All in the Addams Family

Some recipients of the 2014 Little, Brown Young Readers catalog have asked me just who Douglas Addams is. Is he related to Charles Addams, the famous New Yorker cartoonist? Or possibly to Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? The surprising answer is, he has connections to both! Here is a picture of the multi-talented  Addams:

Addams, a rare example of conjoined writers (or, to use the antiquated term,  "Siamese authors,") is, or possibly are, credited with the invention of the “mash-up,” the literary form in which two seemingly incompatible genres are brought together between the covers of a single book. In 1953 he incorporated characters from Pride and Prejudice into an oil-burner repair manual and spent fourteen weeks at the top of the New York Times best-seller list.

In addition to having two heads, Addams has also admitted to having two butts. As he quipped during a panel discussion at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, "If two heads are better than one, then two butts are better than none, especially if you're constipated!" 

He is credited with being the inspiration for the two-headed character Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitchhiker's Guide, and he was, at least in part, the original model for Gomez Addams. 

He divides his time between Walla Walla, Baden Baden, and Pittsburgh.

Addams is distantly related to Boola, the winner of the 1936 Oscar for Best Supporting Actors in an Animated Featurette - "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor." If you've never seen this movie because it was made 70 years before you were born, click here to see what real animation is all about.