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Douglas Adams Facts

Douglas Adams Facts
Douglas Adams was an English writer best known for his radio show and book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He was born Douglas Noel Adams on March 11th, 1952 in Cambridge, England, to Janet and Christopher Douglas Adams. When his parents divorced in 1957 his mother moved him and his younger sister Susan to Brentwood, Essex. Douglas attended Brentwood School's prep school from 1959 to 1964, and then the main school until 1970. Douglas' early writing was published at the school. In 1974 Douglas Adams graduated with a B.A. in English literature in 1974. He moved to London to write for radio and TV, and earned a writing credit for a Monty Python comedy sketch.
Interesting Douglas Adams Facts:
After his Monty Python experiences both as writer and as an actor in two episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus, his career stalled and he took odd jobs to make ends meet.
Douglas Adams wrote sketches for The Burkiss Way, and The News Huddines, two radio shows in 1977.
Douglas Adams' idea for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy came to him while he lay in a field in Austria staring up at the sky. He was intoxicated. He had a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe, and decided one should be written to cover the galaxy as well.
The first radio series of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy aired in the UK in March and April of 1978. It was also aired in the U.S.
The radio series became so popular that Douglas Adams went on to write five novels in the Hitchhiker series.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy became a No.1 bestseller in the United Kingdom. He sold more than 15 million copies of his books in the UK alone.
Douglas Adams had such a difficult time adhering to deadlines that once he was locked in a hotel suite with his editor for three weeks. It was the only way that So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish could be completed.
Douglas Adams wrote three Doctor Who TV serials including The Pirate Planet, City of Death, and Shada.
Douglas Adams was the youngest writer at the time to win the Golden Pen Award for his book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was so popular that it went from being a radio show and book to being a television series, a record album, theatrical plays a movie, and even a computer game.
Other successful books written by Douglas Adams include The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, The Universe and Everything, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, and Mostly Harmless.
Three of Douglas Adams' books reached the New York Times bestseller list in 1982.
Douglas Adams died on May 11th, 2001 in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 49. He suffered a heart attack.
After Douglas Adams' death in 2001 the book The Salmon of Doubt (2002) was published. It was a collection of his work including an unfinished novel.


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