Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy chapters found

Friday 30th May 2014, 8:29pm

Douglas Adams

Chapters that Douglas Adams cut from his Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy novels before they were published have been discovered.

The BBC reports that the celebrated writer originally wrote 16 chapters for an early version of the third book - Life, The Universe and Everything - but filed the typescript away and started again.

These chapters have now been re-discovered in an archive of his work at the University of Cambridge.

Extracts will now be included in a new biography, titled The Frood: The True Story of Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The discovery came after the family of Adams gave Jem Roberts, the biography's author, permission to look at his papers after they were loaned to Cambridge University.

Roberts explained to BBC News: "The original version was going brilliantly - he had loads of really funny chapters and scenes - and then he just decided to abandon the whole lot and start from scratch. The book that we know has exactly the same plot. He'd written a version that was about two thirds of the way through before he abandoned it.

"A lot of people thought it had gone in the bin. But no. The manuscript with about 16 chapters is right there in St John's College."

Roberts explained that the writer rejected the manuscript around the time he split up with his girlfriend. "He was extremely unhappy at the time. I think he just wanted a whole fresh start."

The Frood: The True Story of Douglas Adams and the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy will be published in September.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Douglas Adams. Copyright: BBC

The publishers say: "It would be ridiculous to pretend that Douglas Adams's life and work has gone unexamined since his dismayingly early death at 49 but throughout the decade since the last book to tackle the subject, the universes Adams created have continued to develop, to beguile and expand minds, and will undoubtedly do so for generations to come.

"The Frood tells the story of Adams's explosive but agonisingly constructed fictional universe, from his initial inspirations to the posthumous sequel(s) and adaptations, bringing together a thousand tales of life as part of the British comedy movements of the late 70s and 80s along the way. With the benefit of hindsight and much time passed, friends and colleagues have been interviewed for a fresh take on the man and his works."

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, which tells the story of how human Arthur Dent travels the universe after escaping the destruction of Earth, first gained popularity as a BBC radio series in 1978. The first novel was published a year later, with four more following that.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy has also been performed in other mediums, such as a TV series, a film and stage shows.

In March, to celebrate the stories, the BBC launched a new version of the cult online H2G2 game and broadcast a live Radio 4 performance involving the original radio cast.

Douglas Adams died in 2001 at the age of 49. Towel Day, a celebration of the writer's work and life, occurs annually on the 25th of May.

Jem Roberts talks more about the new book on his blog. The book is now available to pre-order

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