http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1326000/1326695.stm


The author Douglas Adams, who has died aged 49, became a household name when his cult science fiction novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was turned into a BBC TV series.

Adams had worked as a radio and television writer and producer before his life was changed by the book's publication in 1979.

It went on to sell more than 14m copies worldwide and preceded a series of best-selling titles by the author, including The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe; Life, The Universe And Everything; So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish; and Mostly Harmless.
One less wise man in the Asylum. Mr Adams, I'm quite sure, would like to apologize for the inconvenience.

We'll all miss you dearly, good sir .... So long, indeed, and thanks for everything you gave us.

--Tiassa :(

His Hitchhiker's series were perhaps my second introduction to British humor--Monty Python being the first. I especially appreciated his take on human (and robot Marvin's) interactions. The first four books of the series were excellent. I'm sure nearly everyone here has either read or heard of them.

Like Asimov, Adams' style will be missed.

prag

Young Zaphod plays it safe?

When did that come out?

I've been getting his books from the library fairly often and I haven't seen that one. Where can I get it?

Originally posted by Shadow
Young Zaphod plays it safe?
When did that come out?
I've been getting his books from the library fairly often and I haven't seen that one. Where can I get it?
It was released (by the UK publishers, at any rate) in the omnibus edition of the first four books; it came out before Mostly Harmless.

In the US, Young Zaphod Plays it Safe is included in two compiled volumes, one released by Longmeadow Press (leatherbound) and one by Wings Press (hardcover). It's a familiar story, an expansion on an episode related by Beeblebrox when explaining how Zaphod came to run for Galactic President.

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:

His Hitchhiker's series were perhaps my second introduction to British humor--Monty Python being the first.
Funny about that, ain't it? I think Black Adder was my third, but I was getting the hang of it by then. But first there was The Ticking Scotsman, and then there was Arthur Dent. Incidentally, does anyone remember the Infocom text-adventure game?

Mr Adams also gave me my first piece of truly Universal wisdom: Have you ever read the instructions on a box of toothpicks? Of course, I'm someone who's amazed that someone might need the pictoral instructions on the inside of a box of condoms. Am I the only person perplexed at the presence of a safety warning stamped on the barrell of a handgun?

But Mr Adams is classified in my life in quite paricularly: few people occupy this place, but it's people like Steven Wright, Garry Trudeau, and the Gaiman/Pratchett one-two punch of Good Omens all helped shake off a certain perspective that retrospect tells me was my parents' psychosis. Dennis Miller ...

It's turning into a hit-parade, so I'd better stop. But that's what happens when I start thinking about these things ....

From one member of the third most intelligent species on the planet to the next, may no one get nailed to a tree in Rickmansworth today.

arkleseizures,
Tiassa :cool: