The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy States and Canada with Hannibal Records and Simon and Schuster were later negotiated by Douglas Adams and his agent, Ed Victor, after gaining full rights to the recordings from Original Records, which went bankrupt. There have been three audiobook recordings of the novel. The first was an abridged edition (), recorded in the mid-1980s for the EMI label Music For Pleasure by Stephen Moore, best known for playing the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in the radio series and in the TV series. In 1990, Adams himself recorded an unabridged edition for Dove Audiobooks (), later re-released by New
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (fictional) Stephen Fry as the voice of the "Guide", also employed animations, but in a more minimalist, abstract style. They were animated by Shynola. Adams conceived of the "Guide" while hitchhiking from London to Istanbul in 1971. Drunk and penniless in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, Adams looked up at the stars and then at his stolen copy of "Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe" and thought that someone should write "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe" claimed in its introduction that it was possible to survive in Europe on less than US$25 a week, a claim echoed