Douglas Adams; Father of ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide’

Douglas Adams, the writer who created a booming cottage industry with his comic stories of two intergalactic travelers, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” has died. He was 49.

Adams died Friday morning in Santa Barbara, apparently after suffering a heart attack at a gym, said his London-based assistant, Sophie Astin. Attempts to revive him at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara were unsuccessful.

Adams had been in good health, Astin said, and did not have a history of heart trouble.

Created as a late night BBC radio series in 1978, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” attained a cult following of science fiction and fantasy buffs. The show also inspired a series of novels, which have sold more than 15 million copies, as well as a BBC television series, a stage play, two records and an interactive video game.

Adams’ novels describe the adventures of Arthur Dent, a hapless and somewhat bewildered Englishman, and his friend Ford Prefect, an alien who has posed as an unemployed actor for years.

When Earth is just minutes away from being demolished to make way for an interplanetary highway, Prefect warns Dent of the impending doom and the two narrowly escape by hitching a ride on a space vehicle.

Dent, still dressed in pajamas and robe, and Prefect journey through the galaxy with the aid of a computer travel guide, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The pair encounters an odd array of characters, including Marvin, a terminally depressed robot; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the three-armed, two-headed president of the galaxy; and Slartibartfast, a planet designer with an affinity for fiords.

Adams explained to The Times some years ago that many of the “Hitchhiker” characters, including the protagonist, were based on people he knew. “Arthur Dent is to a certain extent autobiographical,” he said. “He moves from one astonishing event to another without fully comprehending what’s going on. He’s the everyman character--an ordinary person caught up in some extraordinary events.”

The title came to Adams when he was on holiday from college. Lying somewhat inebriated in an Austrian field with “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Europe” in hand, he gazed at the stars and thought: “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

Born in Cambridge, England, Adams attended the university there, graduating with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature. After a series of odd jobs, he began working for the BBC in 1978 as a script editor for the children’s TV series “Dr. Who,” which was followed by his creation of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” series.

After writing the four “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” books, Adams found another vehicle for his satire in the novel “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency,” featuring Gently, a detective who unravels mysteries by examining the “interconnectedness of all things.” With John Lloyd, Adams wrote the comic alternative dictionary “The Meaning of Liff.”

Adams also founded a multimedia company, Digital Village, which produced the “Starship Titanic” computer game and an online travel guide inspired by “The Hitchhiker’s Guide.”

For his part, Adams said his forte was humor. “I’m not a science fiction writer, but a comedy writer who happens to be using the conventions of science fiction for this particular thing,” he said.

“When I originally described ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ over 20 years ago, I was only joking. I didn’t see myself as a predictive kind of science fiction writer like Arthur C. Clarke,” he said.

Geoffrey Perkins, who produced the original radio series and knew Adams for 25 years, called him one of the most creative people ever in radio comedy. “For somebody who was so involved in breakthroughs in new developments in technology, it’s a tragedy that he’s died before most of the things he’s talked about have come about,” Perkins, now head of BBC comedy, said.

Adams moved to Santa Barbara from London in 1999. He is survived by his wife, Jane, and daughter, Polly, both of Santa Barbara; and his mother, Jan Thrift, of England.