Philip K. Dick was a celebrated American fiction and essay writer. His fiction works centered on major themes like authoritarian governments, altered states and monopolistic corporations. His own life experiences played a significant role in his selection of themes and subject matter of his novels. His twin sister died in a span of a month which deeply influenced his writings. When he was five years old his parents divorced and his mother won his custody. In Washington D. During these years he developed interest in science fiction and philosophy.
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Study Guides on Works by Philip K. Dick
He wrote 44 novels and about short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. He began publishing science fiction stories in , at age He found little commercial success [3] until his alternative history novel The Man in the High Castle earned him acclaim, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel , when he was Following years of drug abuse and a series of mystical experiences in , Dick's work engaged more explicitly with issues of theology, metaphysics, and the nature of reality, as in novels A Scanner Darkly , VALIS , and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer Dick He died in in Santa Ana, California , at the age of 53, due to complications from a stroke. Dick's posthumous influence has been widespread, extending beyond literary circles into Hollywood filmmaking. Beginning in , Amazon produced the multi-season television adaptation The Man in the High Castle , based on Dick's novel; and in Channel 4 began producing the ongoing anthology series Electric Dreams , based on various Dick stories.
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Philip K. Dick lived most of his life in California. He was born in in Chicago. In his career PKD wrote 36 novels and five short story collections between and when he died in Santa Ana, California. A Scanner Darkly was dedicated to many of his friends who died or suffered damage from drug abuse including himself. The first person narration of Radio Free Albemuth is written from the perspective of a young science fiction writer named Philip who lives in Berkeley. These include his distrust for government and authority, his life as a professional writer and even cosmic visions he is said to have experienced. The death of his twin sister 41 days after their birth is the first of many scars Dick would face.
Jane died less than eight weeks later, allegedly from an allergy to mother's milk. Dick's parents split up during his childhood, and he moved with his mother to Berkeley, California, where he lived for most of the rest of his life. Dick became a published author in His first sale was the short story "Roog. Dick produced an astonishing amount of material during the s and s, writing and selling nearly a hundred short stories and some two dozen or so novels during this period, including "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
