Signed by Stephen Hawking

London: Michael Joseph. (1974). First edition. Signed by Stephen Hawking on dedication page ("Stephen Hawking"). 8vo. Original black cloth, stamped in gilt, light soiling, cocked; in original unclipped pictorial dust-jacket, light wear along edges.

Lot includes a letter of provenance, an unpublished photograph of Hawking with friends ca. 2000, and an order of service for the funeral of the previous owner.

First edition, with the very rare signature of Stephen Hawking (one of the very few verified autographs by him), signed in 1974, the year before he became confined to a wheelchair by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The shakiness of the signature is a testament to the physical difficulty he had in holding a pen and forming letters.

The present book previously belonged to James Hawkins (1928-2003), a poet and author who befriended Hawking at Trinity College, Cambridge. Hawkins was also a good friend of Somerset Maugham, who called him the "new Rupert Brooke", and of Yehudi Menuhin. A copy of his selected poems Lamps in the Darkness (1976) was presented to Hawking. The occasion of the signing of the present volume was extremely light-hearted. Hawkins was reading this copy of Spike Milligan's book when Hawking commented on how funny the dedication was ("To my dear brother Desmond who made my boyhood happy and with whom I have never had a cross word, mind you he drives his wife mad"). In a sprit of joie de vivre Hawking scrawled his autograph beneath the dedication. It was the only example of his handwriting that existed in his friend's collection. At this point, Hawking had not written a full-length book and was far from being a household name. There are only a couple of verified Hawking signatures from this period, including his PhD thesis in 1965 and an archaeological book given to a departing colleague at the Institute of Astronomy in 1974. James Hawkins remained friends with Hawking for the rest of his life and passed this book on to his friend John Masih Fleming, the musician and dealer, shortly before his death. Fleming was also a friendly acquaintance of Stephen Hawking.