100 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
100 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
BIOGRAPHY
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Unlike the pound or Watney's Ale, British humor travels the Atlantic
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well. American audiences have long been fans of the English comic
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muses from Henry Fielding to Monty Python. Latest in this parade of
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writers to reach the colonies is Douglas Adams, whose fourth volume in
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the "Hitchhiker Trilogy" will soon reach bookstores, to the delight of
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his countless fans.
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The son of a post-graduate theology student and a nurse, Douglas Noel
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Adams was born i n Cambridge, England, in 1952. He was schooled at
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Brentwood in Essex, then entered St. John's College at Cambridge
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University in 1970. Cambridge during the '70s was a fertile bed of
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comic genuis that spawned such stars as Dudley Moore, John Cleese, Peter
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Cook and Graham Chapman.
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Adam's antic notions fit the school's extracurricular style, and he soon
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joined The Footlights Club, famous for its comic and satirical
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productions. He began collaborating with many of the writers who would
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later create Th e Monty Python Show and Not The Nine O'Clock News.
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It was on a semester break at Cambridge that the idea for his first
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major effort came to him. He had been traveling around the continent,
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using The Hitchhiker's Guide To Europe as a reference. It was a starry
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night in Innsbruck, and Adams lay on his back, slightly drunk,
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contemplating the universe. The thought came to him that someone should
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write The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, combining the Gee- Whiz! fun
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of science fiction with timely soci al satire. It took six years for
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the idea to come to fruition, but it has provided his passport to
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considerable fame and modest fortune.
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Graduating Cambridge in 1974, Adams "went down" to London and tried his
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hand at TV writing, penning a number of episodes for the Dr. Who series,
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which is aired in this country on PBS. Two years later, he was broke
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and accepted a job as bodyguard for a royal Arabian family. His job, he
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says, was to stand outside the door, bow occasionally, and run if anyone
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showe d up with a hand grenade.
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During his off-hours, he began writing The Hitchhiker's Guide. His
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Innsbruck fantasy first took form as a radio serial, which he sold to
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the BBC. The show began to build a cult following--people who, it
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seemed, couldn't wait to start their own adventures travelling around
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the galaxy.
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The series became so popular in Britain, that it was aired four times,
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and ultimately sparked, a television series, two records, a stage show
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and an interactive fiction game.
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Americans discovered The Hitchhiker's Guide during the 1980's and the
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radio version has been broadcast several times on National Public Radio
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member stations, PBS has aired the television version, and the books
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have sold in the hundreds of thousands.
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Now that the book has been optioned for a film, Adams has become a
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modern version of Renaissance Man, though his view of man's foibles
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places his somewhere between Swift and Dickens.
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In addition to The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Adams has now
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completed three mo re volumes in the "trilogy:" The Restaurant At The
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End Of The Universe; Life, The Universe And Everything, and So Long, And
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Thanks For All The Fish.
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He recently co-authored a book with British satirist John Lloyd called
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The Meaning Of Liff (sic). It's a small dictionary of place names
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adapted to describe situations and experiences which have other name
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designation. Thus, "epping" describes the little futile finger
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movements you use to get a barman's attention, and "Kalami" is the
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ancient Eastern art of being able to fold road maps properly.
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After seven months in Los Angeles, California, working on the screenplay
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for The Hitchhiker's Guide, Adams has given up on America and now
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resides once more in England, where he practices the first rule of
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galactic hitchhiking: "Don't Panic."
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