Sadly, only the middle child survived, though by that point, Mileva was separated from the renowned physicist. Instead, she married Einstein and had two more children by him. A pregnancy and birth out of wedlock led to Mileva failing her final work toward her physics degree and never going back to finish. This proved her undoing, in more ways than one. He was the first in her small class to be welcoming, and soon enough he managed to sneak under her guard and into her affections. Mileva met Albert at university in Zurich. She was a female of Eastern European descent who walked with a pronounced limp and was subject to open and veiled scorn alike. Mileva had to fight for her chance, with everything working against her. This extraordinary woman had the misfortune to be born into a world reluctant to allow women a university education, especially in the “hard” sciences of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. The Other Einstein, by Marie Benedict, is a look at lost dreams, failing hopes, and “what ifs.” What if Mileva, the little known first wife of Albert Einstein, had never forsaken her path and graduated with a physics degree as she had planned? What if she had collaborated equally with her husband?
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