Brief History of Time First Edition - Stephen Hawking

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Brief History of Time

Stephen HAWKING

Item#: 120925 We're sorry, this item has been sold

“…FOR THEN WE WOULD KNOW THE MIND OF GOD”: FIRST EDITION OF A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME

HAWKING, Stephen. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. London: Bantam, 1988. Octavo, original blue paper boards, original dust jacket.

First edition, first British issue, of Hawking’s popular treatment of quantum physics.

Although his editor cautioned Hawking that every equation included in the text would cut the book's readership in half, this "jaunty overview of key cosmological ideas, past and present—including multidimensional space, the inflationary universe and the cosmic fates that may befall us" (New York Times) quickly established itself as a landmark of modern popular science writing. "If all physicists could explain their work as well as Stephen Hawking explained black holes in his 1988 bestseller… science writers would have to find other work" (Andrew Grant). Published simultaneously with the American first issue.

Fine condition.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
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Lithograph Illustration produced by transferring an image drawn on a carefully prepared stone to paper. The process allowed illustrations to more closely resemble the original drawings, paintings or sketches, as it gave the lithographer a freedom of line impossible to achieve in earlier intaglio and relief processes. It does not require the same sort of pressure as an engraving to transfer the image, but still has to be printed on separate stock from the text
Marginalia Handwritten notes made in the margins by a previous owner.
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Wood-Engraving Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.
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