Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The

Best-selling space-fiction novel by Douglas Adams published in 1979. It began as a radio serial in 1978 and was later successfully adapted for television. The first of a series of international best-sellers which achieved cult status, the novel was followed by others which developed the theme including 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).