Book with rare Stephen Hawking signature before he was unable to write on sale

A book containing a rare Stephen Hawking signature from 1973 is being auctioned and is set to be sold for tens of thousands of pounds.

Online auctioneer Nate D Sanders is auctioning a first edition book called The Archaeology of the Industrial Revolution from a former employee of Cambridge University who left his job as a computer operation.

Nate Sanders claims this book was signed “shortly before Hawking was not able to write his name due to ALS”.

At the time of writing, the current bid for the book stood at $28,000 (£20,000).

Picture: Nate D Sanders

In addition to Dr Hawking’s signature, the book also contains the signatures of a number of other members of the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy at Cambridge University.

It says on the website:

The late theoretical physicist lost his ability to write in the mind 1970s and by 1985, he had also lost his ability to speak resulting from the degenerative symptoms of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a motor neurone disease.

It was at the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy at Cambridge where Hawking, as a research scientist, made some of his earliest scientific breakthroughs regarding black holes and quantum mechanics. Also in 1973, he published his important first book, ''The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time'' which is now considered a classic and has been printed many times over. It was also at this time that ALS was overtaking Hawkings physically, and he would be confined to a wheelchair by 1975.

Bidding will close on Friday.

More: Stephen Hawking had perfect advice for people with depression

More: 6 times Stephen Hawking’s sense of humour was perfect