NAME: Douglas Noel Adams
WHAT FAMOUS FOR: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, a mock science-fiction epic that lampoons modern society with biting humour and pessimism.
BIRTH: March 11, 1952 in Cambridge, England.
FAMILY BACKGROUND: His parents were Christopher Douglas Adams, a management consultant and computer salesman, and Janet Donovan, a nurse. They divorced when he was five years old. He had a sister, Susan, and four half-siblings from his parents' remarriages. His great-grandfather was the playwright Benjamin Franklin Wedekind.
CHILDHOOD: He grew up in Brentwood, Essex, where he attended Primrose Hill Primary School and then Brentwood School. He was very tall for his age and self-conscious about it. He was also interested in science and writing stories.
EDUCATION: He studied English literature at St John's College, Cambridge, where he wrote comedy sketches for the performing arts society. He graduated with an M.A. in 1974.
1978: Debut of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a radio series, gaining cult acclaim for its quirky humor and philosophical musings.
1979-1990: Five-book Hitchhiker's series published, solidifying Adams' popularity and influence.
Adams wrote other novels like Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and non-fiction like Last Chance to See, exploring environmental issues.
He worked in various media, contributing to video games, film scripts, and stage adaptations.
APPEARANCE: : He was 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) tall, with brown hair and blue eyes. He wore glasses and often had a beard. He liked to dress casually, sometimes wearing Hawaiian shirts or bathrobes.
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| Adams in March 2020 |
FASHION: He was not very interested in fashion or trends. He once said: "I don't believe it matters how you look as long as you're happy with yourself."
CHARACTER: He was described as intelligent, creative, witty, generous, kind, eccentric, curious and adventurous. He had a passion for technology, especially Apple Macintosh computers. He was also an environmentalist and an atheist. He said: "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."
SENSE OF HUMOUR: He had a dry, sarcastic and absurd sense of humour that often involved wordplay, satire and irony. He used humour to cope with life's challenges and to make fun of human folly. He said: "The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
RELATIONSHIPS: He married Jane Belson in 1991 after a long courtship. They had one daughter, Polly Jane Rocket Adams, born in 1994. He was close to his family and friends, many of whom were fellow writers and comedians. He said: "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."
MONEY AND FAME: He became wealthy and famous from his books and other projects, but he was not very good at managing his finances or meeting deadlines. He often spent more than he earned and had to deal with tax problems and legal disputes. He said: "I am rarely happier than when spending an entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand."
FOOD AND DRINK: He was a vegetarian since 1983 and an advocate for animal rights. He liked Indian food, chocolate and tea. He also enjoyed drinking wine and beer, but he gave up alcohol in 1999 for health reasons. He said: "It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes."
The Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is a legendary drink from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's described as the "best drink in existence," but also the most potent. The drink is said to be a "mugging in liquid form," with a taste likened to "having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick." It's so potent that it's advised to only have one, and even then, only if you're a "thirty-ton mega-elephant with bronchial pneumonia."
While the exact recipe for the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is a closely guarded secret, many have attempted to create their own versions. However, it's important to remember that the true experience of this drink is likely beyond our mortal capabilities.
MUSIC AND ARTS: He was fond of music and played the guitar, piano and flute. He liked rock music, especially The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Procol Harum , Paul Simon, Randy Newman, Bruce Springsteen , Talking Heads, REM, and U2. He also appreciated classical music, especially Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin .
He was interested in art and photography, and collected works by Escher , Dali , Magritte , and Picasso
He said: "The most important thing you learn as a sports photographer is anticipation - not where the action is taking place, but where it's going to take place. Not where the subject is now, but where they're going to be." .
Adams said: "I think a nerd is a person who uses the telephone to talk to other people about telephones."
LITERATURE: He was an avid reader and writer, influenced by authors such as Lewis Carroll , P.G. Wodehouse, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Sheckley, Douglas Hofstadter, Richard Dawkins, and Stephen Hawking . He also admired the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Orwell, and Tolkien.
