GRAMONT ARMAND DE: (1879-1962) 12^th Duke of Gramont. French nobleman, scientist and ...

GRAMONT ARMAND DE: (1879-1962) 12^th Duke of Gramont. French nobleman, scientist and industrialist. Gramont’s mother-in-law, Elisabeth de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay, is thought to have been the inspiration for the Duchess of Guermantes in Marcel Proust’s novel A la recherche du temps perdu. Typed statement signed, A de Gramont, one page, 4to, n.p., March 1953, in French. Gramont’s statement is made in response to a researcher’s questionnaire entitled Enquête Mondiale – Hommage a Einstein, with their manuscript questions at the head of the page, ‘1. Que pensez-vous d'Einstein, ou que lui devez-vous? 2. Parmi les plus illustres savants de tous les temps, a qui le comprarez-vous et quelle place, d'apres vous, prendra-t-il dans l'avenir? (Translation: ‘1. What do you think of Einstein, or what do you owe to him? 2. Amongst the most famous scientists of all time, who would you compare him to and what place, according to you, will he hold in the future?’). Gramont’s response states, in full, ‘Que peut-on ajouter a ce que les savants du monde entier ont dit d'Einstein, et des repercussions de son oeuvre sur la pensee contemporaine? En un demi siecle nos conceptions scientifiques ont ete bouleversees a trois reprises: les quanta, la releativite, la mecanique ondulatoire ont change notre comprehension des phenomenes physiques. Heureuse epoque qui a permis a l'esprit humain de faire de tels progres et d'explorer par la tant de domaines nouveaux’ (Translation: ‘What can we add to what scientists around the world have said about Einstein, and the repercussions of his work on contemporary thought? In half a century our scientific conceptions have been disrupted three times: quanta, relativity, wave mechanics have changed our understanding of physical phenomena. A happy era which allowed the human mind to make such progress and thereby explore so many new domains’). VG

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-born theoretical physicist, Nobel Prize winner for Physics, 1921.