Harvey Einbinder (June 18, 1926 – January 30, 2013)[1] was an American physicist, author and amateur historian.
Early life
editEinbinder was born to Jacob B. Einbinder and Dora (née Abelson) in New Haven, Connecticut.[1] He had one brother, David, and one sister, Hinde.[2]
Education
editEinbinder studied for two years at the University of Connecticut (UConn), at first physics but then mathematics in which he received a degree with "highest distinction" in 1946.[3] He later received his Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University.
Career
editHe became a consultant to the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory and to General Electric on the Atlas missile.[3] He published papers on hypersonic aerodynamics and the ionization of solid particles.[3][4][5] Einbinder patented a ten-finger typewriter keyboard.[6]
Encyclopædia Britannica
editEinbinder spent five years combing the Encyclopædia Britannica for flaws, and found enough to fill a 390-page book, called The Myth of the Britannica, published by Grove Press in 1964.[7] As summarized by The Age two years later, Einbinder's book "showed beyond argument that the Britannica was not a completely impartial and absolutely infallible work of general reference; that 666 articles in the 1963 edition were reprinted from editions dating back to 1875 in some cases; and that American influence on its editorial policy had become dominant".[8] The Science Magazine commended Einbinder as a "dedicated prince of iconoclasts" who "rips into his subject from all angles and with devastating effect".[9] Furthermore, it was suggested that the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica hire Einbinder as a fact-checker, although this never came to be.[9]
Einbinder at one point also disputed the historical accuracy of the Black Hole of Calcutta account.[citation needed] Among his other publications are An American Genius: Frank Lloyd Wright, and the play Mah Name is Lyndon (about US president Lyndon B. Johnson and the Vietnam War[10]).
Private life
editHarvey Einbinder was married to Florence Einbinder, who predeceased him. He died on January 30, 2013, at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City.[2]
Publications
edit- The Myth of the Britannica.
- New York: Grove Press, 1964
- London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1964
- New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1972
- De Solla Price, Derek J. (1964)."A Great Encyclopedia Doesn't Have To Be Good?". (Extract) Science, Volume 144, Issue 3619, pp. 665–666. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online). DOI: 10.1126/science.144.3619.665 –
- Review of Einbinder's The Myth of the Britannica.
- "The Target Is Large and the Fees Are Picayune; THE MYTH OF THE BRITANNICA. By Harvey Einbinder. 390 pp. New York: Grove Press. $7.50". The New York Times. February 2, 1964. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
- Review of Einbinder's The Myth of the Britannica.
- "Politics and the new Britannica", The Nation 220:11:342-4 (1975) –
- Review of the Britannica 3
- An American genius : Frank Lloyd Wright. New York : Philosophical Library, 1986, ISBN 0-8022-2511-X
- Mah name is Lyndon; a play. Illustrated by Florence Safadi. New York, Lady Bird Press. 1968
References
edit- ^ a b Harvey Einbinder, legacy.com
- ^ a b EINBINDER Obituaries Jewish Ledger (Connecticut), February 5, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2014
- ^ a b c Einbinder, Harvey (Spring 2000). "THE EARLY YEARS AT UCONN" (PDF). Math CONNections-A Newsletter from the UConn Mathematics Department. 3. University of Connecticut: 8, 13. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 15, 2016. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
- ^ Einbinder, Harvey (March 1, 1953). "The Hydrodynamic Stability of Flame Fronts". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 21 (3): 480–489. doi:10.1063/1.1698931.
- ^ Einbinder, Harvey (December 1, 1953). "The Application of Jacobians to Statistical Thermodynamics". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 21 (12): 2134–2142. doi:10.1063/1.1698800.
- ^ Einbinder, Harvey (June 1, 1982). "Ten-finger typewriter keyboards". US patent. Retrieved July 23, 2023.
- ^ Einbinder, Harvey The Myth of the Britannica. New York: Grove Press, 1964 (OCLC 152581687)/ London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1964 (OCLC 807782651) / New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1972. (OCLC 286856)
- ^ Peter Westcott Britannica on the Shelves (review of the 1965 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica), The Age, May 28, 1966, p.25
- ^ a b Brooke-Hitching, Edward (2020). The madman's library: the strangest books, manuscripts and other literary curiosities from history. London New York Sydney Toronto New Delhi: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4711-6692-1.
- ^ "Mah name is Lyndon; a play. Illustrated by Florence Safadi - Catalogue". catalogue.nla.gov.au. National Library of Australia. Retrieved June 4, 2024.