- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (book)
Infobox Book
name = The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption = Cover of the original UK paperback edition of the novel, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", byHipgnosis and Ian Wright. The back cover contained the slogan "DON'T PANIC" in the same colour-video-screen style. [cite book|title=DON'T PANIC: The official Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy companion|author=Neil Gaiman|id=ISBN 1852860138|publisher=Titan Books|date=1988|pages=50]
author =Douglas Adams
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country =United Kingdom
language = English
series =The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
genre = Comedy,Science fiction novel
publisher =Pan Books
release_date =12 October 1979
media_type = Paperback and hardcover
pages = 180 pp (UK Paperback)
isbn = ISBN 0-330-25864-8
preceded_by =
followed_by =The Restaurant at the End of the Universe "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" [The spelling of "Hitchhiker's Guide" has varied in different editions. For consistency this article always spells it this way. See
Spelling of Hitchhiker's Guide .] (1979, ISBN 0-330-25864-8) is the title of the first of five books in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" comedy science fiction "trilogy" byDouglas Adams . Thenovel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams's radio series of the same name. The novel was first published inLondon on12 October 1979 . [cite book|last=Webb|first=Nick|authorlink=Nick Webb (author)|title=Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams|publisher=Headline|date=2003-10-06|location=Chatham, Kent|pages=157|isbn=0-7553-1155-8]The novel takes its name from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", a fictional
guide book for hitchhikers (inspired by the "Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe ") written in the form of anencyclopedia .Illustrated Edition
"The Illustrated Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is a specially designed book made in 1994. It was first printed in the
United Kingdom byWeidenfeld & Nicolson, Limited and in theUnited States by Harmony Books (who sold it for $42). It is an oversized book, and came in silver-foil "holographic" covers in both the UK and US markets. It features the first appearance of the42 Puzzle , designed by Adams himself, a photograph of Adams and his literary agent Ed Victor as the two space cops, and many other designs by Kevin Davies, who has participated in many Hitchhiker's related projects since the stage productions in the late 1970s. Davies himself appears as Prosser. This edition is out of print - Adams bought up many remainder copies and sold them, autographed, on his website.Audiobook adaptations
There have been three audiobook recordings of the novel. The first was an abridged edition, recorded in the mid-1980s by Stephen Moore, best known for playing the voice of
Marvin the Paranoid Android in the radio series, LP adaptations and in the TV series. In 1990, Adams himself recorded an unabridged edition for Dove Audiobooks, later re-released by New Millennium Audio in the United States and available from BBC Audiobooks in the United Kingdom. To tie-in with the 2005 film, actorStephen Fry , the film's voice of the Guide, recorded a second unabridged edition.equels
There have been four sequels to the novel. The books are
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980),Life, the Universe and Everything (1982),So Long and Thanks for All the Fish (1984) andMostly Harmless (1992). On September 16th, 2008 it was announced that Irish authorEoin Colfer is to pen a fifth sequel. The book entitled ...And Another Thing is due to be published in October 2009, the 30th anniversary of the publication of the original novel. Source: [http://www.eoincolfer.com]Awards
*Number one on the Sunday Times best seller list (1979)
*"Golden Pan" (From his publishers for reaching the 1,000,000th book sold) (1984)
*Waterstone's Books/Channel Four's list of the 'One Hundred Greatest Books of the Century', at number 24. (1996)
*BBC's "Big Read ", an attempt to find the "Nation's Best-loved book", it ranked in at number four. (2003)+Galaxy "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"] on
Literapedia References
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