This remarkable study is a model of what the biography of a scientist should be. Its author, a noted scientist himself, was a friend of and collaborator with Albert Einstein. On these pages, we come to know Albert Einstein as the "backward" child; the academic outcast; the reluctant world celebrity; the exile; the pacifist; the philosopher; the humanitarian; the tragically saddened "father" of the atomic bomb; and above all, the unceasing searcher after scientific truth. At the same time, we are given a superb and essential introduction to the creative process and the concepts that shattered an age-old view of the universe and ushered in a revolution whose reverberations continue to touch us all.