SOURCE: "Master of the Universe," in Washington Post Book World, Vol. XXII, No. 23, June 7, 1992, p. 11.

In the following review, Benford surveys Hawking's life and work.

When I first came to know Stephen Hawking in the 1970s, his speech was already nearly unintelligible to all but hisintimates. Yet with laconic humor he soon showed himself to be a complex man who refused to be treated condescendingly because of his slowly worsening "Lou Gehrig's disease." He could be funny, arrogant, pensive, unafraid to bluntly tell others they were wrong, speculative one moment and intricately precise the next.

This is the Hawking who shines through both these books [Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time: A Reader's Companion and Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science, by Michael White and John Gribbin]. The Reader's Companion in fact spotlights his companions, with anecdotes related by friends and colleagues. It touches on some of...