Gifts

“The increase of disorder or entropy is what distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time": First Edition of Stephen Hawking's Landmark Work A Brief History of Time; Signed by Carl Sagan and Illustrator Ron Miller

Hawking, Stephen W.; Introduction by Carl Sagan.

A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes.

London: Bantam Press, 1988.

First British edition and true first of Hawking’s groundbreaking work. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated by Ron Miller. Signed by Carl Sagan on the half-title page, who wrote the introduction. Additionally signed and inscribed by the illustrator Ron Miller, who has also added a drawing. Sagan 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.

Price: $6,800.00