cosmology for the masses

First edition, the corrected second printing, of one of the most successful popular science books ever written. The first printing included a number of textual errors and was recalled, making copies uncommon.

In 1974 physicist Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) made the revolutionary discovery that black holes, rather than being totally inescapable, actually release a type of energy now known as Hawking radiation. That same year he was elected one of the youngest-ever members of the Royal Society, and in 1979 he followed in the footsteps of Isaac Newton when he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge.

Hawking began to consider writing for a general audience in the early 1980s and approached an editor at the Cambridge University Press, who suggested that he avoid equations. Famously, A Brief History of Time contains only one: e = mc2, instead relying on narrative and illustrations to explain complex concepts such as the Big Bang, the expansion and fate of the universe, quantum mechanics, black holes, the directionality of time, and the search for a unifying theory of physics. Despite its complex subject matter the book was an immediate success, and the Guardian has described it as 'a succinct, entertaining and brilliantly lucid account of our relationship with the universe' (McCrum, 'The 100 Best Non-Fiction Books No. 6', March 2016).

First edition, corrected second printing; 8vo; illustrations throughout the text, a few small spots to the title and contents leaf and to the edges of the text block; publisher's blue boards, titles to spine gilt, a very good copy in the lightly rubbed jacket with a couple of small spots to the upper panel; 198pp.