Douglas Adams
(born March 11, 1952,
Cambridge
, Eng.?died May 11, 2001,
Santa Barbara
, Calif., U.S.) was a British comic writer whose works satirize
contemporary
life through a luckless protagonist who deals ineptly with societal forces beyond his control. Adams is best known for the mock science-fiction series known collectively as
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
.
Adams received an M.A. (1974) in
English literature
from the
University of Cambridge
, where he wrote comedy sketches for the performing arts society. He was a writer and
script
editor for the television series
Doctor Who
and wrote scripts for the
British Broadcasting Corporation
from 1978 to 1980.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide
series is an epic parody that lampoons modern society with biting humour and pessimism. The work achieved great popularity, first as a 12-part series on
radio
in 1978?80 and then in a 5-book series that sold more than 14 million copies internationally. The books in the series are
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
(1979),
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
(1980),
Life, the Universe and Everything
(1982),
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
(1985), and
Mostly Harmless
(1992).
The Hitchhiker’s Guide
was adapted for television, theatre, and film and was used as the basis of an interactive
computer program
.
Adams satirized the detective-story
genre
with
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
(1987) and
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
(1988). Other works include
The Meaning of Liff
(with John Lloyd; 1983),
The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book
(coeditor, with Peter Fincham; 1986), and
Last Chance to See…
(with Mark Carwardine; 1990), a radio series also published in 1990 as a nonfiction book.