Fw: NYTimes.com Article: Douglas Adams, Author of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe," Dies at 49

[Samuel Moyer]

>
> >
> > Douglas Adams, Author of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe," Dies at
49
> >
> >
> > By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
> >
> >  LONDON -- Douglas Adams, author of the cult science fiction comedy
> > ``The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,'' 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, was 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.
> >
> > 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.''
> >
> > 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 fundamental problem is 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.
> >
> > ------
> >
> > On the Net:
> >
> > http://douglasadams.com/
> >
> >
> >
>
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/obituaries/AP-Obit-Adams.html?ex=990671794&e
> i=1&en=b112908fdbbf53bd
> >
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