Douglas Adams

H2G2 founder Douglas Adams

"Thanks to everyone who has joined the H2G2 community and helped us create the Guide so far, and a warm welcome to anyone visiting us for the first time. We're off to a great start. We have the first snowflake. Now let's build a blizzard."
- A Welcome and Thank You Message from Douglas Adams, 8 September 1999

The above words were written by Douglas Adams on H2G2 a few months after the site's creation. For the first time, this page collects together all the articles written by, and about, Douglas to be found on H2G2. H2G2 was started by The Digital Village, a media company founded by Douglas Adams and his friends Robbie Stamp and Richard Creasey, on 28 April 1999. The BBC took over the running of H2G2 in January 2001.

H2G21 was intended to be the Earth edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the fictional tome at the heart of Douglas Adams' galactically successful radio series and books. Before the site became a reality, Douglas said that his original idea was for "a collaborative guide, one that was written and kept up to date by the people who use it, in real time". He remarked that at the time he didn't realise that such a thing could be possible, or how powerful a networked community working together to the same end could be. (You can read more about this in an Entry written by Douglas called My Vision for H2G2.)

Douglas wrote many of the first Entries to appear on H2G2. As well as collating all his contributions to the site, this page also has links to all the Approved Entries written by members of the community that are about Adams and his work. Among them you'll find Adams' own discourses on the Great British cup of tea, international driving laws and even some festive hangover cures. You'll also find a complete guide to the history and many incarnations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , Adams' Dirk Gently novels, as well as the Last Chance to See ecological project begun by Douglas Adams and zoologist Mark Carwardine in the 1980s and continued by Stephen Fry and Carwardine in the 2000s.

We've also rounded up the best of Douglas' writing freely available around the web, including an article written for The Sunday Times in 1999 urging people to embrace the web entitled How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet. There is also, courtesy of the official Douglas Adams website, A Pedant's Guide to the Significant Events of the Millennium and a short story based on an original sketch written by Adams and his friend, Monthy Python star Graham Chapman, The Private Life of Genghis Khan.

And finally we've drawn together the articles related to Adams and his work still available on BBC Online, including the story of his unfinished Doctor Who episode Shada which was eventually recorded as a webcast in 2003.2

Douglas died on 11 May, 2001 leaving a brilliant and hugely influential body of work. If you would like to discuss his work and impact you can do so by posting to the Conservation thread attached to his H2G2 biography. We have also kept Douglas' Personal Space open as a tribute to the great man, and you can also make posts there.

Entries Written By Douglas Adams

H2G2 Entries About Douglas Adams and His Work

Things Written by Douglas Adams Elsewhere on the Web

Elswhere on the BBC

1Its name is an abbreviated form of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.2This Doctor Who story was intended to appear in the 17th season of the series in 1979, starring Tom Baker, but industrial action saw it dropped from the filming schedules. It was eventually recorded as a six-part web-only series in 2003, featuring Paul McGann as the Doctor.

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