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''The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time'' is a
posthumous Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award - an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication – material published after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1987 * ...
collection of previously published and unpublished material by
Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' developed into a " ...
. It consists largely of essays, interviews, and newspaper/magazine columns about technology and life experiences, but its major selling point is the inclusion of the incomplete novel on which Adams was working at the time of his death, ''The Salmon of Doubt'' (from which the collection gets its title, a reference to the Irish myth of the
Salmon of Knowledge The Salmon of Knowledge ( ga, An Bradán Feasa) is a creature in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology, sometimes identified with Fintan mac Bóchra, who was known as "The Wise" and was once transformed into a salmon. Fenian Cycle The Salmon sto ...
). English editions of the book were published in the United States and UK in May 2002, exactly one year after the author's death.


Original intention

''The Salmon of Doubt'' was originally intended to be a
Dirk Gently Dirk Gently (born Svlad Cjelli, also known as Dirk Cjelli) is a fictional character created by English writer Douglas Adams and featured in the books ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'', ''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' and ''The ...
novel. The plot, set a few weeks after the events in ''
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul ''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' is a 1988 humorous fantasy detective novel by Douglas Adams. It is the second book by Adams featuring private detective Dirk Gently, the first being ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency''. Adams had ...
'', involves Dirk Gently refusing to help find the missing half of a cat, receiving large amounts of money from an unknown client, and then flying to the United States. Dirk pays a visit to Kate Schechter (who had first appeared in ''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'') and tells her that prior to the potential client, he had been so bored that he had started a habit of dialling his own phone number and discovered he'd answered his own calls. A faxed summary reprinted before the text mentions travelling "through the nasal membranes of a rhinoceros, to a distant future dominated by estate agents and heavily armed kangaroos." The version in the published book was described as the strongest content from several unfinished drafts that were written.


Later intention

Adams said that while he originally planned on writing a third Dirk Gently book, the ideas which he had for it would have fitted better into another Hitchhiker's book: "A lot of the stuff which was originally in ''The Salmon of Doubt'' really wasn't working", and he planned on "salvaging some of the ideas that I couldn't make work in a Dirk Gently framework and putting them in a Hitchhiker framework... and for old time's sake I may call it ''The Salmon of Doubt''." He had expressed dissatisfaction with the fifth ''Hitchhiker'' book, ''
Mostly Harmless ''Mostly Harmless'' is a 1992 novel by Douglas Adams and the fifth book in the ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' series. It is described on the cover of the first edition as "The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers ...
'', saying "People have said, quite rightly, that ''Mostly Harmless'' is a very bleak book. And it was a bleak book. I would love to finish ''Hitchhiker'' on a slightly more upbeat note, so five seems to be a wrong kind of number; six is a better kind of number."


Published version

The book as published is divided into two main sections: "Life, the Universe and Everything", which utilizes fiction, essays and interviews with Adams, and ''The Salmon of Doubt'', which presents the most complete version of the novel as Adams left it. The first section is further subdivided into three portions. "Life" touches upon Adams' own life, "The Universe" covers Adams' views of reality, and "Everything" deals with a wider variety of topics. "Everything" also includes the short story "
The Private Life of Genghis Khan "The Private Life of Genghis Khan" is a short story written by Douglas Adams and Graham Chapman. It is based in part on a sketch devised by Graham Chapman, and written by Chapman and Adams for the 1975 TV show pilot ''Out of the Trees''. It appea ...
" and the original version of the Hitchhiker's companion story " Young Zaphod Plays It Safe". The book ends with the order of events for the memorial service that was held for Adams in September 2001, at
St Martin-in-the-Fields St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. It is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. There has been a church on the site since at least the mediev ...
church in London.


Editions

The UK edition includes an introduction by
Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
, while the US edition includes one by Christopher Cerf. The audiobook edition consists of seven CDs, mostly read by Simon Jones, but also includes both of the introductions, read by their respective authors, as well as the tributes written and read by
Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...
. US paperback editions have yet another introduction, written by
Terry Jones Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh comedian, director, historian, actor, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy team. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and ...
, and omit some material due to issues with copyright. The fourteenth printing of the UK/Canadian paperback, , differs in content from the ninth printing of the US hardcover edition, , in the following ways. The paperback contains a foreword written by Stephen Fry; the hardcover contains an introduction by Christopher Cerf. Adams's letter to David Vogel on page 168 has Adams's London address at the top in the hardcover, but it is missing from the paperback. "The Private Life of Genghis Khan" has been omitted from the paperback. The US mass market paperback edition contains everything in the US hardcover edition, and adds "An Introduction to the Introduction to the New Edition" and an "Introduction to the New Edition", both by Terry Jones. The material that was omitted from the UK/Canadian paperback edition is intact in the US mass market paperback edition.


List of editions

* US Hardcover edition, published by Harmony: * UK Hardcover edition, published by Macmillan: * US audiobook edition (CD), published by New Millennium Audio: * US trade paperback edition, published by Ballantine: * US mass paperback edition, published by Del Rey: * UK paperback edition, published by Pan: * Canadian paperback edition, published by Pan: * US audiobook edition (CD), published by Phoeniz Audio:


Adaptation

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
had commissioned a third Dirk Gently six-part radio series for broadcast in mid-2010, based on the uncompleted chapters of ''The Salmon of Doubt'', and written by '' Spice World'' writer
Kim Fuller Kim Fuller (born 15 June 1951 in Hastings, England) is an English writer for film, radio and television. He is the brother of music manager and ''Idols'' series creator Simon Fuller. Career Kim Fuller has been writing for television for over 40 ye ...
. These plans have been dropped in favour of creating a television adaption of the two complete novels.


See also

*
List of works published posthumously The following is a list of works that were published posthumously. An asterisk indicates the author is listed in multiple subsections. (Philip Sidney appears in four.) Literature Novels and short stories * Douglas Adams* — ''The Salmon ...


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salmon Of Doubt, The 2002 books Unfinished books Dirk Gently Books by Douglas Adams Books published posthumously Heinemann (publisher) books The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy