Philip K. Dick

(1928 - 1982)

Philip K. Dick is famous for his prolificacy, publishing in one five-year span fifteen science-fiction novels. His father having served in World War I, Dick later recalled, “What scared me the most was when my father would put on the gas mask. His face would disappear. This was not a human being at all.” Among the most influential American science-fiction writers, he published The Man in the High Castle in 1962 and Ubik in 1969. Many films have been adapted from his work, among them Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report. A heavy user of methamphetamines, he experienced a series of visions in 1974, causing him to believe that time had stopped in the year 70, that the world around him was an illusion, and that his name was Thomas.