Celebrities today begrudgingly accept the fact that their lives are going to be turned upside down because of their celebrity. They'll be hounded by paparazzi, their children won't have any privacy, crazed fans will hunt down their homes and hotel rooms, and they'll have very little solitude or peace in their lives. It is doubtful that Einstein would have enjoyed or encouraged that kind of celebrity. As it was, there are many who said he didn't appreciate the limelight, and that he would have rather gone through life unrecognized. Others maintain his persona was deceptively simple for a reason. Another writer notes, "He cultivated this image of affable genius by dressing shabbily, proclaiming his passions for sail-boats and violins, and producing pithy aphorisms -- his deceptively throw-away remark that 'God is subtle but not malicious' is now carved above a fireplace at Princeton University."
Perhaps some of his celebrity was a calculated attempt to gain more attention to his work, but one thing is certain. Einstein is a celebrity, and speculation won't change that fact.
In conclusion, Albert Einstein is still one of the most celebrated scientists in history. He came to world attention because of his work, and maintained that attention at a time when communication and public relations was far different than it is today. He's a publicist's dream, because he garnered the attention of the world without the usual fanfare and fluff that follows today's celebrities.
References
Barrow, John. "Einstein as Icon." Plus Magazine. 2005. http://plus.maths.org/issue37/features/Einstein/index.html
Editors. "Albert Einstein - Biography." The Nobel Foundation. 2008. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html
"The Maestro of Time: Patricia Fara Marks Two Significant Einstein Anniversaries and Points out Some Contradictions in the Reputation of This Great Scientific Hero," History Today, April 2005.
Jerome, Fred, and Rodger Taylor. Einstein on Race and Racism. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005.
Mallove, Eugene F. "The Einstein Myths -- of Space, Time, and Aether." Infinite Energy. 2008. http://www.infinite-energy.com/iemagazine/issue38/einstein.html.
Simon, John J. "Albert Einstein, Radical: A Political Profile." Monthly Review, May 2005, 1+.
John Barrow. "Einstein as Icon." Plus Magazine. 2005. http://plus.maths.org/issue37/features/Einstein/index.html (accessed 24 Oct. 2008).
John J. Simon, "Albert Einstein, Radical: A Political Profile," Monthly Review, May 2005.
Editors. "Albert Einstein - Biography." The Nobel Foundation. 2008. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1921/einstein-bio.html (accessed 24 Oct. 2008).
Barrow.
Simon.
Fred Jerome, and Rodger Taylor, Einstein on Race and Racism (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005), 6.
10 Eugene F. Mallove. "The Einstein Myths -- of Space, Time, and Aether." Infinite Energy. 2008. http://www.infinite-energy.com/iemagazine/issue38/einstein.html (accessed 24 Oct. 2008).
11 Ibid.
12 Barrow.
13 Patricia Fara, "The Maestro of Time: Patricia Fara Marks Two Significant Einstein Anniversaries and Points out Some Contradictions in the Reputation of This Great Scientific Hero," History Today, April 2005.
