Douglas Noel Adams was born in Cambridge Englad to Christopher Douglas Adams, a management consultant and computer salesman, and Janet Donovan, a nurse. He was six feet tall by the age of twelve, and was raised in some historic and unorthodox surrounds, including the infamous East End of London and an RSPCA animal shelter in Essex. His creative writing during school earned him the distinguished accolade of being the only student his former master at the prestigious Brentwood School ever awarded a ten out of ten to, and he went on to university at St. John's College, Cambridge.

Amidst the numerous odd jobs he worked at after graduating college, Adams managed to work on not only one, but two television series which are near and dear to me--Monty PYthon and Doctor Who. He remains one of only two non-Python members to receive a Monty Python writing credit. Some of his rejected Doctor Who scripts would later become part of what he's best known for: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; a title he thought up while lying drunk in a field, carrying a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Europe, looking up at the stars. What began as a concept for a sci-fi radio series evolved into one of those glorious creations which if named in just about any social circle, someone is bound to have had at least some level of exposure to it in one form or another. This creation of his spanned across multiple media platforms into novels, television, comics, the big screen and even a computer game.

Hitchhiker was my first known experience of Adams as a writer, though I was a Monty Python fan long before a friend first loaned me the Ultimate Hitchhiker's compilation. It's sincerely one of the funniest things I've ever read, and with how much I read, that's truly a bold statement. Its satirical, and hilarious, yet also gives the reader pause to reflect on some of the more realistic "what if" elements. Not being a prolific sort of writer, he was once locked in a hotel suite with his editor to ensure that So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish was completed. He's quoted as saying "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by." These sort of whimsical observations are characteristic of the series itself.

Adams was a self-described atheist, environmental activist, and musician, among many other hats. His eccentricities resonate in tune with many of my own, which makes his work that much more appealing to me. After an on-again, off-again relationship with Jane Belson, he eventually married her after nearly ten years. Sadly, he passed away at the age of forty-nine from a heart attack, just four years before the 2005 film release of Hitchhiker. His ashes were placed in Highgate Cemetery, London. As a side note, two asteroids were named in his honor. Asteroid 18610 Arthurdent after Hitchhiker's protagonist was named just two days prior to his death. The second, asteroid 25924 Douglas Adams was named in 2005. After his death in 2001, fans officially designated May 25th as "Towel Day" in remembrance of the author. After all, The Guide does tell us that a towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.