The trauma of Jane's Death remained the central event of Phil's psychic life

Two years later Philip and his parents Dorothy Grant and Joseph Edgar Dick moved to Berkeley. By this time their marriage had broken down. They divorced in 1932, Philip going with his mother to Washington.

By the 1940's Philip and his mother moved back to Berkeley. It is during this period that Philip began to write and read science fiction. As a young boy he 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 and soon became influenced by writers such as Heinlein and Van Vogt. During these early years Philip suffered from asthma attacks and frequent bouts of agoraphobia.

His interest in science fiction waned when he completed high school and left his mother at the age of 18. He continued to live in the intellectual community of Berkeley while working in a record shop. During this period his tastes in reading became more literary. Berkeley and his later home, Marin County, featured prominently in many of his books.

After selling several stories to the major pulp sci-fi magazines of the time PKD took the plunge in 1951 and embarked upon a full time writing career. He wrote several novels during the 50's, 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 sci-fi novel called Solar Lottery in 1954. A very prolific science fiction career was thus launched. The high point came when he was awarded the Hugo award for his brilliant novel The Man in the High Castle in 1962.

Other writers have said of PKD

Dick quietly produced serious fiction in a popular form and there can be no greater praise Michael Moorcock
The most consistently brilliant SF writer in the world John Brunner

One of the most original practitioners writing any kind of fiction, Philip.K.Dick made most of the European avant-garde seem navel gazers in a cul-de-sac Alan Brien.

An elusive and incomparable artist Ursula Le Guin

No other writer of his generation had such a powerful intellectual presence. He has stamped himself not only on our memories but in our imagination's Brian Aldiss

The fact that what Dick is entertaining us about is reality and madness, time and death, sin and salvation- this has escaped most critics Ursula Le Guin

In 1948 he began what was to be the first of several failed marriages which total 4 in all. Phil's first attempt at married life was a sham and lasted only six months. His second marraige to Kleo Apostolides was more successful. Although struggling to make a living his time spent with Kleo was happy and romantic. Their decision to move to Point Reyes Station in the late fifties set things in motion for Dick begin an affair with their attactive neighbour Anne. Anne was still getting over the recent death of her husband, with Kleo commutting into work each day, Anne and Phil began to spend time together. It took a short time for Phil to divorce from what had been up until that time a happy marraige with Kleo. The mainstream novel Confessions of A Crap Artist takes its cue from these real life events. PKD's first child Laura Archer was born in 1960 to Anne.

PKD's realtionship with Anne was one of love and hate. Many destructive and negative female characters found in PKD's books are based on Anne. These include Fay in Confessions of a Crap Artist, Priz in We Can Build You, and Kathy in Now Wait For Last Year. Phil gradually developed an unhealthy paranoia about Anne. He convinced himself that Anne had killed her last husband and was planning the same fate for him.

Despite this paranoia and animosity Anne helped PKD begin one of his most prolific and inspired periods of writing. The Award winning Man in the High Castle and the brilliant Martian Time Slip and 3 Stigamata were written during this period. Retreating into a small hut which he rented from the local sherriff to get away from the distractions of home PKD churned out 11 sci-fi novels between 1963-1964. Eventually in 1964 Anne and Phil divorced.

Moving back to San Francisco Phil in 1964 also experienced his first trip of LSD with fellow writers Jack Newkon and Ray Nelson. Like many people during the sixties Phil experimented with a range of drugs, but the greatest influence and the source of many of his marital failures was due to his growing addiction to amphetamines. For an excellent book based around a junkies lifestyle see his novel A Scanner Darkly. Eventually this addiction led him to several breakdowns in the 1960's, his addiction also resulted in his fourth wife Nancy Hackett leaving him. Phil had married Nancy in 1966. She was over ten years younger than him, but they were deeply in love. PKD's second child Isa was born in 1966 to Nancy.

The 1970's were a strange period for PKD. It began when Nancy left him, taking their child with her. PKD also became concerned over a mysterious break and enter into his home. He became convinced it was the C.I.A's handywork. Without Nancy and his son PKD began one of the worst periods in his life. He sank deeper into drugs and paranoia while his writing stalled for several years. Once a prolific worker PKD did not produce anything until 1973. After a suicide attempt and a short stay in a drug rehabilitation centre PKD emerged to make a new start. He moved to California close to his friends Tim Powers and K.W Jeter. He fell in love with and married the young Tessa Busby who in 1973 gave him a son Cristopher. Drawing on his drug addiction experience PKD ended his writing block by producing the amazing novel A Scanner Darkly.

In the mid 1970's PKD also had several religious experiences which were to occupy him intellectually, and spiritually, for the rest of his life.For several years Philip wrote an Exegesis containing all his wild thoughts and theories about the 2-3-74 experiences. These experiences dominated PKD's life and became the focus of all his novels from that point on. His attempts to understand 2-3-74 are best understood by reading VALIS

In 1982 Philip.K.Dick died of heart failure at the age of 53, leaving an unfinished book and without a doubt many ideas left hanging in the air. He also missed the release of the first PKD movie adaptation Blade Runner.

This biography is brief and is in a large part simply a summary of Lawrence Sutin's superb biography titled Divine Invasions, a life of PKD. This book is one of the best biographies you will ever read. Sutin reveals intimate details about PKD's life and discusses all of the major PKD novels and stories.

I met Phil about two years before his death. We met twice and corresponded about three times, and then he was gone. I wish I had seen a lot more of him. He was a fascinating person - just like his books, and he got more like his books as he got older. Phil lived in many realities.
Robert Anton Wilson in 21st C. magazine.