Walter Isaacson, former managing editor of Time magazine and author of best-selling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger, has turned his attention to the 20th century's scientific poster boy: Albert Einstein, whose family life was as difficult as his career was distinguished.

Isaacson's book Einstein: His Life and Universe represents the first complete history of the theoretical-physicist-turned- refugee to draw upon all of Einstein's papers, many of which were unsealed last summer.

In what Booklist calls an "extraordinarily encompassing and profoundly affecting biography," Isaacson creates a portrait of the private as well as the public Einstein; he talks to guest host Dave Davies about the man he discovered in the course of his research.

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