Nikola Tesla Articles
and non-material values early in life. In America he was amazed how difficult it was in that world to find a man who at the same time possessed knowledge, justice, and selflessness.
“Dear Friend, if I may speak from the heart, I expected no other answer. And since I am already talking about the soul and thinking it over well, I must admit: in your place I would not have answered differently either.
The greatest reason for your marriage would be that the seed that produces such children should not be extinguished. But first: no one can be completely sure they will have children, even if they marry in the prime of strength or take the healthiest girl.
Smiljan — Nikola Tesla’s birthplace
Second: Who knows what the children would be like? I know that the most brilliant people have given birth to stillborn babies or at least quite ordinary, everyday brains, and that is — quite natural: their brain worked so much that nothing was left for their… — Just imagine if behind you there remained two or three dull sons who could senselessly squander all the glory of their famous father…
So do not think with any pain that you are the last of your line… Because, after all, your tribe — even if it were the Nemanjić — could not end more beautifully than with such an exemplar…
Finally I inform you that I, God willing, will marry my fiancée Julija Palanačka in Sombor on the Sunday after Little Lady’s Day (22/10 September). It is now the twelfth year since I proposed to her… If you did not believe in fate, this is an opportunity to start believing…”
Lenka Dunđerski’s Death
The girl with whom Laza Kostić intended to marry Nikola Tesla was the famous beauty Lenka Dunđerski, who came from a respected and wealthy family of landowners in Bačka. What is not visible from the correspondence, however, is the fact that Laza was actually head-over-heels in love with Lenka. He could overcome and bridge everything, out-sing and out-talk everything, but only one thing he could not: she was 24 and he was 54.
In the third letter he sends Tesla the same year, again from the monastery, Laza Kostić could only inform his friend of the sudden death of Lenka Dunđerski. He delayed a long time before telling him, but finally did so on 31/19 December 1895:
“Dear friend, there you have it — your intended!
Milutin Tesla, Nikola’s father, was a priest in the Lika village of Smiljan. Nikola, from America, took care of his mother Đuka until her death. With his uncles Mandić — Petar, Paja, Trifun, and Toma — he regularly corresponded and sent them money for the education of their children.
