Point Reyes Cypress Press announces the publication in paper back Search for Philip K Dick, Revised 2009, with new material, by Anne R Dick, $17.00, an extensive revision of the 1993 publication by Mellen Press, ($119.00)
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Anne Dick's book is part memoir, and part a kind of detective novel, as she sifts through the details of her life with Philip K Dick, a prolific genius whose books and novels are being recognized as significant works of literature. Much of Dick's work, currently being celebrated in college courses and prestigious anthologies like The Library of America, consists of a kind of surreal autobiography and Anne's memoir helps us connect his fictional characters to his life. Philip K Dick was quite a character himself, both on and off the page, and Anne's memoir bravely explores her tumultuous relationship with this mercurial man in an attempt to better understand him and his writing. A touching aspect of this memoir is that it represents Anne's search as well.
Anne witnessed first-hand the most prolific period in Dick's career, a five year period year stretch from 1958 - 1964 during which time Philip wrote many of his most celebrated novels including: The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Martian Time-Slip, Confessions of a Crap Artists, Dr Bloodmoney, We Can Build You, Now Wait For Last Year, and The Simulacra. Anne, a fifty four year resident of Point Reyes Station, still lives in the modern Campbell and Wong house she shared with Philip, a house that was featured in many of Dick's books. Reading Anne's memoir will open up many of Philip's works, revealing the autobiographical material often buried deep in his texts. Biography lovers will enjoy the intensity of detail Anne brings to Dick's complex and intense struggles. Anne spent several years conducting interviews with Dick's friends, family, and colleagues, assembling perhaps the most thoroughly researched biography of Philip K Dick currently available.
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Praise for Search for Philip K Dick
An investigation full of epiphanies, a narration of absolute vividness that could only be inspired by a passionate love, a book that transports us to a indissoluble past, more true than our own present.
Anne's detailed account of her years with Philip K Dick is a must read for anyone discovering the autobiographical elements in his writing. No other biography gives the reader as strong a sense of how he crafted his fiction, where he got his characters, and what made him tick. Parts of Anne's memoir are instantly recognizable to PKD's readers as they describe the inspiration for many of his most bizarre fictional scenes.
The secret of Phil Dick's greatness, as with so many other great men, is his . . . second wife, Anne. You can see her influence in the development of his novels, their increasing awareness of the human/family/sexual element. Most SF writers simply didn't pay attention to such things, which are the entire concern of mainstream fiction. Dick was almost alone among the SF writers of his day in trying to write mainstream novels himself. And what is their constant theme? His battles with, and bafflement by, and love of Anne, the Other who never left his thoughts . . .
Dear Anne, I just finished reading your biography of Phil, and I must say I am impressed. Besides being a remarkably accurate and life like picture of the man, it is also a rattling good tale, like a real-life detective story . . .
[Search for Philip K Dick] shows that if we choose to we can see through the flaws, and find the shining divinity that is there. Even in his worst times in Santa Venetia, he was still trying to help people.
I found the manuscript utterly engrossing on two levels: first, as a sympathetic yet clear-eyed study in the round of an extraordinary personality, and second, as a source of innumerable clues about PKD's work. I consider it prime source material for anyone interested in PKD the man or the writings of PKD. I not only understand him better now, but have fresh insights into several of the novels and short stories . . .
. . . an amazingly thorough job, even though . . . dealing at times with people who could have been hostile. And then [you] wrote the whole complicated store in clear, fast-moving, and entertaining prose.
In all the critical literature review type books yours comes as a breath of fresh air.
Creo que es una magnífica biografía. Una verdaderamente buena si se toma en cuenta que fue escrita por uno de los principales protagonistas en la vida de PKD y, especialmente, por la protagonista de una de sus épocas más prolíficas. Me resulta muy interesante que hayas decidido escribirla en primera persona aunque no sé si existía otra alternativa. En esa primera persona te reconoces como su esposa y como investigadora y ese punto de vista la diferencia del resto de las biografías. Tu Phil, el Phil que vivió contigo en Point Reyes Station, parece ser uno de los tantos que, todos bajo el nombre de Philip K. Dick, habitaron el planeta tierra. Y es interesante, pues tu libro lo pone de manifiesto. No hay duda, es la base de las biografías que vinieron despues.
Phil's third wife Anne lived with him in Point Reyes Station during the most creative period of his life, a time when he wrote the novels that made him world famous:
Confessions of a Crap Artist, The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike, The Man in the High Castle, We Can Build You, Martian Time-Slip, Dr. Bloodmoney, The Simulacra, Now Wait for Last Year, and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.