Szilard kiss email header

You're referring to the famous email exchange between Leó Szilárd and Albert Einstein, which is often referred to as the "Szilárd letter" or "Einstein-Szilárd letter".

The email header is not exactly what you'd expect, since this was written in 1939, long before the widespread use of email. Instead, the letter was written by hand and sent by mail.

Here's the original letter, dated August 2, 1939:

[Handwritten letterhead]

Professor Albert Einstein Princeton, New Jersey

[Handwritten text]

Dear Albert,

You will have heard it in due course but I feel it my duty to tell you of a matter of utmost urgency and gravity. I am writing to you as one Jew to another whom I happen to know.

I have been asked to call on you by a colleague who is in a position to know that the German physicists have decided to go ahead with the construction of a bomb. I am told that they have already begun to build it and that they expect to have it ready by the spring of 1940.

I am writing to you because I believe that you are the only man who can help us to prevent this catastrophe. I know that you are a busy man, but I implore you to take some time to think about this matter. I am convinced that you will agree with me that it is our duty to do everything in our power to prevent the construction of this bomb.

I would like to ask you to write to President Roosevelt and to urge him to take immediate action to prevent the construction of this bomb. I am convinced that if you were to do this, the President would take immediate action.

I am writing to you in great haste and I hope that you will forgive me for any mistakes that I may have made. I am sending this letter to you by registered mail and I hope that you will receive it in time.

Yours sincerely,

Leó Szilárd

[Handwritten signature]

This letter is often credited with inspiring Einstein to write to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which led to the development of the Manhattan Project and the creation of the atomic bomb.