Philip K. Dick

Born in Chicago in 1928, Philip Kindred Dick moved to the San Francisco Bay Area young and started publishing science fiction stories at 23 in 1952. Commercial success eluded him until The Man in the High Castle won the Hugo Award in 1962 when he was 33, followed by Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in 1968 and Ubik in 1969. After years of drug use and a series of mystical experiences in 1974, his work turned harder toward theology and metaphysics - A Scanner Darkly in 1977, VALIS in 1981, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer in 1982. He died that year at 53 from stroke complications, having written 45 novels and 121 short stories exploring perception, identity, and illusory realities. The films came after: Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, a streaming adaptation of The Man in the High Castle. In 2007 he became the first science fiction writer in The Library of America.