Stephen Hawking's personal letters made public

Stephen Hawking's personal letters and other documents have been catalogued and made available to the public.

The theoretical physicist died in 2018, aged 76, and his family donated the items to Cambridge University Library in 2021.

Tens of thousands of pages including scientific archives, photographs with public figures and scripts from television shows such as The Simpsons are included in the collection.

There is also correspondence demonstrating how Hawking was an active campaigner on issues including disability rights and nuclear disarmament.

In a letter to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, from 1978, Hawking wrote that there were "no facilities at all for disabled people".

He cited the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 and demanded better access to the building.

In a letter to his parents from 1986, which begins "Dear mother and father", Hawking dictates the text using his now famous communication system which he acquired after his tracheostomy the same year.

"I'm writing this letter on my new computer which also speaks but a bit like a Dalek with an American accent," he said in the letter.

"It is very useful for communicating but it is too big to carry around.

"However I have another one which I may be able to get fixed to my chair."

Hawking archivist Susan Gordon, who has spent the past 28 months cataloguing the collection, said the papers revealed how "the same tenacity Hawking displayed in his professional career was applied to advocating for causes he believed in".

She said: "The archive will be a unique resource for researchers interested in Hawking's scientific work and academic life, his personal life, popular science communication, disability rights, assistive technology, and celebrity.

"I hope the release of the catalogue and the improved access it provides will allow others to be as rewarded as I was by interacting with the archive."

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