Stephen Hawking is one of the most brilliant cosmologists of our time, and author of the ten-million-copy bestselling A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, one of the iconic books of its century. Now, for the first time ever, he tells the story of his own life, in book called MY BRIEF HISTORY. It is expanded from a lecture of the same name given at Arizona State University in 2011.
“When you are faced with an early death,” writes Stephen Hawking, “it makes you realize that life is worth living and that there are lots of things you want to do.” From his post-war childhood in London through his undergraduate years at Oxford, Hawking was smart but (according to him) undistinguished, not even the brightest child of his brilliant, eccentric parents. A great lover of jokes and bets, he made an art of doing as little work as possible. All that changed, however, when Hawking received a diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS, at the age of twenty-one, and began his transformation into the (still fun-loving) explorer and explainer of the universe that we know today. Written with wit, humility, and warmth, My Brief History gives us a candid examination of a life well-lived, including insight into his marriages and family life as well as a portrait of his intellectual evolution, resulting in an unprecedented glimpse of what it feels like to be one of the most world-changing people of our time.
Another exciting event will be PBS will be airing a documentary named HAWKING based on Hawking’s life this fall in the UK and spring 2014 in the States.
The documentary Hawking is the extraordinary story of the planet’s most famous living scientist, told for the first time in his own words and by those closest to him. Made with unique access to Hawking’s private life, this is an intimate and moving journey into Stephen’s world, both past and present. An inspirational portrait of an iconic figure, Hawking relates his incredible personal journey from boyhood under-achiever, to PhD genius, to being diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease and given just two years to live. Despite the constant threat of death, Hawking manages to make many remarkable scientific discoveries and rises to fame and super-stardom. Hawking is a remarkable man, and this will be a remarkable movie.
Watch the powerful trailer here.
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