Philip K. Dick

Andrew M Butler (Canterbury Christ Church University)

Ed. by Christopher Hugh Gair, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 16 Dec 1928
Died 2 Mar 1982
Activity 1951-1982

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Story-writer

Resources

Dick's Works

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Philip K. Dick was a science fiction writer active between 1951 and his death in 1982, best known for the novels

The Man in the High Castle

(1962) and

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

(1968), the latter being the inspiration for the film

Blade Runner

(Ridley Scott, 1982). His works explored the themes of defining the real and the human, often straying into political and theological areas. He started publishing at a point where science fiction had became more interested in politics and social issues, especially in the works of Theodore Sturgeon, C.M. Kornbluth, Fredrik Pohl, Alfred Bester and Robert Sheckley. His career spanned the height and collapse of the pulp magazine market in the 1950s, the rise of the paperback novel in the 1950s and 1960s and the emergence of large advances for…

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1791 words

Citation: Butler, Andrew M. "Philip K. Dick". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 November 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1255, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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