Noted: As it turns out, however, Einstein was not particularly astute when it came to matters of finance. Not knowing how much to charge for an appearance, he asked the University of Wisconsin for $15,000—“which at that time was just an absurd amount,” says Gimbel. The university said no, and when other schools also started to say no, he revised his figures downward. Some universities agreed, but Wisconsin “simply had nothing else to do with him.”
University Communications