Douglas Adams/Bibliography

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Biographies

His official biography, Wish You Were Here, by Nick Webb, was published on 6 October 2003 (ISBN 0-7553-1155-8).

Another biography is Hitchhiker: A Biography of Douglas Adams (2003) by M. J. Simpson, with a foreword in the UK edition by John Lloyd (ISBN 0-340-82488-3), and was revised and updated in paperback in February 2004 (ISBN 0-340-82489-1). The American hardback edition contains a foreword by Neil Gaiman (ISBN 1-932112-17-0), and its April 2005 paperback equivalent (ISBN 1-932112-35-9) has an extra chapter about the movie.

Upon the mutual discovery that Webb and Simpson were both working on new posthumous biographies, the two authors agreed that the former would focus on Adams' life and personality, and the latter on his work.

In 1992, ITV's The South Bank Show produced a documentary about Douglas Adams which featured Dirk Gently and characters from Hitchhikers and contributions from Stephen Fry, Richard Dawkins and John Lloyd.

The BBC produced a tribute as part of their TV series Omnibus. It was first broadcast on BBC 2 on 4 August 2001, presented by Kirsty Wark. The programme included interviews with Stephen Fry, Clive Anderson, Terry Jones, Griff Rhys Jones, Richard Dawkins and John Lloyd, among others. A copy is included with the Region One DVD release of the Hitchhiker's Guide TV series.

A movie documentary, Life, The Universe and Douglas Adams, was released in 2002, directed and produced by Rick Mueller and Joel Greengrass. Archive footage of Adams is generously included, as well as interviews with Adams' friends, colleagues and family. This documentary was narrated by Neil Gaiman and is available on VHS tape.

Earlier biographies include:

• Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion (1988, 1993, 2002), Neil Gaiman et al. Reissued October 2003 (ISBN 1-84023-742-2) with new chapters by M. J. Simpson and David K. Dickson.
• M. J. Simpson's book The Pocket Essential Hitchhiker's Guide was first published in April 2001 in the UK (ISBN 1-903047-40-4), and revised and reprinted after the death of Douglas Adams in October 2001. A third revision, (though titled the "Second, Revised Edition") was published in April 2005 in the UK, with new material (ISBN 1-904048-46-3).

Works

Novels in the Hitchhiker series

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
• The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980)
• Life, the Universe and Everything (1982)
• So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish (1984)
• Mostly Harmless (1992)

All of the above are also available as unabridged audio books, read by Adams. These were preceded by abridged audio books of the first four novels, read by Stephen Moore. To tie in with the film release, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is also available as an audiobook read by Stephen Fry. Martin Freeman, who portrayed Arthur Dent in the movie adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide, has recorded audiobook editions of the last four books in the series, released between June and December 2006.

The volumes in the Hitchhiker's series have also been collected into omnibus editions, including The Hitchhiker's Trilogy (released in 1982), The Hitchhiker's Quartet, released in 1986 and The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide, released in 1997.

The Dirk Gently series

• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987)
• The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988)
• The Salmon of Doubt (incomplete, 2002)

Adams recorded an abridged audiobook adaptation of the first novel in this series in the 1980s. The sequel was performed by Simon Jones, also in an abridged adaptation. Both were released by Simon and Schuster Audioworks in the United States, and are out of print. Adams, a decade later, recorded unabridged adaptations of both novels, which are both available in six CD sets. Following Adams' death an audiobook of the partially-completed Salmon of Doubt was recorded by Simon Jones.

Other books

• The Meaning of Liff (1983, with John Lloyd)
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts (1985, with Geoffrey Perkins)
• The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book (1986, edited by Douglas Adams and Peter Fincham), which includes
  • Young Zaphod Plays it Safe (also printed in a slightly reworked version in The Wizards of Odd, The Salmon of Doubt, and several omnibus editions of Hitchhiker)
  • The Private Life of Genghis Khan, also available in the first edition of The Salmon of Doubt, though later removed due to copyright issues
  • A Christmas Fairly Story [sic] by Douglas Adams and Terry Jones
  • A "Supplement to The Meaning of Liff" with John Lloyd and Stephen Fry
• The Deeper Meaning of Liff (1990, with John Lloyd; extended version of The Meaning of Liff)
• Last Chance to See (1990, with Mark Carwardine, non-fictional account of several trips to see endangered species; according to a piece in The Salmon of Doubt, this book gave Adams the most satisfaction, if not the highest sales. An abridged audiobook version read by Adams was also released.)
• The Illustrated Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1994)
• Douglas Adams' Starship Titanic (1997), written by Terry Jones (who insists he wrote the whole thing while in the nude), based on an idea by Douglas Adams; also available as an audiobook, read by Terry Jones
• The Salmon of Doubt (2002), unfinished novel manuscript (11 chapters), short stories, essays, and interviews (also available as an audiobook, read by Simon Jones)

Other works

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (computer game) (1984, with Steve Meretzky)
• Bureaucracy (computer game) (1987)
• Starship Titanic (computer game) (1998)
• h2g2 (internet project) (1999)
• The Internet: The Last Battleground of the 20th century (radio series) (2000)
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future (radio series) (2001)

In 2004, BBC Audio published a 3-CD set entitled Douglas Adams at the BBC, which covers the author's work from 1974 to 2003, including posthumous projects and tributes. The CD is again narrated by Simon Jones.