Hawking Stephen

Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time signed with a thumbprint of Stephen Hawking (1942-2018).

A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. London: Bantam Press, Later Printing (C.1993). Signed by Stephen Hawking on the title page, by the way of an authorial thumbprint, next to which his personal assistant has inscribed in blue ink "Thumb print of / S. W. Hawking / Witnessed by / Susan Masey".

Publisher's original blue cloth with gilt titles to the spine, in dustwrapper. A lovely fine copy, the binding square and firm, the contents clean throughout and without previous owner's inscriptions or stamps. Complete with the fine original dustwrapper which is without fading, loss or tears. Not price-clipped (£14.95 net to the front flap). A highly desirable signed copy of Professor Hawking's enormously influential book, a bestseller and the first to make quantum physics even vaguely accessible to the general reader.

Carl Sagan, who wrote the introduction to Hawking's book, tells the following story: Sagan was in London for a scientific conference in 1974, and between sessions he wandered into a different room, where a larger meeting was taking place. "I realized that I was watching an ancient ceremony: the investiture of new fellows into the Royal Society, one of the most ancient scholarly organizations on the planet. In the front row, a young man in a wheelchair was, very slowly, signing his name in a book that bore on its earliest pages the signature of Isaac Newton. Stephen Hawking was a legend even then." In his introduction, Sagan goes on to add that Hawking is the "worthy successor" to Newton and Paul Dirac, both former Lucasian Professors of Mathematics. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing. Rare and desirable signed. A landmark volume in science writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking's book explores such profound questions as: How did the universe begin-and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unending-or are there boundaries?

In November of 2018, Christie's held an online auction offering numerous pieces from the estate of Stephen Hawking, including a first printing of this book with Hawking's authorship signature via his thumbprint. The book had an pre-auction estimate of USD 2,520 - USD 3,780, but instead reached a lofty auction price of about $85,000.00, a stunning testament to the relevance, importance and desirability of this authors work with his rare signature.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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