| Philip K. Dick was a mainstream author who turned to science fiction to express the concepts he wanted to communicate. Many consider him one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, while others say he was one of the greatest writers of all time who happened to write science fiction. It could be argued that he didn't write true science fiction at all, but rather investigated the human condition and the meaning of reality in ways that borrowed from the trappings of science fiction. The novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was written in 1968, when Philip K. Dick's personal life was quite stable and his home life was good. He was contrasting his wife's (Nancy) warmth with the coldness of the people he'd known before. His writings in the late sixties' novels has a melancholy feel running through the main theme. Philip Kindred Dick was born prematurely in |
young boy Philip Dick regularly published short stories in the "Young Authors Club", a column in the local Berkeley Gazette. He eagerly digested the science fiction magazines being published at the time. His interest in science fiction waned when he completed high school and left his mother at the age of 18. During this period his tastes in reading became more literary. After selling several stories to the major pulp sci-fi magazines of the time he took the plunge in 1951 and embarked upon a full time writing career. He wrote several novels during the 50s, many of them not science fiction. Most were knocked back. All of his attempts to publish mainstream fiction failed. His first major success came with the publishing of a science fiction novel called Solar Lottery in 1955. A very prolific science fiction career was thus launched. The high point of this was when he was presented the Hugo award for the novel The Man in the High Castle in 1962. In 1948 he bagan what was to be the first |
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