Douglas Noel Adams

(11 March 1952 11 May 2001) was an English writer, humorist, and dramatist.
best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which originated in
1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold
more than 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television series, several stage plays, and in
2005 a feature film.
advocate for environmentalism and conservation.
staunch atheist.
-

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a concept for a science-fiction comedy radio
series pitched by Adams in 1977.

Towel Day 2005 in Innsbruck, Austria, where Adams first had the idea of The Hitchhiker's Guide. The annual Towel
Day (25 May) was first celebrated in 2001, two weeks after Adams's death.

According to Adams, the idea for the title occurred to him while he lay drunk in a field
in Innsbruck, Austria, gazing at the stars.
In 1980 Adams also began attempts to turn the first Hitchhiker's novel into a movie.
When he died in 2001 in California, he had been trying again to get the movie project
started with Disney, which had bought the rights in 1998. The movie was finally released
in 2005.

Science Fiction
a genre of fiction dealing with imaginative content such as futuristic settings,
futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, parallel universes, and

extraterrestrial life. Exploring the consequences of scientific innovations is one

purpose of science fiction.
differs from fantasy in that its imaginary elements are largely possible within
scientifically established or scientifically postulated physical laws.
elements include:
o A time setting in the future, in alternative timelines, or in a historical past
that contradicts known facts of history or the archaeological record.
o A spatial setting or scenes in outer space (e.g. spaceflight), on other worlds, or
on subterranean earth.
o Characters that include aliens, mutants, androids, or humanoid robots and
other types of characters arising from a future human evolution.
o Futuristic or plausible technology such as ray guns, teleportation machines,
and humanoid computers.
o Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws,
for example time travel, wormholes, or faster-than-light travel or
communication (known to be possible but not yet feasible).
o New and different political or social systems, e.g. dystopian, post-scarcity, or
post-apocalyptic.
o Paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, telekinesis, and
teleportation.
o Other universes or dimensions and travel between them.
Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels was one of the first true science fantasy works.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818).
With the dawn of new technologies such as electricity, the telegraph, and new forms

of powered transportation, writers including H. G. Wells and Jules Verne created a

body of work that became popular across broad cross-sections of society.