Name: DICK, Philip Kindred Aged: 53
Born: December 16, 1928 Where: Chicago, Illinois
Died: March 2, 1982 Where: Orange County, CA
Interred: Fort Morgan, Colorado, City Cemetery
Married: Jeanette Marlin When: May 1948 (div)
Married 2: Kleon Apostolides When: June 1950 (div 58)
Married 3: Anne Williams Rubinstein When: 1958 (div 64)
Married 4: Nancy Hackett When: 1966
Married 5: Tessa Busby When: April 18, 1973 (div)
Awarded: 1963 Hugo for Man in the High Castle; 1967 British SF Award for The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch; 1975 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said; and the 1979 British SF Award for A Scanner Darkly.

"Science Fiction is a lot of fun to write and its worth all of the bad financial breaks to do it. I don't regret one thing. Well, that's not true. I regret it when they turn off the electricity."

Dick sold his first short story to Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1951, although "Beyond Lies the Wub" in Planet Stories, July 1952 is also claimed as first. Dick apparently wrote for four years, beginning in 1947, without selling anything. Volume 1 of the Collected Short Stories of PKD further confuses the matter by listing all enclosed stories as 1947 to 1951. Phil's first novel was Solar Lottery, no controversy on that.

Two of Dick's stories have unlikely names, "We Can Remember it For You Wholesale" and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", but anyone will know the movies made from them, Total Recall and Blade Runner. (Even though the latter may have been used in combination with Alan Nourse's Bladerunner). Another of Dick's short stories, 1953's "Second Variety", was used as the basis for the movie, Screamers.

Since his death, Dick's persona has taken on mystical, cult-like interest and almost all of his books and short stories are in print. He may well be the best known SF writer in the world. Certainly, Dick is the most controversial, fueled by his many enemies and detractors clashing with promotions from his faithful followers, the Dick-heads. Dick may well achieve in a hundred years by accident what L. Ron Hubbard labored to create on purpose. The two are different coins, but the metal is the same.

PEN NAMES: Richard Phillips and Jack Dowland

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mine here.

BIOGRAPHY: Science Fiction Writers, Scribners 1982

OBITUARY: The New York Times, Mar 3, 1982, p22

Send relevant email to George C. Willick