HAWKING, Stephen W. (1942–2018)

The Universe in a Nutshell

[in:] Builders of the Millennium: A Series of Lectures Delivered to Celebrate the 750th Anniversary of the Endowment of University College, Oxford, 1249–1999

Oxford: University College, Oxford, 2000

Octavo (216 x 151mm); pp. ix, [1], 104

Blue cloth binding with gilt title; near fine condition: slight warp to front cover, but otherwise fine

Essay

Stephen hawking’s own copy of this elegant commemorative volume, issued on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of his alma mater, University College Oxford, and containing lectures by a number of illustrious alumni, including Tony Blair, Richard Branson, and Rupert Murdoch.

Hawking’s lecture is ‘The Universe in a Nutshell’ – the précis of his book of the same name, published a year after the present volume as a ‘sequel’ to A Brief History of Time.

The lecture is a minor classic, beginning with some of Hawking’s personal circumstances, before turning to the size and nature of the universe, his and Roger Penrose’s work on singularities, the Uncertainty Principle, the notion of a boundless universe, the anthropic principle, and much else. There are many humorous asides, including a comment that ‘There must be a history of the universe, in which Oxford United won the Cup, though maybe the probability is low.’

The lecture concludes on a poignant note:

This is a tiny, slightly flattened sphere. So it is quite like the nutshell with which I began the lecture. Yet this nut encodes everything that happens in real time. So Hamlet was quite right. We could be bounded in a nut shell, and count ourselves Kings of infinite space.

What more can I say after that.

Provenance

Personal collection of Stephen W. Hawking, with a presentation bookplate to the inside cover, and a provenance label to the verso of the front free endpaper