Author. Born in Cambridge, England, he was educated at Brentwood School, Essex and went on to St. John's College in Cambridge where he first earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1974 and later gained a Masters degree in English literature. He is best known as the creator of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, which started as a BBC Radio 4 program. The program first aired in March 1978 and was later incarnated into the best-selling novels, television series, a record album, a computer game and several stage adaptations which made this body of work a hit with fans of sci-fi, humor and modern literature alike. The phenomenal success of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (published in 1979) saw the book go straight to number one on the United Kingdom Bestseller List, and the popularity of subsequent titles in the series led to Adams being the youngest author to be awarded a Golden Pen award in 1984. He won two more over the next few years, which is considered to be a rare accomplishment. He followed the success of his first book with the continuation of the series, and published "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" (1980); "Life, The Universe and Everything" (1982); "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish" (1984); and "Mostly Harmless" (1992), the fifth book, which completed the series which the author himself named a "trilogy." The first two books in the series were adapted into a 6-part television program, which was an instant hit at its debut in 1982. Of his other works, one of Adam's personal favorites was "Last Chance to See" which he co-authored in 1990 with zoologist Mark Carwardine. This book is an account of a worldwide search for an endangered species of animals. His books have sold over 15 million in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, and were also bestsellers when translated into German, Swedish and many other languages. In December 1982 he had three books on both the New York Times bestseller list and the Publishers' Weekly bestseller list; he was the first British author to have achieved this since Ian Fleming. At the time of his death, Adams was living in Santa Barbara, California with his wife and daughter; he was working on the screenplay for a feature film version of his famous series of books.