Editing A Brief History of Time (section)

== Editions ==
* 1988: The first edition included an introduction by [[Carl Sagan]] that tells the following story: Sagan was in [[London]] for a scientific conference in 1974, and between sessions he wandered into a different room, where a larger meeting was taking place. "I realized that I was watching an ancient ceremony: the investiture of new fellows into the [[Royal Society]], one of the most ancient scholarly organizations on the planet. In the front row, a young man in a wheelchair was, very slowly, signing his name in a book that bore on its earliest pages the signature of [[Isaac Newton]] ... Stephen Hawking was a legend even then." In his introduction, Sagan goes on to add that Hawking is the "worthy successor" to Newton and [[Paul Dirac]], both former [[Lucasian Professor of Mathematics|Lucasian Professors of Mathematics]].<ref>{{cite book | author=Hawking, Stephen | title= A Brief History of Time | url=https://archive.org/details/briefhistoryofti00step_1 | url-access=registration | publisher=[[Bantam Books]] | date=1988 | isbn=978-0-553-38016-3}}</ref>

The introduction was removed after the first edition, as it was [[copyright]]ed by Sagan, rather than by Hawking or the publisher, and the publisher did not have the right to reprint it in perpetuity. Hawking wrote his own introduction for later editions.
* 1994, A brief history of time – An interactive adventure. A CD-Rom with interactive video material created by S. W. Hawking, Jim Mervis, and Robit Hairman (available for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows XP).<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/formats-editions/31854616 A brief history of time – An interactive adventure]</ref>
* 1996, Illustrated, updated and expanded edition: This hardcover edition contained full-color illustrations and photographs to help further explain the text, as well as the addition of topics that were not included in the original book.
* 1998, Tenth-anniversary edition: It features the same text as the one published in 1996, but was also released in paperback and has only a few diagrams included. {{ISBN|0553109537}}
* 2005, ''[[A Briefer History of Time (Hawking and Mlodinow book)|A Briefer History of Time]]'': a collaboration with [[Leonard Mlodinow]] of an abridged version of the original book. It was updated again to address new issues that had arisen due to further scientific development. {{ISBN|0-553-80436-7}}