Happy birthday, Douglas Adams

Today is (or would have been) Douglas Adams' 61st birthday, which is also the subject of today's Google Doodle. This famously sarcastic English author had a huge impact on the world before dying in 2001 of a heart attack at the age of 49.

I don't remember the first time I heard of Douglas Adams. I would guess that it would have been right after I started seventh grade, and I would strongly suspect that our school's English teacher was the vector. She kept a robust lending library of science fiction and fantasy novels in her classroom, and could always be counted upon to offer a good suggestion to a moldable young mind. And she was a big fan of Douglas Adams, to boot. It would not surprise me if she was the one who first lent me a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe.

Douglas Adams' works were a strong cultural force on my peer group, and geeky young teens around the world. Adams effortlessly blended humor, sass and strong storytelling into a potent force for fandom. (I still think of Dirk Gently's software simulation whenever I try to move a couch.)

Although a brilliant and acclaimed writer, Adams frequently suffered from writer's block and crises of self-confidence. No doubt if Adams had been a more confident writer, he would have left us a larger library of his works. But perhaps his books are all the more cherished because there are so few of them, and they are such slight volumes. (I have a hardback compendium of all five Hitchhiker's books; the entire tome is the size of a single Harry Potter novel.)

In addition to being a brilliant author and noted atheist, Adams was a life-long animal lover and a tireless supporter of environmental causes. He helped hundreds of thousands of dollars for causes like protecting the black rhino, funding schools in Africa, and preserving habitat around the world.

Today in Adams' honor, raise a towel and contemplate the answer to life, the universe and everything.

Image courtesy Flickr/michael_hughes