Acclaim for Einstein: A Life

"Denis Brian's convincing picture . . . only makes our wonder grow at Einstein's sublime achievements." —The Washington Post

"Does much to reveal the man behind the image . . . Brian's intimate work proves that in literature, as in science, taking a careful look can be a rewarding endeavor." —Detroit Free Press.

"A fascinating, vastly enjoyable, deeply researched and fair account of Einstein the man." —Physics World

"Exhaustively researched, almost obsessively detailed, written with unobtrusive informality, the book is exemplary as a record of Einstein's personal and professional life." —The Spectator (U.K.)

"An utterly fascinating life of a great scientist full of new insights and very readable." —Ashley Montagu

"A fascinating read with more interesting material about Einstein as a human being than I have ever seen before . . . Once I started it, I couldn't put it down." —Robert Jastrow astrophysicist and bestselling author

"A thoughtful and captivating account of one whom I had the joy of knowing and loving." —George Wald Nobel Laureate

The first book to chronicle both generations of the famous French scientific family For two generations, the Curie family conducted key early research on radiation, discovering radium and laying the groundwork for the development of the A-bomb. Their work earned them a slew of Nobel Prizes: for Physics in 1903 (Pierre and Marie), Chemistry in 1911 (Marie), and Chemistry in 1935 (daughter Irene and her husband, Frederic Joliot-Curie). Another daughter, the glamorous writer Eve Curie, became her mother's biographer and a fearless war correspondent. This revealing biography relates the personal stories and controversies behind the family's success, including the sex scandal that devastated Marie, the run-ins Marie and Irene had with the male scientific establishment, and Frederic's Resistance exploits and involvement with the Communist Party.

In this biography of Colonel John Henry Patterson, Denis Brian reveals his subject to be a composite of diverse identities. An Irish-born soldier, lion hunter, bridge builder, East African game warden, author, man-about-town, and Zionist, Patterson's life is a fascinating story, and Brian's well-researched account gives a revealing look into the ebb and flow of circumstances that produced such a colorful character. Brian begins the narrative with Patterson's assignment in East Africa, where lion attacks were terrorizing workers on a railroad project. With the sure hand of the storyteller, Brian details accounts of Patterson quelling the rebellion and killing the lions himself. The colonel's indomitable energy and courage become a consistent theme in the book as the author traces Patterson's life from his days as a British socialite to his command of the Jewish Legion of volunteers who helped drive the Turks out of Palestine. Patterson spent most of his later years as an ardent Zionist, working for the creation of a Jewish homeland until his death in 1947, a year before the birth of the state of Israel. Drawing on an impressive range of sources, Brian's biography of this ""Righteous Gentile"" is an incisive portrait of a key figure in both Israeli and colonial British history.

This book reveals how and why, almost without exception, American presidents sought to protect Jews at home and abroad from their often deadly enemies. It explains why American presidents have admired and befriended Jews, appointed them to powerful positions, and eventually helped them achieve their greatest dream: a return to the country of their forebears and the establishment of a Jewish state in which they were masters of their destiny. Based on once-secret documents and little-known diaries, The Elected and the Chosen discloses, for the first time, the close ties that have bound American presidents and the Jews from the dawn of American history.

In this unique book, celebrated biographer Denis Brian draws on some of the greatest scientific minds of the twentieth century, in pursuit of their distinct views on life, knowledge, and the cosmos. A provocative and revealing interviewer, Brian weaves together the insights and personal stories of a stellar cast of Nobel Prize winners and other luminaries, including Linus Pauling's ill-fated support of Vitamin C as a cure for cancer, Ashley Montagu's explanation of why the sex drive is not innate, and various personal recollections of the making of the atomic bomb, Heisenberg's role in Nazi Germany, and the spy case of Klaus Fuchs.