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 (novel) of an encyclopedia. The book begins with city council workmen arriving at Arthur Dent's house. They wish to demolish his house in order to build a bypass. Arthur's best friend, Ford Prefect, arrives, warning him of the end of the world. Ford is revealed to be an alien who had come to Earth to research it for the titular "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", an enormous work providing information about every planet and place in the universe. The two head to a pub, where the locals question Ford's knowledge of the Apocalypse. An alien race, known as Vogons, show up