In addition to his forty-four novels, the legendary Philip K. Dick (1928–82) was a prolific writer of short stories whose fantasies formed the basis for Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and other popular films. This original anthology features eleven of his highly inventive short stories and novellas, which originally appeared in pulp magazines of the early 1950s such as Worlds of Science Fiction, Orbit, Beyond Fiction, and Startling Stories. Riveting tales include a satire of the 1950s obsession with bomb shelters, "Foster, You're Dead," which skewers both consumerism and Cold War anxiety; "Prominent Author," concerning a crack in the space/time continuum that allows an ordinary man to achieve a lasting literary legacy; "Upon the Dull Earth," in which a girl begins by conjuring up angelic-seeming creatures and ends by transforming the nature of reality; and "Adjustment Team," the inspiration for the film The Adjustment Bureau. Additional selections include "Human Is," "Progeny," "Meddler," "The Turning Wheel," "Shell Game," "Exhibit Piece," and "Small Town."
Author
Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. In 1952, he began writing professionally and proceeded to write numerous novels and short-story collections. He won the Hugo Award for the best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year in 1974 for Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. Philip K. Dick died on March 2, 1982, in Santa Ana, California, of heart failure following a stroke. In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty, ten of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.
