Includes bibliographical references and index.

Destiny's child: an auspicious birth and eclectic upbringing -- Scientist in training: the Oxford years -- Tragedy and triumph: deadly disease and dissertation -- Children and calculations: family man and theoretician -- "Stephen's changed everything": black holes aren't black -- CalTech and Cambridge: exploring new horizons -- Physics or metaphysics? the "no-boundary" proposal -- Challenges and controversy: an unexpected silence and time's arrows -- The best selling book that "no one read": a brief history of time -- To boldly go: time travel and television -- Plays, p-branes, and polls: private lives and public pronouncements -- Books and bets: the universe in a nutshell and the end of a paradox -- Stephen Hawking: man vs. myth.