The first Einstein is Albert. The “other” Einstein is Mileva Maric, the first wife of the famous physicist, whose role in helping to formulate the special theory of relativity in 1905 has been speculated on, but never really known—with the truth mostly lost to history. In The Other Einstein (Sourcebooks, Oct.), Marie Benedict unearths Mileva’s story, from the hinterland of misogynistic Serbia to the forward-thinking physics classrooms of fin de siècle Switzerland, narrating events from Mileva’s point of view. A cache of love letters made public via the Einstein Archives at Princeton was a tremendous help in bringing Mileva to life.

“It was daunting at first, writing about a real person and telling her intimate story,” says Benedict. “But I had her letters, I had a sense of her voice, I felt I could inhabit her if I could tell it from the first person.”

Benedict stumbled upon the idea for the novel while reading to her son from a book called Who Was Albert Einstein? “It got me galloping when I read that he had had a physicist wife. I started thinking, what role might she have played? Mileva made a fantastic leap from her life in Serbia to the university. It was a story I really had to tell. A lot is based in fact, though I’ve taken a lot of liberties.”

Benedict has written a number of historical fictions under the name Heather Terrell—not so much a nom de plume as a shortening of her full name—but with The Other Einstein she thinks she has discovered her true calling: unearthing stories about women who have been overlooked or forgotten through time, or whose lives have been intentionally suppressed. “With this book, I really found my passion,” she says.

Next up she’ll tackle the early years in the life of the industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, telling his story from the perspective of two women in his life.

“There has to have been a role played by the women in the lives of these great men,” she says. “I like to take them out of the shadows. For people like Einstein, there are bookshelves and bookshelves on them, but not much on the women.”

Benedict will be signing galleys of The Other Einstein in the Sourcebooks booth (2333), today, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. She is also participating in the “Hot Fall Fiction 2016” panel on the Downtown Stage, tomorrow, 12:15–12:45 p.m., with Claire Kirch moderating.

This article appeared in the May 12, 2016 edition of PW BEA Show Daily.