So, there's Douglas Adams, sprawled out drunk in a field near Innsbruck. It's 1971, and gazing bleary-eyed at the Milky Way, Adams has a thought so obvious it's a wonder no one had it before: a hitchhiker's guide, but for the whole darn galaxy!
Fast forward a few years, and in 1978, BBC Radio 4 picks up Adams' brainchild – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a sci-fi comedy radio series that promptly goes galactic itself. Soon, it's books, it's TV, it's a merchandising juggernaut. Someone even offered Adams a cool £50,000 to write a Hitchhiker's Guide calendar. He didn't even have to write it! Just imagine, getting paid for not working – the dream! (Sadly, the deal fell through, but hey, he still got half the fee. Champagne time!)
Then there was the movie. Twenty years Adams spent wrestling with Hollywood, a process he likened to grilling a steak by having people repeatedly breathe on it. The film finally arrived, four years after the poor man had shuffled off this mortal coil.
But hey, at least Hitchhiker's gave us the towel! As any self-respecting interstellar hitchhiker knows, a towel is about the most useful thing you can have. And to celebrate all things Adams, there's Towel Day – a joyous event that falls on May 25th every year (coincidentally, two weeks after Adams himself bit the dust).
Adams, of course, wasn't a one-trick pony. He also brought us the gloriously oddball Dirk Gently detective novels, and championed the fight to save endangered species. Not bad for a bloke who once got gloriously drunk in a field and had a brilliant idea.
NATURE: He loved nature and wildlife, and was concerned about their preservation. He co-wrote a book and a radio series called Last Chance to See, in which he travelled around the world with zoologist Mark Carwardine to see endangered species. He said: "Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."
HOBBIES AND SPORTS: He had many hobbies and interests, such as astronomy, astrology, chess, gardening, hiking, skiing, scuba diving, swimming, cycling, and flying. He was a fan of sports, especially cricket, rugby, football (soccer), and Formula One racing. He said: "Anything that is in the world when you're born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."
SCIENCE AND MATHS: He had a keen interest in science and maths, especially physics, cosmology, biology, evolution, artificial intelligence, and logic. He was fascinated by the mysteries of the universe and the origins of life. He said: "There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY: He was a self-proclaimed "radical atheist" who rejected the existence of God and any supernatural phenomena. He was influenced by the philosophy of existentialism, humanism, and rationalism. He said: "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
SCANDAL: He was not involved in any major scandals or controversies, although he sometimes faced criticism for his views on religion, politics, or environmental issues. He said: "I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer."
MILITARY RECORD: He did not have any military record or experience. He said: "I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day."
HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS: He was generally healthy and fit, although he suffered from asthma, allergies, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and chronic back pain. He tried various treatments and therapies for his ailments, such as acupuncture, hypnosis, meditation, yoga, massage, chiropractic, homeopathy, and psychotherapy. He said: "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."
HOMES: He lived in various places throughout his life, such as London , Los Angeles , Santa Barbara , New York , Sydney , Islington , France , Scotland , Norway , Greece , Turkey , Sri Lanka , Zanzibar , Madagascar , China , Bali , New Zealand , Australia , Kenya , Cameroon , California . His last home was in Montecito , California . He said: "I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be."
TRAVEL: He travelled extensively around the world for work or pleasure. Some of his destinations included Europe , North America , South America , Africa , Asia , Australia . He said: "I love travelling. I love just going anywhere I haven't been before." .
DEATH Douglas Adams died on May 11, 2001, at the age of 49, from a heart attack in Santa Barbara, California. He was cremated and his ashes were placed in Highgate Cemetery in London.
APPEARANCES IN MEDIA: Numerous adaptations of his work exist, including radio series, books, TV shows, movies, stage plays, and video games. He inspired generations of writers and comedians.
ACHIEVEMENTS: Adams created a timeless masterpiece in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, influencing pop culture and inspiring wonder and laughter in countless readers. He challenged established norms with his witty and thought-provoking stories, leaving a lasting mark on literature and humor.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Adams
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Douglas-Adams
https://douglasadams.com/dna/bio.html
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0010930/bio/
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