Philip K. Dick Biography

Fast Facts

• Won a Hugo Award for "The Man in the High Castle" and a John W․ Campbell Memorial Award for "Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said․"
• Studied history, military science, philosophy, and zoology at the University of California at Berkeley, but dropped out due to anxiety
• Sold his first short story in 1951 and his first novel in 1955, and spent several years early in his career attempting to write mainstream fiction before ultimately embracing science fiction
• Quote: "I want to write about people I love, and put them into a fictional world spun out of my own mind, not the world we actually have because the world we actually have does not meet my standards․"
• His novels primarily explored themes of social and political structures in dystopian worlds as well as transcendental states brought on by schizophrenia and drug use
• Many of his works rely on the psychoanalytical theories of Carl Jung, including themes of collective unconsciousness and archetypes
• Best known as a science fiction novelist whose works inspired films like "Blade Runner," "Total Recall," and "A Scanner Darkly․"
• Wrote more than 120 short stories and 44 novels during his career, some of the most well-known being "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and "Ubik․"
• Blade Runner was based on his novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" and "Total Recall" was based on his short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale․"
• The "phantom twin" that appears in many of his works is a reference to his twin sister, Jane, who died when they were only six weeks old