The Salmon of Doubt

2002 English-language book by Douglas Adams

The Salmon of Doubt

Front cover from the first UK hardcover edition

Author| Douglas Adams
Country| United Kingdom
Language| English
Series| Dirk Gently, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Genre| Humour
Science fiction novel
Publisher| UK: William Heinemann Ltd., US: Pocket Books

Publication date

| 2002
Media type| Print (Paperback and Hardcover), Audiobook (cassette and compact disc)
Pages| 326 (paperback edition)
ISBN| 0-330-32312-1
OCLC| 59464153
Preceded by| The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time is a posthumous collection of previously published and unpublished material by Douglas Adams. 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). 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[edit]

The Salmon of Doubt was originally intended to be a Dirk Gently novel. The plot, set a few weeks after the events in The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, 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[edit]

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."[1][2] He had expressed dissatisfaction with the fifth Hitchhiker book, Mostly Harmless, 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."[3][4]

## Published version[edit]

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" 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 church in London.

## Editions[edit]

The UK edition includes an introduction by Stephen Fry, 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. US paperback editions have yet another introduction, written by Terry Jones, and omit some material due to issues with copyright.

The fourteenth printing of the UK/Canadian paperback, ISBN 978-0-330-32312-3, differs in content from the ninth printing of the US hardcover edition, ISBN 1-4000-4508-8, 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 ISBN 0-345-45529-0 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[edit]

* US Hardcover edition, published by Harmony: ISBN 1-4000-4508-8
* UK Hardcover edition, published by Macmillan: ISBN 0-333-76657-1
* US audiobook edition (CD), published by New Millennium Audio: ISBN 1-59007-151-4
* US trade paperback edition, published by Ballantine: ISBN 0-345-46095-2
* US mass paperback edition, published by Del Rey: ISBN 0-345-45529-0
* UK paperback edition, published by Pan: ISBN 0-330-41956-0
* Canadian paperback edition, published by Pan: ISBN 0-330-32312-1
* US audiobook edition (CD), published by Phoeniz Audio: ISBN 1-59777-006-X

## Adaptation[edit]

BBC Radio 4 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.[5] These plans have been dropped in favour of creating a television adaption of the two complete novels.[6]

## See also[edit]

* List of works published posthumously

## References[edit]

1. ^ "The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams". The Independent. London. 10 May 2002. Archived from the original on 16 October 2009.
2. ^ "Cover Stories: Douglas Adams, Narnia Chronicles, Something like a House". The Independent. London. 5 January 2002. Archived from the original on 1 August 2009.
3. ^ Flood, Alison (17 September 2008). "Eoin Colfer to write sixth Hitchhiker's Guide book". The Guardian. London.
4. ^ Matt Newsome. "Matt Newsome's 1998 interview with Douglas Adams". Mattnewsome.co.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
5. ^ "Final Dirk Gently novel to be adapted for Radio 4". Thestage.co.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
6. ^ "BBC plans Dirk Gently TV series". Chortle.co.uk. 11 October 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2009.

Preceded by:
| Series:

|

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul | Dirk Gently series

## External links[edit]

* v
* t
* e

Works by Douglas Adams

Novels|

* 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
* Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
* The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
* Mostly Harmless

Short stories|

* "The Private Life of Genghis Khan"
* "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe"

Books|

* The Meaning of Liff
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Original Radio Scripts
* Last Chance to See
* The Deeper Meaning of Liff
* Douglas Adams's Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
* The Salmon of Doubt

Screenplays|

* Monty Python's Flying Circus
* "Patient Abuse"
* Out of the Trees
* Doctor Who
* The Pirate Planet
* City of Death
* Shada
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV series)
* Hyperland
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)

Video games|

* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
* Labyrinth
* Bureaucracy
* Starship Titanic

See also|

* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (series)
* Douglas Adams at the BBC
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future (BBC radio series)
* The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book

* v
* t
* e

Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Books|

| Main series|

* 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

|

Related works|

* "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe"
* Douglas Adams's Starship Titanic: A Novel
* The Salmon of Doubt

by Eoin Colfer|

And Another Thing...

Media|

* Radio series
* Phases 1 and 2
* Phases 3, 4, 5, and 6
* The Original Radio Scripts
* 1981 TV series
* Planned TV series
* Film
* Timeline of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy versions
* Cast lists

Games|

* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
* Starship Titanic

Companion
media|

* Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion
* Douglas Adams's Guide to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Characters|

* Arthur Dent
* Ford Prefect
* Zaphod Beeblebrox
* Marvin the Paranoid Android
* Trillian
* Slartibartfast
* The Guide
* Minor characters
* Vogons

Miscellanea|

* Phrases
* Somebody else's problem
* Encyclopedia Galactica

In culture|

* h2g2
* Hitchcon
* Towel Day
* Journey of the Sorcerer
* 18610 Arthurdent
* 25924 Douglasadams
* Bidenichthys beeblebroxi
* Erechthias beeblebroxi
* Fiordichthys slartibartfasti
* Kiitoksia kaloista

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently

Novels|

* Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
* The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
* The Salmon of Doubt (unfinished)

Adaptations|

| Radio|

* Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
* The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

|

Theatre|

Dirk

Television|

* Dirk Gently
* "Pilot"
* Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Comic|

* The Interconnectedness of All Kings
* A Spoon Too Short
* The Salmon of Doubt

Related|

* Professor Chronotis
* Douglas Adams at the BBC
* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
* City of Death
* Shada

Authority control |

* MusicBrainz work

|

*[OCLC]: Online Computer Library Center number
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