May 12, 2001


Douglas Adams, Author of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," Dies at 49

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS



Science fiction writer Douglas Adams, shown in this file photo, died today of
a heart attack in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Filed at 8:45 a.m. ET

LONDON (AP) -- Douglas Adams, whose cult science fiction comedy ``The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' drew millions of fans and spawned a
mini-industry, has died at age 49.

The British-born Adams died Friday of a heart attack in Santa Barbara,
Calif., his London spokeswoman, Sophie Astin, said Saturday.

The ``Hitchhiker's Guide,'' which began life as a British Broadcasting Corp.
radio series in 1978, is a satirical adventure about a group of
interplanetary travelers; it opens with the Earth being destroyed to make way
for an intergalactic highway.

It was turned into a book, which sold 14 million copies around the world, and
later into a television series.

The book was followed by several sequels, including ``The Restaurant at the
End of the Universe,'' ``Life, the Universe and Everything'' and ``So Long,
and Thanks For All the Fish.''

The books blended satire, memorably named characters such as Zaphod
Beeblebrox and Marvin the Paranoid Android, and witty philosophy, at one
point supplying the answer to ``the ultimate question of life, the universe
and everything.'' The answer was 42.

Adams later recalled how he first thought of the book during a teen-age trip
around Europe.

``I was hitchhiking around Europe in 1971, when I was 18, with this copy of
'A Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe,''' he said.

``At one point I found myself lying in the middle of a field, a little bit
drunk, when it occurred to me that somebody should write a Hitchhiker's Guide
to the Galaxy. It didn't occur to me that it might actually be me years
later.''

The book came 24th in a poll of the top 100 books of the 20th century
conducted by the Waterstone's bookstore chain and Channel 4 television.

Geoffrey Perkins, the BBC's head of comedy, called Adams ``absolutely one of
the most creative geniuses to ever work in radio comedy.''

``He probably wrote one of the greatest radio comedy series ever, certainly
the most imaginative,'' he added.

Born in Cambridge, England, in 1952 and educated at Cambridge University,
Adams began his career as a writer and script editor at the BBC, including
work on BBC TV's ``Doctor Who.''

He followed the ``Hitchhiker's Guide'' with several books about ``holistic
detective'' Dirk Gently; ``Last Chance to See,'' a book about endangered
species; and, with John Lloyd, the hilarious alternative dictionary ``The
Meaning of Liff.''

He also founded a multimedia company, Digital Village, which produced the
``Starship Titanic'' computer game and an online travel guide inspired by the
``Hitchhiker's Guide.''

A frequent radio broadcaster on science and technology, Adams had been
working for several years on a screenplay for an oft-delayed ``Hitchhiker's
Guide'' movie.

In August 1996, he told a technology conference in New Orleans that the main
problem in adapting the series for film was not special effects.

``It's the nature of the story, which is picaresque, which translates to one
damn thing after another, and another, and another.

``It's very hard to translate that to a 100-minute feature film,'' he said.
``Every script has a beginning and a middle and an end.''

Adams married Jane Belson, a lawyer, in 1991. The couple, who had lived in
Santa Barbara since 1999, had a daughter, Polly.

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