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Cairn.info and related listings: Einstein - Le Bon letters (1922); Moatti's books

Visit: 2026-10-08. Found via Google Einstein "Le Bon" letter Gustave "intra-atomic" OR "énergie intra-atomique", then "Einstein, un siècle contre lui" "Le Bon" chapitre XI and Einstein "Le Bon" 1922 letter "Collected Papers" OR site:einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu. Cairn refused script access (403); Chrome showed the free preview of chapter XIII only.

Found [web]

  1. Alexandre Moatti, Einstein, un siècle contre lui (Odile Jacob, 2007; EAN 9782738120076). Chapter XI: "Pourfendeurs positivistes de la science officielle : Gustave Le Bon, Auguste Lumière" (Google listing). Chapter XIII, note 10 (Google snippet from https://stm.cairn.info/einstein-un-siecle-contre-lui--9782738120076-page-151): "Einstein répond à chaque lettre de Le Bon, les 30 juin et 13 juillet 1922", and a quoted Le Bon sentence: "... énergie intra-atomique. Son existence, je le répète, est un fait d'expérience et non d'hypothèse mathématique." Preview text of ch. XIII (read in Chrome): Moatti calls Le Bon "un cas d'école intéressant, avec sa pseudo-démarche scientifique (chapitre XI)" and documents his antisemitic writings 1888-1923, citing his biographer Benoît Marpeau. Stake: Moatti writes as a critic of "alterscience" (his later book Alterscience, Odile Jacob 2013, has a chapter XIV on Le Bon and Lumière per the publisher's listing). His characterization is reported as his.
  2. The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, vol. 13 (Berlin Years, Jan 1922 - Mar 1923): the calendar lists "From Gustave Le Bon, 9 April 1922 - Not selected for translation" (bookseller listing at akademika.no via Google snippet); Google Books index for vol.13 includes "Le Bon". A SAGE journal article notes "the letters between Le Bon and Einstein in Einstein Albert, Oeuvres choisies 4" (snippet). The Einstein travel-diaries volume index has "Le Bon, Gustave, AE on, 151".

Bearing on the claims

  • Claim 2 and 5: Le Bon pressed his priority for intra-atomic energy on Einstein in 1922 (mass-energy context), and Einstein answered at least twice (30 June and 13 July 1922, per Moatti). The letters themselves (CPAE vol.13; Oeuvres choisies 4) are the record to read: what Le Bon claimed and how Einstein answered.
  • Claim 6 / John Moray's statement that "Albert Einstein wrote a letter to LeBon's daughter stating that Dr. LeBon ... was truly the father of nuclear physics": a real Einstein-Le Bon exchange exists (1922); nothing found yet about a letter to a daughter or such wording. The letters would settle it.

Not reached: chapter XI text (paywalled); CPAE vol.13 document texts (Princeton Digital Einstein site not visited).