A near fine and quite collectible copy of the 1988 First American Edition/First Printing/Second State Text of 'A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes' by Stephen W. Hawking, and an Introduction by Carl Sagan. A first edition published by Bantam, New York with the full number line ending in '1', second-state text with corrections and with the second-state blue dust jacket with the $18.95 price. Condition: 8vo. 198 pages - Publishers' black paper over cloth boards with silver stamped print to the spine and authors initials in blind to the front cover. A bit of sunning to the extreme edges, some softening to the lower spine end and some foxing to the upper edge. The unclipped dust jacket is still in fine condition with a Dartmouth College Bookstore price sticker affixed to the back cover. Overall, an outstanding copy of the surprising bestseller that sold over twenty-five million copies. Hawking who died in 2018 wrote the book for readers who had no prior knowledge of physics. In the book, Hawking writes in non-technical terms about the structure, origin, development, and eventual fate of the Universe.