Registered: Apr 2000
Location: Inglewood, CA, USA
Posts: 390

Saturday May 12 10:40 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Douglas Adams, the author of ''The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy,'' has died suddenly at the age of 49.

Adams, who was married with a six-year-old daughter, died on Friday morning in Santa Barbara, California, after a heart attack, his personal assistant Sophie Astin told Reuters.

``It was a very sudden and unexpected death,'' she said.

The author became a household name in Britain when his 1979 cult science fiction saga, about a group of galactic travelers who survive the demolition of earth to build a space by-pass, was turned into a BBC TV series.

Work is currently under way to turn the book into a Disney film, according to the author's official Web site.

British author and television personality Stephen Fry was among those who posted their condolences on the site on Saturday.

Astin said she had received calls from other friends of Adams such as Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, and David Gilmour of rock group Pink Floyd.

The satirical ``Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' centered on the search for an answer to life and the universe -- which turned out to be 42.

The novel sold more than 14 million copies worldwide and was followed by sequels, ``The Restaurant at the End of the Universe,'' ''Life, the Universe and Everything'' and ``So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.''

I will miss him. His work gave me much joy.

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

That sucks ass.

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-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

I seriously hope this isn't true..

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 89

Unfortunately it is.

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Out of my skull, back in five minutes
Posts: 1435

Belgium, man. Belgium.

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Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
Posts: 175

One of a kind. I just finished listening to him reading Hitchhiker's Guide on tape and also listened to the BBC Radio 4 radio series.

Though he recently said he didn't like PDAs, he would have had to admit that The Guide was the pre-cursor to E-Books.

May he rest with the mice and dolphins ...

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 239

Welcome Outside, Douglas. You were a frood who always knew where his towel was.

You will be missed.

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Soul Raven - "Sm� hjerne, stor gl�de"
Wherever you go, there you are.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Baltimore MD, USA
Posts: 717

Raise one for us at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas. We all miss you.
--
SURREAL SAGE SEZ: And we'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms in the galaxy...and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.

Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 118

Sad news, eh?

I got an email about this over the weekend. I was seriously bummed.

However, my friend who sent it to me wondered if he could just be doing it for tax reasons. I'll miss his gentle sardonic soul (adams) and keen wit, and hope that wherever he has gone, it has a good bar, and that somewhere out there he's hoisting a few PGGB's for us all.

Tucson Sailors

Registered: May 2000
Location: St. Paul, MN
Posts: 1429

and he was only 49

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-miradu

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Texan in Calgary for a while
Posts: 1361

I read this on my Yahoo avantgo channel over the weekend while I was at the mall. I gasped when I saw it.

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James Hromadka
Old Friend

Registered: Jun 2000
Location:
Posts: 594

Holy crap, I'm just finding this out for the 1st time! But I logged onto my name-brand ISP a bunch of times and saw a few newscasts over the wknd -- not even a mention! Jeez. Only 49. We've been robbed.

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"Great Spirits Have Always Encountered Violent Opposition From Mediocre Minds." -- Albert Einstein

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

quote:

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Originally posted by JHromadka
I read this on my Yahoo avantgo channel over the weekend while I was at the mall. I gasped when I saw it.

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I'm a big Douglas Adams fan.. The news ruined my weekend as well... what a bummer..

"So long Douglas and thanks for all the fish.."

Time to dig out my original books and re-read them again, one more time..

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams