945”;"“and ”John Paul Jones. "He is at work on a book about President Dwight Eisenhower.