Category Archives: Einstein

The Secret of Einstein’s Ability to Adapt to Failure

Posted on 2. September 2012 by Nancy Pinard

As part of my attempt to embrace the complexity of Albert Einstein, I’m exploring a chapter in Lewis Pyenson’s book The Young Einstein:  The Advent of Relativity.  Pyenson begins by enumerating the failures Einstein overcame prior to being awarded the…

Posted in Dallas Willard, dealing with failure, Einstein, Helen Dukas, Lewis Pyenson, making art, point of view, reading, writing | Leave a comment

The Need for Obsession

Posted on 5. May 2012 by Nancy Pinard

I am a writer.  I am also a tennis player.  (In fact, I have torn the ligaments in my right elbow playing tennis, and in lieu of having Tommy John surgery, I wear a wrist-to-shoulder metal  Bledsoe brace on my…

Posted in Annie Darwin, Charles Darwin, death, Einstein, Einstein's children, Einstein's Daughter, Generating Fiction from History and/or Fact, historical fiction, Mileva Maric, obsession, point of view, reading, Serbia, writing, Zurich | 1 Comment

The Inner Conflict

Posted on 20. March 2012 by Nancy Pinard

I will be teaching a workshop on writing the endings of short stories and novels at the Mad Anthony Writers’ Workshop April 13-15 in Hamilton, Ohio.  In the process of preparing, I was made conscious of subjects that generally remain…

Posted in Charles Darwin, Einstein, Generating Fiction from History and/or Fact, historical fiction, inner conflict, Mileva Maric, Pauline Einstein, reading, writing | Leave a comment

The Path of Creation

Posted on 15. October 2011 by Nancy Pinard

This morning I came across this letter from Martha Graham  to Agnes DeMille, both dancers that left a long trail of amazing choreography, works which are not only still being performed, but which arguably form the backbone of  some dance companies’ repertoire. A Letter…

Posted in Agnes DeMille, Darwin, Einstein, genius, innovation, making art, Martha Graham, reading, writing | 2 Comments

Ahhh, Bern

Posted on 26. September 2011 by Nancy Pinard

Bern is a medieval city that has changed little structurally since 1410 when a law was passed, after a fire that burned all the wooden buildings, that decreed all buildings be made of stone.   Of course the old city now…

Posted in Anus Mirabilus, Bern, Eduard Einstein, Einstein, Elsa Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, Generating Fiction from History and/or Fact, Hadley Richardson, Hans Albert Einstein, Helen Dukas, History Museum, Johanna Fantova, Margot Einstein, Mileva Maric, Oktoberfest, Special Theory of Relativity, Switzerland | Leave a comment

Adventures in Munich

Posted on 24. September 2011 by Nancy Pinard

Einstein spent his childhood from age one to fifteen in Munich, though the Munich of today is a reconstruction of the city, thanks to Munich being the Nazi headquarters and therefore the target of Allied bombs in WWII. When it…

Posted in Einstein, Luitpold Gymnasium, Munich, Nazi headquarters, Oktoberfest, Research methods, Sendlinger Tor, writing | Leave a comment

Lake Como, Part II

Posted on 18. September 2011 by Nancy Pinard

We stayed in Tremezzo (tree-metzo) because it’s the location of the Villa Carlotta, an open-to-the-public villa with extensive gardens that Albert and Mileva visited on their ferry trip from Como to Colico.  It’s likely they stopped in other villages as…

Posted in Bellagio, Einstein, Lake Como, Mileva Maric, reading, Tremezzo, Varenna, Villa Carlotta | Leave a comment

The Einstein Tour Part I, Lake Como

Posted on 15. September 2011 by Nancy Pinard

My husband and I arrived in Milan yesterday after the (for me) sleepless overnight flight that is penance for the luxury of European travel, meaning no taxi fare seemed too high if it meant we might settle in at our…

Posted in Bellagio, Einstein, Generating Fiction from History and/or Fact, historical fiction, Italy, Lake Como, Mileva Maric, reading, Research methods, Tremezzo, Varenna, writing | 1 Comment

The Paper Garden

Posted on 18. August 2011 by Nancy Pinard

I have just uncovered that greatest of all delights, a book that runs so close to my vein that I look forward to going to bed at night so I can dip into it.  The book is The Paper Garden: …

Posted in Darwin, Einstein, making art, Mileva Maric, Molly Peacock, reading, Shadow Dancing, The Paper Garden, writing | 3 Comments

How much of this is true?

Posted on 11. August 2011 by Nancy Pinard

For the second time since I began writing fictional biography, someone said, “But how am I to know what’s true?”  My answer is that the scenes are made up, the dialogue, the emotional movement, but the settings are as real…

Posted in Auguste Forel, Darwin, Einstein, Fictional biography, fictional truth, Generating Fiction from History and/or Fact, historical fiction, Milos Maric, reading, Serbia, Stein am Rhein, writing | 2 Comments