Douglas Adams at Top Ten Books

The sudden death of Douglas Adams brings an end to an influential literary career. Douglas Adams combined sci-fi with comedy into the wildly popular "Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy" series.

Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge, England, and educated there at Saint John's College. In 1971, before attending school, he hitchhiked through Europe using "The Hitchhikers Guide to Europe". It was then he struck upon the idea of "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy".

What started a few years later in 1978 as a radio show eventually ended up in print. "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" sold 14 million copies worldwide. Soon after, he had three best books on both the New York Times and Publishers Weekly book lists.

Recently, Douglas Adams has been a successful lecturer and a commentator on science and technology issues. He started Digital Media, a multimedia software company.

Douglas Adams was living in California and working on a new novel when he died.

"So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!"