A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME

'''A Brief History of Time''' is a popular science book written by Professor Stephen Hawking and first published in 1988. It rapidly became a best-seller, and had sold 9 million copies by 2002. It was also on the London ''Sunday Times'' best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.^[1]
There is also a documentary by the same name, directed by Errol Morris and released in 1991. Unlike the book, the documentary is primarily a biography of Stephen Hawking.

Contents

Book contents

Editions

Film

In pop culture

References

See also

External links

Book contents

''A Brief History of Time'' attempts to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang, black holes, light cones and superstring theory, to the nonspecialist reader. Its main goal is to give an overview of the subject but, unusual for a popular science book, it also attempts to explain some complex mathematics.
The author notes that an editor warned him that for every equation in the book the readership will be halved, hence it includes only a single equation: ''E'' = ''mc''².
In addition to Hawking's abstinence from equations, the book also simplifies matters by means of illustrations throughout the text, depicting complex models and diagrams.
The book is considered by many to be an "unread bestseller"[1] which is a book many people own but few have finished.

Editions

★ 1988. First Edition. This edition included a foreword or introduction by Carl Sagan that tells the following story: Sagan was in London in 1974 (presumably for a SETI conference), and between sessions wandered into a different room, where a larger meeting was taking place. "At the front of the room, a young man in a wheelchair was signing his name very slowly in a very large book, which bore on an earlier page the name of Isaac Newton. I realised that I was watching an ancient ceremony: the induction of a new Fellow into the Royal Society." The young man was, of course, Hawking, already famous in his field but not famous worldwide until the publication of this improbable bestseller by this improbable author. (The foreword disappeared after the first edition, or perhaps the first printing. It was copyrighted by Sagan, rather than by Hawking or the publisher, and the publisher did not have the right to reprint it forever.)

★ 1996 — Illustrated, updated and expanded edition. This hardbound edition contained full colour illustrations and photographs to help further explain the text, as well as the addition of topics that were not included in the original book.

★ 1998 — The Tenth Anniversary Edition — Is the same text as the previous published in 1996, but was also released in paperback and has only a few diagrams included.
September of 2005 saw the release of ''A Briefer History of Time'' (a collaboration with Leonard Mlodinow), which is an abridged version of the original book. It was updated again to address new issues that have arisen due to further scientific development.

Film

Main articles: A Brief History of Time (film)

In 1991, Errol Morris directed a documentary film about Hawking, but although they share a title, the film is a biographical study of Hawking, not a filmed version of the book.

In pop culture

This Book has made its mark on American pop culture. In the film ''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban'', Ian Brown (lead singer of the Stone Roses) is seen sitting in the Leaky Cauldron reading this book. The book makes an appearance in the film ''Donnie Darko'' when Donnie's teacher shows him the book during a conversation about time travel. In the 2001 comedy film ''Legally Blonde'', starring Reese Witherspoon, one of the Harvard students on Elle Woods' first day mentions, "It has been suggested that Stephen Hawking stole his ''Brief History of Time'' from my fourth-grade paper."

★ In the film ''Addams Family Values'', Joel Glicker is briefly shown holding it after stating why he is in the Harmony Hut.

★ It has also been featured in "Weird Al" Yankovic's music clip of his song "White & Nerdy", where "Weird Al" claims that he has Stephen Hawking in his library, while holding this book.

★ In the episode Not in Portland of the TV show ''Lost'', one of the Others is seen reading the book while on guard duty. Additionally, the book was seen on Ben Linus's kitchen table in The Man from Tallahassee.

★ In an episode of ''The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy'' Billy was assigned to write a report according to a book called "A Not So Brief History of Time" which he confused for a horror story.

★ In John Safran vs. God, John Safran comments on the book being an "unread bestseller," saying that readers amongst the left their "bookmarks exactly where they left it nine years ago, on page 3."

★ The book has been featured in the Megadeth Documentary by Frederic Wallace in a poster in Dave Mustain's Living Room

★ The book is frequently cited by Oskar Schell, the nine-year-old protagonist in Jonathon Safran Foer's novel, ''Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close''.

References

1. A Brief History of Time, Hawking, Stephen, , , Bantam Books, 1988, ISBN 0-553-38016-8

See also

★ ''A Briefer History of Time'' (Hawking and Mlodinow book)

★ Turtles all the way down

External links

★ Photos of the first edition of A Brief History of Time