Dick, Philip K. (1928-1982), American writer, best known for his experimental science fiction stories that have inspired several Hollywood films. Dick stretched the conventions of traditional science fiction by creating future worlds of paranoia and delusion and by questioning the nature of reality and human identity in his works.

A common concept in Dick’s work is the disintegration of reality. His characters often realize that the world around them is not what it seems and that they are not who they thought they were. The author’s complex plotting allows him to explore numerous alternate realities, including paranoid obsessions, hallucinations, and government and corporate conspiracies.

Dick was born in Chicago, Illinois, and his parents divorced before he was five years old. He moved with his mother to Berkeley, California, at the age of nine. In 1947 he dropped out of the University of California at Berkeley after only two months of classes.

Dick sold his first story in 1951 and within four years he had published more than 60 short stories in popular science fiction magazines. His first novel, Solar Lottery, was published in 1955. The Man in the High Castle (1962) won the prestigious Hugo Award in 1963. The novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), a dark vision of the future, was later used by Ridley Scott as the basis for the classic film Blade Runner (1982). His landmark novel Ubik, a complex work full of conspiracies and time shifts, was published in 1969.

The early 1970s were a difficult time for Dick, although his book Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974) won the John W. Campbell Award for best science fiction novel. After struggling with drug addiction and a failed fourth marriage, he claimed to have been visited by a supernatural intelligence, which he named VALIS. Dick spent much of the rest of his life writing about VALIS.

The Philip K. Dick Award, established soon after his death, has been awarded annually since 1983 to a “distinguished original science fiction paperback” published in the United States. Dick’s works have become popular in Hollywood since his death. In addition to Blade Runner, films based on his stories include Total Recall (1990), Screamers (1995), Impostor (2002), and Minority Report (2002) by Steven Spielberg.