‘This brilliant, electrifying intelligence’
Hawking’s wheelchair, thesis to be sold
LONDON • Stephen Hawking was a cosmic visionary, a figure of inspiration and a global celebrity.
His unique status is reflected in an upcoming auction of some of the late physicist’s possessions: It includes complex scientific papers, one of the world’s most iconic wheelchairs and a script from The Simpsons.
The online sale announced Monday by auctioneer Christie’s features 22 items from Hawking, including his doctoral thesis on the origins of the universe, some of his many awards, and scientific papers such as Spectrum of Wormholes and Fundamental Breakdown of Physics in Gravitational Collapse.
Thomas Venning, head of books and manuscripts at Christie’s, said the papers “trace the development of his thought — this brilliant, electrifying intelligence.
“You can see each advance as he produced it and introduced it to the scientific community,” Venning said.
Of course, Hawking’s fame rests only partly on his scientific status as the cosmologist who put black holes on the map.
Diagnosed with motor neurone disease at 22 and given just a few years to live, he survived for decades, dying in March at 76.
The auction includes one of five existing copies of Hawking’s 1965 Cambridge University PhD thesis, Properties of Expanding Universes, which carries an estimated price of 100,000 pounds to 150,000 pounds ($170,000 to $255,000).
Venning said the thesis, signed by Hawking in handwriting made shaky by his illness, is both a key document in the physicist’s scientific evolution and a glimpse into his personal story.
“He was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) just as he arrived in Cambridge to begin his Ph.D. studies,” Venning said.
The disease eventually left Hawking almost completely paralyzed. He communicated through a voicegenerating computer and moved in a series of hightech wheelchairs. One is included in the sale, with an estimated price of 10,000 pounds to 15,000 pounds ($17,000 to $25,500). Proceeds from its sale will go to two charities, the Stephen Hawking Foundation and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Venning said the wheelchair became a symbol not just of disability but of Hawking’s “puckish sense of humour.”
Venning said Hawking “very much thought of himself as a scientist first and a popular communicator second,” but accepted and even enjoyed his celebrity status.
He appeared several times on The Simpsons and kept a figurine of himself from the show in his office.
The sale includes a script from one of Hawking’s Simpson’s appearances, a copy of his bestseller A Brief History of Time signed with a thumbprint and a personalized bomber jacket that he wore in a documentary.
Hawking’s daughter Lucy said the sale gave “admirers of his work the chance to acquire a memento of our father’s extraordinary life in the shape of a small selection of evocative and fascinating items.”
Hawking’s children hope to preserve his scientific archive for the nation. Christie’s is handling negotiations to hand it over to British authorities in lieu of inheritance tax.
The items will be on display in London for several days from Oct. 30. The auction is open for bids between Oct. 31 and Nov. 8.