Tesla - and Women

Portrait of a Personality, Creator and Friend

In Tesla's life there were two of the most unusual things: his attitude toward women and his fear of microbes. The fear of microbes was at the beginning only somewhat more strongly emphasized than among other people, but later it developed more and more into a true phobia, insofar as he distanced himself more from the world in which he lived and withdrew into solitude. And as for the attitude toward women, from the beginning to the end of Tesla's life it manifested itself as a consistent renunciation of "love and the company of a good woman, and even more than that", therefore as a true asceticism.

One example nicely illustrates what that attitude of his toward women was like and how the world reacted to it.

In January 1898, that is, precisely at the time when the most was being said and written about Tesla, when the whole world wanted to know many details about his life and work, he received a letter signed L. B. Do, in which, among other things, stood:

"Please do not consider it as insolence that I ask you: whether you were born in Austro-Hungary or in Italy, whether you lived in New York, and whether you are married?"

Tesla replied to this: "Dear sir, I was born in a small country which politically belongs to Austria, and I have been living in New York for 10 years already. Since you wish to know, I will tell you not only that I am unmarried, but also that no woman has ever entered my thoughts." After a few days Tesla received another letter from the same person in which stood:

"Your statement regarding your bachelorhood does not flatter my sex. But since I know that you believed you were writing to a man, I will withhold my revenge. Being a married woman, I cannot wish you anything better than that in the future you do not always say: never has any woman entered my thoughts."

Tesla, of course, did not heed this advice of the unknown woman. He remained consistent with his conviction that "the inventor has such a fierce nature, with such wild and terrible abilities, that he would have to abandon everything and renounce his chosen field of work in order to devote himself to a woman."

However, although with this attitude of his he was closer to a medieval monk than to a modern scientist, Tesla nevertheless did not belong to the kind of people who are afraid and avoid women. On the contrary, he gladly sought the company of beautiful and intelligent women, corresponded with them, was gallant as a medieval knight, took photographs with them and sent bouquets of orchids as gifts.

Particularly three women strove to attract his attention: Flora Dodž, Katarina Mot and Katarina Džonson.

With the first two, Tesla maintained more or less conventional friendly relations for some time. Flora Dodž was a millionaire and wanted from snobbery to win Tesla for herself, while Katarina Mot had the ambition to win Tesla's understanding, not only for her love, but also for her religious feelings. Both were persistent, but neither succeeded: they had to eventually realize that Tesla had his unusual life and that he did not want to betray the principles on which he had built it for any price.

With Katarina Džonson a real friendship developed. She was, above all, the wife of Tesla's close friend, beautiful and intelligent, with a lot of spirit and talent for friendly relations. She knew Tesla's life, all his weaknesses, his habits, whims and manners. She wanted to understand him, to help him, and gradually she was more and more captivated by his unearthly nature, the selflessness of his spirit and his creative enthusiasm. She felt more and more the need to isolate him from his solitude and to bring warmth into his life. That passionate feeling of hers turned into a deep love; the love of a woman who wants to make a man happy. She knew Tesla and struggled with the fact that he was unattainable, quiet and reserved. Day after day, year after year, her persistence lasted, and Tesla, as if nothing was happening, did not notice anything. Therefore, from many letters, the impatience of Katarina Džonson is evident, and even when the letters had a purely conventional character. Her husband was for some time the American ambassador in Rome. She urged him to go to Serbia, to see the country about which Tesla spoke so much and for which he felt so much, and Tesla once at the beginning of 1909 received a letter from Katarina Džonson in which she wrote:

"Here we are in Belgrade... We came from Rome with Mr. Vesnić who is currently the representative of Serbia... How much I have talked to you about you, about Rome, about you, about America, about you, about science, about you, about you, about you, about Vama, about Serbia, about Vama, about science, about Vama, about America, about Vama, about Vama and Vama. I am afraid that I talked most about Vama..."

Katarina Džonson's letters are full of finesse, of subtle feminine feelings of love and friendship. She writes to him from Italy:

"What are you doing? I would like to receive from You, my eternally dear and eternally silent friend, some news, be they good or bad. But if you do not wish to write me even a single line, bestow upon me one thought and a finely tuned instrument will receive it.

I do not know why I am so sad: I feel as if in life everything has receded before me. Perhaps I am too lonely and I need company. I think I would be happier if I knew something about You, about You who are not aware of anything else except your own self at that moment and who have no human needs. That is not what I wanted to say, but such am I. Your devoted K. Dž."

P. S. Do you remember the golden dollar which you gave to Robert? All these years I have been carrying it with me as an amulet for all of us."

With Katarina Džonson, Tesla's aloofness increasingly upset her. Sometimes she looked at Tesla's equanimity with jealousy and "anger of a jealous woman" and it seemed to her that he was becoming "more and more friendly with millionaires, and sometimes it seems to her that he is 'completely lost in Mars'", that is, that he is thinking only of another planet. "Add to this," she writes, "even if only for a moment... I have not seen you for weeks and months, but I have only seen you on Your way!" In the other letter: "I stayed at home all Saturday and the whole week, because due to this or that reason I expected that you would come..."

Tired of waiting for an answer..." And at the end of one letter, in despair she writes with bitter reproach: "No one has ever needed me so much, as a human being created like you. How strangely it seems to me that I cannot be without You."

And so, without Tesla's response, but with his gallant politeness and friendship, Katarina Džonson lived for years in one warm, unusually deep feeling of love and friendship for Tesla, which never faded. And life is fleeting. Tesla increasingly withdrew into himself, ceased to meet with many acquaintances and friends, and with Džonson. Katarina Džonson died in 1924. Not long after her death Tesla received from the old Džonson a deeply touching letter which for a moment brought him back to reality.

"Oh, when I could do something for You to help you in your illness," the old Džonson wrote to him. On this night twelve years ago my dear wife who loved you so much passed away. One of the last things she told me was: 'Friends are with Tesla and take care of him. You know how much I always tried to do that and how hard it was to maintain that connection. Don't let it break in the new year, dear friend. All the Hobsons and us, the rest of you are the only friends who visit you. Call Agnes so that she can come to you... Agnes will be of great benefit to you. You just need to call her. Come to the memory of Mr. Džonson / alias Luka Filipov'."

Tesla did not respond to this either. It has already been eighteen years and it is more certain than ever that no one will ever enter his life in his own way. The lonely hotel room replaced the colorful world for him, and the love for pigeons replaced his connections with acquaintances and friends.

V. K.