Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. A contemporary of Ursula K. Le Guin, Dick’s first short story, “Beyond Lies the Wub,” was published shortly after his high-school graduation. Many of Dick’s works drew upon his personal experiences with drug abuse, addressing topics such as paranoia and schizophrenia, transcendental experiences and alternate reality, and the childhood death of his twin sister is reflected through the recurring theme of the “phantom twin” in many of his novels. Despite ongoing financial troubles and issues with the IRS, Dick had a prolific writing career, winning both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award multiple times. Some of his most famous novels and stories—A Scanner Darkly, “The Minority Report”, “Paycheck,” and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (adapted into the film Blade Runner)—have been adapted for film. Dick died in 1982.

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