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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.•
It 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, unusually 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=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.
There is also a documentary by the same name, directed by Errol Morris, released in 1991.
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Editions
1988. First Edition. This edition included a foreword or introduction by Carl Sagan that tells an interesting story: Sagan was in London in 1974 (presumably for a SETI conference), and between sessions wandered into a different room, where a smaller 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 realized 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 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 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.
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In films
The book makes an appearance in the film Donnie Darko when Donnie's teacher shows him the book.
In the 2001 comedy film Legally Blonde, starring Reese Witherspoon, one of the Harvard students on Elle Woods's first day mentions that: 'It has been suggested that Stephen Hawking stole his Brief History of Time from my fourth-grade paper'.
In Addams Family Values Joel Glicker is briefly shown holding it after stating why he is in the Harmony Hut.
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