Richard Phillipps

Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. His fiction explored varied philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as alternate realities, illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness.

Born in Chicago, Dick moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with his family at a young age. He began publishing science fiction stories in 1952, at age 23. He found little commercial success until his alternative history novel '' The Man in the High Castle'' (1962) earned him acclaim, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel, when he was 33. He followed with science fiction novels such as '' Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'' (1968) and '' Ubik'' (1969). His 1974 novel '' Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said'' won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

Following years of drug abuse and a series of mystical experiences in 1974, Dick's work engaged more explicitly with issues of theology, metaphysics, and the nature of reality, as in novels '' A Scanner Darkly'' (1977), '' VALIS'' (1981), and ''The Transmigration of Timothy Archer'' (1982). A collection of his speculative nonfiction writing on these themes was published posthumously as ''The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick'' (2011). He died in 1982 in Santa Ana, California, at the age of 53, due to complications from a stroke. Following his death, he became "widely regarded as a master of imaginative, paranoid fiction in the vein of Franz Kafka and Thomas Pynchon".

Dick's posthumous influence has been widespread, extending beyond literary circles into Hollywood filmmaking. Popular films based on his works include ''Blade Runner'' (1982), ''Total Recall'' (adapted twice: in 1990 and in 2012), '' Screamers'' (1995), ''Minority Report'' (2002), '' A Scanner Darkly'' (2006), '' The Adjustment Bureau'' (2011), and ''Radio Free Albemuth'' (2010). Beginning in 2015, Amazon Prime Video produced the multi-season television adaptation '' The Man in the High Castle'', based on Dick's 1962 novel; and in 2017 Channel 4 began producing the ongoing anthology series '' Electric Dreams'', based on various Dick stories.

In 2005, ''Time'' named '' Ubik'' (1969) one of the hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer included in The Library of America series.

Early life

Dick and his twin sister, Jane Charlotte Dick, were born six weeks prematurely on December 16, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois, to Dorothy (née Kindred; 1900–1978) and Joseph Edgar Dick (1899–1985), who worked for the United States Department of Agriculture. His paternal grandparents were Irish. Jane's death on January 26, 1929, six weeks after their birth, profoundly affected Philip's life, leading to the recurrent motif of the " phantom twin" in his books.

Dick's family later moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. When he was five, his father was transferred to Reno, Nevada, and when Dorothy refused to move, she and Joseph divorced. Both fought for custody of Philip, which was awarded to Dorothy. Determined to raise Philip alone, she took a job in Washington, D.C. and moved there with her son. Philip was enrolled at John Eaton Elementary School (1936–1938), completing the second through fourth grades. His lowest grade was a "C" in Written Composition, although a teacher said he "shows interest and ability in story telling". He was educated in Quaker schools. In June 1938, Dorothy and Philip returned to California, and it was around this time that he became interested in science fiction. Dick stated that he read his first science fiction magazine, ''Stirring Science Stories,'' in 1940.Sutin p.3

Dick attended Berkeley High School in Berkeley, California. He and fellow science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin were members of the class of 1947 but did not know each other at the time.
He claimed to have hosted a classical music program on KSMO Radio in 1947.Sutin, p. 53 From 1948 to 1952, he worked at Art Music Company, a record store on Telegraph Avenue.

He attended the University of California, Berkeley from September 1949 to November 11, 1949, ultimately receiving an honorable dismissal dated January 1, 1950. He did not declare a major and took classes in history, psychology, philosophy, and zoology. Dick dropped out because of ongoing anxiety problems, according to his third wife Anne's memoir. She also says he disliked the mandatory ROTC training. At Berkeley, he befriended poet Robert Duncan and poet and linguist Jack Spicer, who gave Dick ideas for a Martian language.

Through his studies in philosophy, he believed that existence is based on internal human perception, which does not necessarily correspond to external reality. He described himself as "an acosmic panentheist," believing in the universe only as an extension of God.Dick, Philip K. "An Interview With America's Most Brilliant Science-Fiction Writer" Interview by Joe Vitale. Interview With Philip K Dick. Print Interviews. Web. October 22, 2011. After reading the works of Plato and pondering the possibilities of metaphysical realms, he came to the conclusion that, in a certain sense, the world is not entirely real and there is no way to confirm whether it is truly there. This question from his early studies persisted as a theme in many of his novels.

Career

Early writing

Dick sold his first story, "Roog", in 1951, when he was 22, about "a dog who imagined that the garbagemen who came every Friday morning were stealing valuable food which the family had carefully stored away in a safe metal container". From then on he wrote full-time. During 1952, his first speculative fiction publications appeared in July and September numbers of '' Planet Stories'', edited by Jack O'Sullivan, and in '' If'' and '' The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' that year. His debut novel, ''Solar Lottery'', was published in 1955 as half of Ace Double #D-103 alongside ''The Big Jump'' by Leigh Brackett. The 1950s were a difficult and impoverished time for Dick, who once lamented, "We couldn't even pay the late fees on a library book." He published almost exclusively within the science fiction genre but dreamed of a career in mainstream fiction. During the 1950s, he produced a series of non-genre, relatively conventional novels.

In 1960, Dick wrote that he was willing to "take twenty to thirty years to succeed as a literary writer". The dream of mainstream success formally died in January 1963 when the Scott Meredith Literary Agency returned all of his unsold mainstream novels. Only one of them, ''Confessions of a Crap Artist'', was published during Dick's lifetime, in 1975 by Paul Williams' Entwhistle Books

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