Archive now set to be published

Highlights from Douglas Adams’ archive are to be published after shattering its crowdfunding target in just hours.

Yesterday morning, extracts from the proposed book were released, including some that revealed his disillusionment with the   Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy characters.

And by 6pm, the title – 42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas Of Douglas Adams – had achieved enough pledges on the Unbound platform to go into production.

It has now smashed its target by more than 50 per cent, with almost 2,000 supporters.

Material from the author’s archives revealed yesterday, includes a note to himself in which he wrote: ‘Arthur Dent is a burk. He does not interest me. Ford Prefect is a burk. He does not interest me. Zaphod Beeblebrox is a burk. He does not interest me. Marvin is a burk. He does not interest me. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is a burk. It does not interest me.’

And there was also ‘general note to myself’ in which he offered tips to get over his writer’s block.

‘Writing isn’t so bad really when you get through the worry,’ he advised himself. ‘Forget about the worry, just press on. Don’t be embarrassed about the bad bits. Don’t strain at them.

‘Writing can be good. You attack it, don’t let it attack you. You can get pleasure out of it. You can certainly do very well for yourself with it!’

The papers were discovered in 67 boxes of files donated to his former Cambridge college, St John’s, after his death of a heart attack, aged 49, in 2001. They are now being compiled into the book by writer Kevin Jon Davies.

His archive also reveals Adams had plans for a TV series imagining Earth’s colonisation of the solar system and a proposed theme park ride

Published: 23 Mar 2021