A Brief History of Time [antikvár]

foreword I didn't write a foreword to the original edition of A Brief History of Time. That was done by Carl Sagan. Instead, I wrote a short piece tided "Acknowledgments" in which 1 was advised to thank everyone. Some of the foundations that had given me support weren't too pleased to have been mentioned, however, because it led to a great increase in applications. I don't think anyone, my publishers, my agent, or myself, expected the book to do anything like as well as it did. It was in the London Sunday Times best-seller list for 237 weeks, longer than any other book (apparentiy, thé Bible and Shakespeare aren't counted). It has been translated into something like forty languages and has sold about one copy for every 750 men, women, and children in the world. As Nathan Myhrvold of JVIicrosoft (a former post-doc of mine) remarked: I have sold more books on physics than Madonna has on sex. The success of A Brief History indicates that there is widespread interest in the big questions like: Where did we come from? And why is the universe the way it is? I have taken the opportunity to update the book and include new theoretical and observational results obtained since the book was first published (on April Fools' Day, 1988). I have included a new chapter on wormholes and time travel. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity seems to offer the possibility that we could create and maintain wormholes, littie tubes that con- ; ¦ t 1. .'I i