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JUST weeks after legendary physicist Stephen Hawking’s final paper was released, a number of his prized possessions are set to go up for auction.
Items being sold include some of his most important papers, including his doctoral thesis, a copy of A Brief History Of Time and the script for one of his appearances on The Simpsons, Fox News reports.
Twenty-two lots will go under the hammer at London auction house Christies between October 31 and November 8 in an online sale dubbed “On The Shoulders Of Giants”. Included in the lots are 12 of Hawking’s most important published papers, including his 1965 doctorate thesis. At the time, Hawking had already been diagnosed with motor neurone disease (also known as ALS). The thesis is signed, “This dissertation is my original work, S.W. Hawking.”
It is one of five known copies of his thesis, the auction house said, and has a pre-sale estimate of between $126,000 and $189,000.
In October 2017, the University of Cambridge uploaded Hawking’s thesis and the surge in traffic from interested parties crashed the website.
“The lots selected for sale highlight Professor Hawking’s remarkable achievements in science alongside his unique personality and inspirational life story,” Christie’s head of books and manuscripts Thomas Venning said in a statement.
The auction will conclude with one of Professor Hawking’s wheelchairs, which Venning said allowed him to tour “the world as a successful scientific communicator, and from which his mind voyaged to the outer reaches of space-time, making it literally and figuratively one of the most-travelled wheelchairs in history.” Its pre-sale estimated value is between $12,600 and $18,900.
Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Stephen Hawking Foundation and the Motor Neurone Disease Association, Christie’s said.
Although Hawking may have been incapacitated physically, he managed to inspire people around the globe, teaching physics and mathematics, delivering speeches and floating in zero gravity, all while working in the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity.
He was not modest about what he wanted to do. “My goal is simple,” he once said. “It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.”
In addition, the London-based auction house will also put up a copy of A Brief History Of Time, the cosmologist’s 1988 bestseller, which is signed with Hawking’s thumbprint as well as a leather bomber jacket and a copy of the script of the 22nd season premiere of The Simpsons, titled “Elementary School Musical” for which Hawking lent his voice.
After Hawking pbaded away on March 14 this year at the age of 76, The Simpsons paid tribute to the renowned physicist.
In the aforementioned statement, Stephen Hawking’s daughter, Lucy, said the family was happy to give her father’s fans a chance to acquire part of his accomplishments.
“We hope to be able to offer our father’s archive to the nation … as we feel it is a huge part of his legacy but also of the history of science in this country,” Lucy said. “We are also giving 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.”
Aside from some of Hawking’s possessions being offered, possessions from other famous scientists, including Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein will be included in the auction.
This originally appeared on Fox News and is reproduced with permission.
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