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Date Posted: May 17, 12:28:pm GMT-5
Author: Seems
Subject:

Re: takeoff to eternity...
In reply to: Cat 's message, "takeoff to eternity..." on May 17, 11:58:am GMT-5

British Author Douglas Adams Dies

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) - 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.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010512/ts/obit_adams_6.html

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Replies:

Re: takeoff to eternity... -- Dozer, May 17, 01:13:pm GMT-5
- Re: takeoff to eternity... -- Sal Mineo, May 17, 02:29:pm GMT-5
  - Re: takeoff to eternity... -- Cat, May 17, 07:05:pm GMT-5
    - Re: the arthurdent asteroid -- Ken, May 18, 05:05:pm GMT-5