Douglas Adams

DOUGLAS ADAMS

Douglas Adams was hitchhiking across Europe in 1971 with a copy of Hitch Hiker's Guide to Europe. One night, while lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, a thought popped into the 19-year-old's head: "If only someone would write a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well, then I for one would be off like a shot." The idea lay dormant for a few years, but eventually transformed Adams into the best-selling author of a cult classic. In 1978, Adams (1952-2001), then a script editor for Dr. Who, began developing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy into a radio show for the BBC. He wrote a series of stories featuring the hapless Arthur Dent, who is rescued from Earth just moments before it is destroyed to make room for an intergalactic freeway.

The story follows the hilarious, Universe-spanning adventures of Dent, who is aided by the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a compendium of "all knowledge and wisdom" that includes advice like: "A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." Dent's travels lead him to find the "Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything," which is 42. Unfortunately, no one is quite sure what the Question was.

The phenomenal success of the radio show led to the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which shot to number one on the British bestseller list in 1979. It was followed by a television series (1981) and a computer game (1984). Adams's odd mixture of comedy and science fiction has made the book a cult favorite, and Adams has published several sequels--although the series is still called a "trilogy," there are five books in all--which have sold over 15 million copies.

The books have provided Adams with a wide canvas to satirize the human condition, and ask the important questions: Is there really a God? What is the role of Man in the Universe? And, of course, where is my towel?