Douglas Adams Gets Interactive 'Hitchhiker's' Google Doodle

Google is celebrating the 61st birthday of author Douglas Adams with a homepage doodle that pays homage to his well-known works, like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The interactive doodle has a few Easter Eggs. Hover over the elevator button on the far left, for example, and Marvin the Paranoid Android from Hitchhiker's will appear. Click on the tablet-like device on the desk, meanwhile, for a quick glimpse into a number of Hitchhiker catchphrases, such as "Don't panic" and "Mostly harmless." There's also the babel fish and a reference to 42. How many can you spot?

Adams was born in 1952 in England, and began writing while still in high school. He moved to London upon graduation from St. John's College at Cambridge, hoping to break into TV and radio. His work caught the eye of Monty Python's Graham Chapman in the early 70s, leading to a brief collaboration with the Monty Python crew.

In the mid 70s, however, Adams struggled to find work, doing odd jobs here and there to make ends meet while trying to make it big. That didn't happen until 1978, when The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy premiered as a radio series on the BBC - and later, in the U.S. via NPR. Novels based on the series were published in 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, and 1992. The books sold more than 15 million copies and spawned a TV series, several stage plays, comics, a computer game, and the 2005 movie.

In 1979, Adams also wrote an episode for Doctor Who, which led to a gig as script editor and two additional episodes. He also penned Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency in 1987, with a followup - The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul - published the following year.

Adams died of a heart attack on in 2001, when he was just 49.

For more of Google's doodles, see the slideshow below. Recently, the search giant has honored African singer and activist Miriam Makeba, Nicolaus Copernicus, ferris wheel creator George Ferris, and baseball legend Jackie Robinson.