Letters Uncover Einstein Affair

Nine letters written by Albert Einstein reveal that the father of modern physics had a love affair during World War II with a purported Soviet spy, Sotheby’s auction house said. It said the letters, to be sold at an auction in New York on June 26, were written by Einstein to Russian emigre Margarita Konenkova. He wrote to her in the Soviet Union from his home in Princeton, N.J., during the post-war period between November 1945 and July 1946. Although Konenkova succeeded in her job of introducing Einstein to the Soviet vice consul in New York, Pavel Mikhailov, scholars believe it is highly unlikely that he helped Moscow’s effort to build an atomic bomb.