A landmark portrait and a cosmos-shattering book

Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time. London: Transworld Publishers Ltd., 1988. 8vo.; blue publisher’s cloth stamped in gilt along spine. Photographic dust jacket by David Gamble; light edgewear.  First UK edition. Signed by Chris Cates on the front endpaper. Inscribed to Chris Cates by “Mom & Dad” on front free endpaper: “Chris – / S + P Program. Summer ‘88, Cal Tech. / Love, / Mom & Dad.” Inscribed on the front matter and half-title by David Gamble: “To: Chris    From: David Gamble / In Dec 1987 on assignment from Time Mag N.Y.C. I photographed Prof Stephen Hawking in his laboratory at King’s College, Cambridge, UK. / I photographed him using a 4 x 5 Wooden Plate Camera & Kodak film. / A few weeks later Stephen asked me if he could use my photo for his Book jacket. The first UK Edition being 14,500 books. / As far as I know it sold 26 million making my image of him the most famous worldwide! / The portrait won a World Press Award and was acquired for the permanent co