A LIFE WELL LIVED (UK)
AN UNFETTERED MIND (US)
This compelling new biography paints a rich picture of Stephen Hawking as a courageous, indomitable man, a brilliant scientist, sometime iconoclast, and international celebrity – whose life story should be a revelation for all who might be inclined to think that disability or illness must diminish a person. When Oliver Sacks spoke of “a kind of health, a strength and grace that go beyond the depths of any illness,” he could have been describing Stephen Hawking.
Written with Hawking’s encouragement and help, the book follows him from childhood through school, Oxford, graduate work at Cambridge when he was diagnosed with ALS and given two years to live, and onward in his pitched battle not merely for survival but for nothing less than a full scientific understanding of the universe. He celebrated his 75th birthday in January 2017.
Sub-chapters telling Hawking’s personal story alternate with others about his amazing theories, written in language understandable to non-scientists. The result is a moving, in-depth, definitive biography — and a wonderful read.
• • • • • • REVIEWS • • • • • •
“Ferguson shines at explaining Hawking’s theories, the jovially competitive academic world in which they are hammered out and her subject’s distinctive and evolving intellectual style…An irresistible story. His puckish humor and exuberance for life and for ideas are infectious even at a remove. And the ideas themselves could not ask for a better elucidator.”–Laura Miller, Salon
“Intelligent and readable… Kitty Ferguson is astonishing in her own right…. She is a careful explicator not only of [Hawkings’] ideas but of the context in which they arose.”–Sara Lippincott, The Los Angeles Times
“Ferguson provides engaging and helpful explanations of the physics behind [Hawking’s] triumphs.” —The Washington Post
“Ferguson replaces the iconic but static image of cosmologist Hawking with flesh and blood in this vivid portrait… Through interviews with Hawking and his colleagues, friends, and family, Ferguson builds a complete picture of Hawking’s life, from his tireless work to explain our universe to his notorious driving, playful appearances on Star Trek, The Simpsons, and other shows, campaigning to improve the lives of the disabled, and his family life, with special attention to his relationship with his first wife, Jane, whose sacrifices allowed him to focus on his work. In the end, Ferguson captures the very full life and work of one of the most vibrant minds of our time.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Ferguson brilliantly updates her 1991 biography of Stephen Hawking for an adult audience . . . Her ability to write clearly about scientific issues using metaphor rather than mathematics makes this an excellent introduction to astrophysics for the interested layman. A fascinating portrait of a complex figure who ponders the place of man and God in the universe and who still loves the ‘Eureka moment of discovering something that no one knew before.'” —Kirkus Reviews
“Kitty Ferguson gives a thorough account of Hawking the man, as well as of his extraordinary body of work in cosmology. [She has] a flair for the original which makes much of the tome highly readable. There are excellently clear descriptions of the large issues and precious few off-putting mathematics and equations…Ferguson pitches the balance between Hawking’s personal life and an explanation of his work about right.”–Greg Jamison, Entertainment Focus
“As both a global icon and an innovative theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking is well served by science writer Kitty Ferguson’s fascinating biography. Ferguson explains in accessible terms the major themes that Hawking has explored in his career, and creates a portrait of the private man by drawing on her close personal contact with him and his family. … Ferguson’s sympathetic and informed take on an individual who has enriched human knowledge against the odds is an excellent summing-up, as Hawking approaches his 70th birthday, of his unique and creative contribution to both science and humanity.” –George Ellis, Nature
“More than a biography … a brave attempt to chart the life of the celebrated physicist in parallel with his astounding and important work…. Ferguson has spent a lot of time with Hawking and as a scientist she attempts to explain in lay terms the fundamental concepts of Hawking’s vast and amazing body of work.”–Bertrams
“As both a global icon and an innovative theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking is well served by Kitty Ferguson’s fascinating biography. Ferguson explains in accessible terms the major themes that Hawking has explored in his career, and creates a portrait of the private man by drawing on her close personal contact with him and his family. Her sympathetic and informed take on an individual who has entiched human knowledge against the odds is an excellent summing-up, as Hawking approaches his 70th birthday, of his unique and creative contribution to both science and humanity.”
George Ellis, in Nature (link to complete review to come)
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“Ferguson replaces the iconic but static image of cosmologist Hawking with flesh and blood in this vivid portrait. This is familiar terrain for Ferguson, who built such good rapport with Hawking while researching her book Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything some 20 years ago, that he asked her to help edit his own book, The Universe in a Nutshell. Hawking grew from a “rather lazy” student to a pioneering cosmologist in an era when the field was regarded as little more than a pseudoscience. Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) early in graduate school, he defeated the odds and will soon celebrate his 70th birthday. Through interviews with Hawking and his colleagues and friends, Ferguson builds a complete picture of Hawking’s life, from his tireless work to explain our universe to his notorious driving, playful appearances on Star Trek, The Simpsons, and other shows, campaigning to improve the lives of the disabled, and his family life, with special attention to his relationship with his first wife, Jane, whose sacrifices allowed him to focus on his work. In the end, Ferguson captures the very full life and work of one of the most vibrant minds of our time.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“Ferguson conveys a delightful sense of the close, if eccentric family life that [Stephen Hawking] enjoyed whilst growing up in a dark, draughty and ill-cared for old house amongst doting parents and siblings. . . . The human elements of Hawking’s childhood, marriage, fatherhood and illness are beautifully told, and there’s the very real feeling not just that Ferguson knows Hawking well and has done for a long time, but that she genuinely cares for him and his family. . . . Kitty Ferguson has, through self-evident admiration for Hawking and his work, endeavoured to understand the great scientist as a human being, and has directed her warm but by no means gushing biography at similarly interested lay readers who also harbour an interest in the fundamental questions that have gone some way to being answered by Stephen Hawking, who has laid the groundwork and set challenges for future generations to unravel.”
Greg Jameson in Entertainment-Focus.com
• • • • • • TABLE OF CONTENTS • • • • • •
Part I 1942–1975
1 ‘The quest for a Theory of Everything’
2 ‘Our goal is nothing less than a complete description of the universe we live in’
3 ‘Equal to anything!’
4 ‘The realization that I had an incurable disease, that was likely to kill me
in a few years, was a bit of a shock’
5 ‘The big question was, was there a beginning or not?’
6 ‘There is a singularity in our past’
Part II 1970–1990
7 ‘These people must think we are used to an astronomical standard of living’
8 ‘Scientists usually assume there is a unique link between the past and the future,
cause and effect. If information is lost, this link is lost’
9 ‘The odds against a universe that has produced life like ours are immense’
10 ‘In all my travels, I have not managed to fall off the edge of the world’
11 ‘It’s turtles all the way down’
12 ‘The field of baby universes is in its infancy’
Part III 1990–2000
13 ‘Is the end in sight for theoretical physics?’
14 ‘Between film roles I enjoy solving physics problems’
15 ‘I think we have a good chance of avoiding both Armageddon and a new Dark Age’
16 ‘It seems clear to me’
Part IV 2000–2011
17 ‘An expanding horizon of possibilities’
18 ‘Grandad has wheels’
19 ‘I’ve always gone in a somewhat different direction’
20 ‘My name is Stephen Hawking: physicist, cosmologist and something of a dreamer’
Glossary . . . References . . . Bibliography . . . Index