JON'S WORLD ("Jon") 10/21/52. Time to Come, edited by August Derleth, New York, 1954.
THE COSMIC POACHERS ("Burglar") 10/22/52. Imagination, July 1953.
PROGENY 11/3/52. If, Nov 1954.
SOME KINDS OF LIFE (The Beleaguered") 11/3/52. Fantastic Universe, Oct-Nov 1953 [under the pseudonym Richard Phillips].
MARTIANS COME IN CLOUDS ("The Buggies") 11/5/52. Fantastic Universe, June-July 1954.
THE COMMUTER 11/19/52. Amazing, Aug-Sept 1953.
THE WORLD SHE WANTED 11/24/52. Science Fiction Quarterly, May 1953.
A SURFACE RAID 12/2/52. Fantastic Universe, July 1955.
PROJECT: EARTH ("One Who Stole") 1/6/53. Imagination, Dec 1953.
THE TROUBLE WITH BUBBLES ("Plaything") 1/13/53. If, Sept 1953.
BREAKFAST AT TWILIGHT 1/17/53. Amazing, July 1954.
There you are in your home, and the soldiers smash down the door and tell you you're in the middle of World War III. Something's gone wrong with time. I like to fiddle with the idea of basic categories of reality, such as space and time, breaking down. It's my love of chaos, I suppose. (1976)
A PRESENT FOR PAT 1/17/53. Startling Stories, Jan 1954.
THE HOOD MAKER ("Immunity") 1/26/53. Imagination, June 1955.
OF WITHERED APPLES 1/26/53. Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy, July 1954.
HUMAN IS 2/2/53. Startling Stories, Winter 1955.
To me, this story states my early conclusions as to what is human. I have not really changed my view since I wrote this story, back in the Fifties. It's not what you look like, or what planet you were born on. It's how kind you are. The quality of kindness, to me, distinguishes us from rocks and sticks and metal, and will forever, whatever shape we take, wherever we go, whatever we become. For me, Human Is is my credo. May it be yours. (1976)
ADJUSTMENT TEAM 2/11/53. Orbit Science Fiction, Sept-Oct 1954.
THE IMPOSSIBLE PLANET ("Legend") 2/11/53. Imagination, Oct 1953.
IMPOSTER 2/24/53. Astounding, June 1953.
Here was my first story on the topic of: Am I a human? Or am I just programmed to believe I am human? When you consider that I wrote this back in 1953, it was, if I may say so, a pretty damn good new idea in sf. Of course, by now I've done it to death. But the theme still preoccupies me. It's an important theme because it forces us to ask: What is a human? And – what isn't? (1976)
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