Forbes Buys Einstein Letter for $220,000
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United Press International
NEW YORK — Magazine publisher Malcolm S. Forbes paid $220,000 at an auction Friday for a 1939 letter from Albert Einstein to President Franklin D. Roosevelt disclosing the possibility of an atomic weapon.
The letter was written when Leo Szilard asked Einstein’s help in convincing Roosevelt of the need for an atomic program. Szilard, a scientific associate of Einstein, wrote two letters of different lengths, and Einstein signed both. Forbes bought the shorter version.
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