Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick (1928 to 1982) was an American science fiction writer whose novels, including The Man in the High Castle (1962) and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), explored unstable realities and later inspired films such as Blade Runner.

He was born on 16 December 1928 in Chicago and died on 2 March 1982 in Santa Ana, California, after a stroke. He sold his first story, "Roog", in 1951 and began publishing in 1952, writing for science fiction magazines and low-paying paperback houses such as Ace Books. Over his career he produced 45 novels and about 121 short stories.

His first novel, Solar Lottery (1955), appeared as one half of Ace Double D-103. Wider recognition came with The Man in the High Castle, published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in October 1962, which won the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Later novels include The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Doubleday, 1968), Ubik (1969), Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974), which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, A Scanner Darkly (1977), winner of the BSFA Award, and VALIS (1981). Adaptations include Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990), Minority Report (2002) and the television series The Man in the High Castle (2015 to 2019). He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2005.

For collectors. Many of his early novels were first issued as cheap paperback originals, so the Ace Double edition of Solar Lottery (1955) is his first book. The Putnam hardback of The Man in the High Castle (1962) and the Doubleday first edition of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) were both first editions in hardback.