Underwood-Miller Publishing Archive of Philip K. Dick

Zone d'identification

Cote

US TxAM-C C000304

Niveau de description

Collection

Titre

Underwood-Miller Publishing Archive of Philip K. Dick

Date(s)

  • 1938-2017 (Création/Production)

Importance matérielle

3 Boxes

Nom du producteur

(1928-12-16-1982-03-02)

Notice biographique

Philip K. Dick (1928-12-16-1982-03-02) is one of the major voices of American 20th-century science fiction. Born in Chicago, Dick spent most of his life in California. Like so many giants of the genre, Dick began his career in the pulp magazine market - his first SF stories appeared in Planet Stories in 1952, and in 1955 he published his first novel, Solar Lottery as one-half of an Ace paperback double. (Although Solar Lottery was Dick's first published SF novel, he wrote several earlier in his life that was published later, including The Cosmic Puppets, Vulcan's Hammer, and Dr. Futurity.

Whether early or late in Dick's career, his works are marked by particular themes such as metaphysical philosophy, alternate worlds and realities, shifts in identity and consciousness, and nations or worlds ruled by authoritarian governments or all-powerful corporations. Dick himself once declared as a major and recurring theme of his to be the question, "What constitutes the authentic human being?"

Though reasonably well-known in his early career, Dick achieved major fame in 1963 when his 1961 novel The Man In The High Castle won the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Novel. The book is a chilling dystopia set in the United States after the Axis Powers have won World War II, and is regarded as one of the greatest alternate history stories yet written. Over the next two decades, Dick produced a number of other famous novels, including Martian Time-Slip (1962), The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965, Nebula Award nominee), Counter-Clock World (1967), Ubik (1969), Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (1970, Hugo and Nebula Award nominee), A Scanner Darkly (1977, BSFA Winner), and Radio Free Albemuth (1985).

Perhaps Dick's most famous novel is the post-apocalyptic Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (1968), which tells the story of bounty hunter Rick Deckard. Deckard's job is to hunt down and 'retire' escaped androids, and the novel explores Deckard's exploration of what it means to be truly human. The book was adapted into the 1982 film Blade Runner.

In 1974, Dick experienced a number of visions, hallucinations, and mystical encounters, which affected his thought and fiction for the rest of his life. He began keeping a journal of his opinions about the origins of these experiences, which later became known as the Exegesis. From 1978-1981 Dick published a trilogy of novels relating to these mystical events: VALIS (1978, VALIS referring to Dick's vision of the entity that he believed contacted him, or as he termed it, "Vast Active Living Intelligence System"), The Divine Invasion (1980), and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (1981).

Dick died in March 1982 after suffering several strokes.

Nom du producteur

(1979-1994)

Histoire administrative

Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller formed the small press of Underwood-Miller in San Francisco, CA in 1976. Their first published work was Jack Vance's The Dying Earth, which had never before been published in hardcover. Eventually, the firm came to publish a number of Vance's works, both new and old. In addition to Vance, Underwood-Miller published fine small press books by a number of other noted science fiction and fantasy authors, including Philip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, Harlan Ellison, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg, and Peter Straub. The press was notable in publishing in the hardcover form a number of works that had only appeared previously in paperback or in pulp magazines.

Underwood-Miller dissolved in 1994 resulting in Underwood Books and Charles F. Miller, publisher.

Zone du contenu et de la structure

Portée et contenu

This collection consists of documents relating to the publication by the science fiction and fantasy small press Underwood-Miller, Inc., of a number of works by or relating to the noted science fiction author Philip K. Dick. The works Underwood-Miller published that are documented here include Dick's In Pursuit of VALIS: Selections from the Exegesis (1991), and the series The Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick.

Materials in the collection include correspondence, production documentation, galleys, typescripts, and photocopies of much of Dick's correspondence used in assembling the Selected Letters. Also included are a few media publications related to Dick and his work.

Mode de classement

This collection is arranged into the following series:

  • Series 1, In Pursuit of VALIS: Selections from the Exegesis. (1980-1992)
  • Series 2, The Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick. (1938-2017)
  • Series 3, Philip K. Dick - Photocopies of Related Publications. (1979-1993)
  • Series 4, Additional Philip K. Dick Materials. (1985)

Zone des conditions d'accès et d'utilisation

Conditions d’accès

Accès physique

Accès technique

Conditions de reproduction

Langue des documents

  • anglais

Écriture des documents

Notes de langue et graphie

Instruments de recherche

Éléments d'acquisition et d'évaluation

Historique de la conservation

Source immédiate d'acquisition

Purchase.

Accroissements

Sources complémentaires

Existence et lieu de conservation des originaux

Existence et lieu de conservation des copies

Sources complémentaires

Descriptions associées

Élément de notes

Notes spécialisées

Identifiant(s) alternatif(s)

Zone du contrôle de la description

Règles ou conventions

Sources utilisées

Note de l'archiviste

© Copyright 2019 Cushing Library. All rights reserved.

Mots-clés

Mots-clés - Sujets

Mots-clés - Lieux

Mots-clés - Noms

Mots-clés - Genre

Zone des entrées

Personnes et organismes associés

Genres associés

Lieux associés