With the publication of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 1979, Douglas Adams both established a cult and became a cult figure. He continued his saga with four more novels--The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980), Life, the Universe, and Everything (1982), So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984), and Mostly Harmless (1992)--to create a five-volume series that he deliberately misnamed a "trilogy." These novels have achieved best-seller status and have brought a comic edge to the sometimes serious world of science fiction. His blend of peculiarly English comedy and a preoccupation with computer technology have extended his readership well beyond the world of science-fiction fandom.

Douglas Noel Adams was born in Cambridge on 11 March 1952, the son of Christopher Douglas Adams and Jane Dora Donovan Adams (later Thrift). He was educated at Brentwood School in Essex and then read English at St. John's College, Cambridge. At...