Philip Dick: The Complete Stories of Philip K. Dick Vol. 2

JAMES P. CROW 3/17/53. Planet Stories, May 1954.

PLANET FOR TRANSIENTS ("The Itinerants") 3/23/53. Fantastic Universe, Oct-Nov 1953. [Parts of this story were adapted for the novel DEUS IRAE.]

SMALL TOWN ("Engineer") 3/23/53. Amazing, May 1954.

Here the frustrations of a defeated small person – small in terms of power, in particular power over others – gradually become transformed into something sinister: the force of death. In rereading this story (which is of course a fantasy, not science fiction) I am impressed by the subtle change which takes place in the protagonist from Trod-Upon to Treader. Verne Haskel initially appears as the prototype of the impotent human being, but this conceals a drive at his core self which is anything but weak. It is as if I am saying, The put-upon person may be very dangerous. Be careful as to how you misuse him; he may be a mask for thanatos: the antagonist of life; he may not secretly wish to rule, he may wish to destroy. (1979)

SOUVENIR 3/26/53. Fantastic Universe, Oct 1954.

SURVEY TEAM 4/3/53. Fantastic Universe, May 1954.

PROMINENT AUTHOR 4/20/53. If , May 1954.

Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928 and lived most of his life in California. He attended college for a year at Berkeley. Apart from writing, his main interest was music: at one time he ran a record shop and also a classical music programme for a local radio station. He won the Hugo Award for his classic novel of alternative history, The Man in the High Castle (1962). He was married five times and had three children. He died in March 1982.

The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick

Volume l – The Short, Happy Life of the Brown Oxford

Volume 2 – We Can Remember It For You Wholesale

Volume 3 – Second Variety

Volume 4 – The Minority Report

Volume 5 – The Eye of the Sibyl