In his first book ever, the father of string theory reinvents the world's concept of the known universe and man's unique place within it. Line drawings. Leonard Susskind has been the Felix Bloch Professor in theoretical physics at Stanford University since 1978.  The author of  The Cosmic Landscape , he is a member of the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of numerous prizes including the science writing prize of the American Institute of Physics for his  Scientific American  article on black holes.  He lives in Palo Alto, California.