Exhibit Notes: Philip K. Dick

Lilly call number: PS3554.I3

Items in the exhibit:
A Scanner Darkly
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
The Preserving Machine
The Variable Man
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Deus Irae
The Man in the High Castle

It is becoming a somewhat familiar refrain in these posts that Philp K. Dick isn't the most well known author.  But, as I said in his label for the exhibit, "...anyone familiar with the movies Blade Runner, Minority Report, or Total Recall (all based on his writings) is at least somewhat familiar with his work."  This gives him a bit of a leg up on Sturgeon and Ellison.  Also, I did not have to turn to the ALF (Auxiliary Library Facility) to get any of his books.  The Lilly had a ready supply up in the stacks.  He's the only author in the exhibit who only has books.  Everyone else has a script or some kind of manuscript materials (or both).  But he does have a paperback, which I don't have for any other author.  My dad has a huge collection of old sci-fi paperbacks, and I always get a kick out of seeing how much (or little) books cost back then.  And there's something more fun about handling an old sci-fi paper back, with its green edges, than an old hardcover. 

Four of the items I put in the exhibit I chose because they had stories (or were novels) off of which movies have been based.  But the other one I picked because they had interesting covers, or because they were listed among some of their best or well-known work.  Since I had not read any Dick before working on the exhibit, and I wanted to have read something in the exhibit by each author before it goes up next spring, I decided to read one of the Dick books that I hadn't heard of: The Man in the High Castle.  The edition that I got from the library and then borrowed from my dad was published by the Library of America who list as part of their mission preserving American literature.  When I told my parents that Dick was the first sci-fi writer to be published by Library of America, my mom wondered why they didn't chose someone well-known.  Well, of all the authors in this exhibit, Dick is the only one not available in modern editions.  Sturgeon's collections aren't reprinted, but at least his collected stories (all thirteen volumes) have been published.  Well, after reading The Man in the High Castle, I knew why Dick was being preserved by Library of America and why it is considered one of his classic works.  It was fantastic,  It's more alternate history than science fiction, which I should think would make it more accessible to non-science fiction readers.  Reading it made me glad that this exhibit had inspired me to get back into reading this genre, because it reminded me why I like it so much, which has been a stress-relieving gift as the semester has wound down.