The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Hardcover - 1989
by Douglas Adams
About this book
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy aired for the first time at 10:30pm on Wednesday, 8th March 1978 on the BBC as a radio comedy. The radio show's popularity spawned books, a televisions series, several stage plays, a computer game and feature films.
The novel adaptation of Adam's radio series is a misnamed “Trilogy” of six books, five written by Douglas Adams – that sold more than 15 millions copies in his lifetime - and a sixth by Eoin Colfer.
At the release of the fourth book the series was named "trilogy in four parts," and the US edition of the fifth book was originally released with the legend "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy" on the cover. Subsequent re-releases of the other novels bore the legend "The [first, second, third, fourth] book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhiker's Trilogy". In addition, the blurb on the fifth book describes it as "the book that gives a whole new meaning to the word 'trilogy'"
Before his death from a heart attack on May 11, 2001, Adams was considering writing a sixth novel in the Hitchhiker's series. Eoin Colfer, an Irish writer of Children's Books, most famous for his Artemis Fowl series, wrote the sixth book in the Hitchhiker's series in 2008–09.
Books in the Series (Trilogy) are as follows:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe and Everything
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Mostly Harmless
And Another Thing...
Two omnibus editions were created by
Douglas Adams to combine the Hitchhiker series novels and to "set
the record straight". The stories came in so many different
formats that Adams stated that every time he told it he would
contradict himself. Therefore, he stated in the introduction of
The
More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide that "anything I put
down wrong here is, as far as I'm concerned, wrong for good."
The two omnibus editions were The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's
Guide, Complete and Unabridged (published in 1987) and The
Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide, Complete and Unabridged (published
in 1997).
Inspired in part by Ken Walsh's Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe published in 1971, which stresses the importance of towels to the travelling hitch-hiker, an important article to the Hitchhiker's in Adam's galaxy as well.
When Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster was launched into space on the maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket in February 2018, it had the words DON'T PANIC on the dashboard display and carried amongst other items a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a towel.
Summary
First line
The house stood on a slight rise just on the edge of the village.
First Edition Identification
First published in London 12th October 1979 – sold 250,000 copies in the first three months. US edition is 1980, Harmony Books. First edition, signed run $1,000-$2,000.-
Details
- Title The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Author Douglas Adams
- Binding Hardcover
- Edition First Edition
- Pages 224
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Harmony, New York
- Date September 2, 1989
- ISBN 9780517542095 / 0517542099
- Weight 0.81 lbs (0.37 kg)
- Dimensions 7.8 x 5.15 x 0.92 in (19.81 x 13.08 x 2.34 cm)
- Reading level 930
- Library of Congress subjects Science fiction, Humorous stories
- Dewey Decimal Code FIC
More Copies for Sale
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Adams, Douglas
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- UsedGood
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780517542095 / 0517542099
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Tucker, Georgia, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$10.98NZ$7.64 shipping to USA
Show Details
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780517542095 / 0517542099
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
HOUSTON, Texas, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$18.96FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
THe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Adams, Douglas
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Good
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780517542095 / 0517542099
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Mishawaka, Indiana, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$22.98FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
THe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Adams, Douglas
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780517542095 / 0517542099
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Mishawaka, Indiana, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$22.98FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Adams, Douglas
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Fine copy in very good dust jacket
- Edition
- Later prt.
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780517542095 / 0517542099
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Pittsford, New York, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$34.04NZ$6.81 shipping to USA
Show Details
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
by ADAMS, Douglas.
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Fine in Fine dust jacket
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780517542095 / 0517542099
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Springfield, Massachusetts, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$42.56NZ$11.92 shipping to USA
Show Details
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Adams, Douglas
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Edition
- Reprint
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780517542095 / 0517542099
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Springtown, Pennsylvania, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$46.81NZ$6.21 shipping to USA
Show Details
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Adams, Douglas
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Edition
- First American
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780517542095 / 0517542099
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Eugene, Oregon, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$168.52FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
A lovely unread copy of this groundbreaking foray into absurdist fiction.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Adams, Douglas
- New
- Hardcover
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780517542095 / 0517542099
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
San Diego, California, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$175.74NZ$9.28 shipping to USA
Show Details
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
by Adams, Douglas
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Edition
- 1st American edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780517542095 / 0517542099
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Rougemont, North Carolina, United States
- Item Price
-
NZ$255.33NZ$8.94 shipping to USA