Douglas Adams

Rising to fame after releasing the wildly popular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, British author Douglas Adams quickly became one of the most popular writers of sci-fi humor. Born in Cambridge, England, and educated in Essex, Adams returned to Cambridge to study at St. John's College. Later writing and producing for television and radio, the 1979 publication of Hitchhiker sold more than 14 million copies worldwide, prompting Adams to pen three sequels and start a franchise that would maintain strong popularity well into the next century. Presented as a radio program, a computer game, and as a BBC miniseries in 1981, rumors persisted of a feature version of Hitchhiker, with Adams' involvement slowly bringing the concept closer to fruition. Tackling the internet with the same zeal that he applied to his writing, Adams created the online encyclopedia h2g2, as well as presenting an informative internet series on BBC Radio 4. His influence on techies can be found in sites across the World Wide Web, including Alta Vista's Babel Fish internet translation program, graced with the namesake of Adams' fictional aquatic language translator. In May 2001, Douglas Adams died of a heart attack in Santa Barbara, CA. He was 49. Adams received posthumous credit as executive producer and screenwriter on the 2005 big screen version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.