Douglas Adams
1 book analyzed
Biography
Douglas Adams (1952–2001) was educated at Cambridge, worked briefly as a writer for Monty Python's Flying Circus, and struggled for years to turn a radio comedy series into a book. The Hitchhiker's Guide began as a BBC Radio 4 series in 1978 before Adams adapted it into a novel in 1979. He was famously unable to write — his editor was eventually locked in a hotel room with him to extract the final manuscript. He died of a heart attack at 49, having produced five Hitchhiker's novels, the Dirk Gently series, and a book about endangered species (Last Chance to See) that he considered his finest work. He was an atheist, an environmentalist, and a passionate early adopter of technology who correctly identified both its promise and its absurdity.