A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Time

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A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Time is a popular science book written by Stephen Hawking and first published in 1988. It became a best-seller, and has sold more than 9 million copies. It was also on the London Sunday Times best-seller list for more than four years.^[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.

Book contents
Editions
Film
In pop culture
See also
References
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 would be halved, hence it includes only a single equation: E = mc². 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", which is a book many people own but few have finished.^[2]

Editions

1988. First Edition. This edition included a foreword by Carl Sagan that 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 P. A. M. Dirac, both former Lucasian Professors of Mathematics.^[3]

The foreword disappeared after the first edition. It was copyrighted by Sagan, rather than by Hawking or the publisher, and the publisher did not have the right to reprint it forever. Hawking wrote his own introduction for later editions.

1996?Illustrated, updated and expanded edition. This hardcover edition contained full color 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 one 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

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, a reference to the time travel employed later in the film. 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 claims, "It has been suggested that Stephen Hawking stole his Brief History of Time from my fourth-grade paper."

MC Hawking, a nerdcore hip hop artist who parodies Stephen, named his album A Brief History of Rhyme.
This book is featured in and is part of the mythology of the T.V. show Lost.
In the episode "What We Did On Our Summer Vacation" of the TV show The Adventures of Pete & Pete, the character Ellen is seen reading the book.
In the film Addams Family Values, Joel Glicker is briefly shown holding it after stating why he is in the Harmony Hut.
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 "Weird Al" Yankovic's American Library Association Celebrity "READ" Poster.
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 with a horror story.
In John Safran vs. God, John Safran comments on the book being an "unread bestseller," saying that readers left their "bookmarks exactly where they [had] 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 Mustaine's living room
The book is frequently cited by Oskar Schell, the nine-year-old protagonist in Jonathan Safran Foer's novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
In the movie Phenomenon, starring John Travolta, in which the character George Malley gains incredible intelligence, Malley owns this book as part of his everyday reading.
In The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror VI", upon seeing the dimension he accidentally entered begin to destroy itself, Homer says "Oh, there's so much I don't know about astrophysics. I wish I'd read that book by that wheelchair guy."
In Futurama: Bender's Big Score, one of the naked aliens is seen reading a book called A Brief History of Time Travel.