Philip K. Dick
1 book analyzed
Biography
Philip Kindred Dick (1928-1982) lived in poverty for most of his writing life, publishing dozens of novels and stories in science fiction pulp magazines at rates that barely sustained him. He struggled with mental illness, paranoia, and what he later described as a theophany or divine revelation in 1974 (which he spent the rest of his life trying to understand in an 8,000-page document called the Exegesis). He was married five times, lived with amphetamine use during his most productive years, and died of a stroke at 53 — weeks before the release of the Blade Runner adaptation of this novel. He was deeply preoccupied with the question of what makes humans human, having lost a twin sister at birth and having never recovered from the absence.