Top science fiction agent Virginia Kidd liked Search and tried to place it. After her initial reading, she said, “So that’s what really happened? We’d heard so many things.” I was surprised that people would be talking about my relationship with Phil back in Pennsylvania. Virginia was sure my book was going to go over in a big way, and that I would be giving talks and signing books all over the country. She sent it to all the top houses, but that was in the mid-eighties before there was so much interest in Philip K. Dick. There were some literary politics involved, too, and my credibility was put into question. Discouraged and disgusted, I gave up. Then in 1992, Professor Sam Umland, who taught a course on PKD at the University of Nebraska, worked with me on a revision and arranged for the publication of Search by Mellen Press. It is still publishing a hundred-year library edition priced at $119.
Virginia Kidd gave a manuscript of Search to Tom Disch, a close friend of hers, and he and I began an occasional correspondence that some years later after the death of his partner turned into a friendly e-mail interchange lasting until his death by suicide on July 4, 2008. He was very angry at Phil because Phil had turned him in to the FBI, but he thought Philip K. Dick was the best writer there was. Along with himself, Phil was one of the only two writers Tom admired.
I met my best friend, Miguel Díaz Fernádez of Segovia, Spain, via the Mellen edition of this book when he wrote me January 25, 2000, regarding his Ph.D. dissertation on PKD. We have been e-mailing and phoning for ten years.
In 2001, Darryl Mason, a talented Australian writer, came from England and stayed with me off and on for much of the summer to work on his biography of Phil for a contract with Albion Press. Too bad he never finished it. Phil is too much for some people.
An Argentine documentary crew came here in 2006 to do a documentary about Philip K. Dick and stayed with me the weekend they filmed in this area. In the evenings, we drank Argentine wine and had dinner in front of an open fire. I still correspond with two of them: the sound man, Sebastien Lipsicz, who was recently working with Francis Ford Coppola, and the director of the PKD documentary project, Dario Schwartzstein, who next went off to Basel, Switzerland, to video interview Dr. Albert Hoffman, the inventor of LSD, now 101 years old.
Tony Grisoni, who wrote the script for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and other avant-garde independent films, came from London and stayed with me two days in the summer of 2006 while doing research for a biopic about PKD.
There are three biopics in the works and a German biography has already come out.
Now Phil is world-famous and the world has become “Dickian” or maybe “Phildickian.” Twelve of his books have been or are being published in the Library of America—he’s been literarily canonized. His books are outselling many other American great authors: Melville, Hawthorne, Henry James, Thomas Jefferson. Meanwhile, almost no one here in Point Reyes Station has ever heard of Philip K. Dick.
If you go to the New York Times book page and scroll down the slot that says “Authors,” you will find Philip K. Dick’s name in the most distinguished literary company of today’s world. Click on him, and several pages of articles come up.
Michael Dirda of the Washington Post referred to Phil in an article for that publication as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. Time magazine puts Phil’s Ubik in their list of the one hundred most significant novels written since 1923.
Then there are the movies: Total Recall with our governor, Arnold (a new version is coming out, too); Blade Runner, now a classic, with Harrison Ford; Minority Report, by Steven Spielberg with Tom Cruise; Paycheck, by Ang Lee with Ben Affleck. Some lesser-known films are Screamers, Imposter, A Scanner Darkly, Next, and the French film Barjo.
Phil’s old house is still here in Point Reyes Station and looks almost the same as when he and Kleo moved there in the fall of 1958. The white picket fence has been replaced by a natural wood fence with no pickets, but I couldn’t climb over it anyway now.
Only a few people who knew Phil still live here. I see Sue Baty once in a while, and we play Boggle. Judge Baty, who married Philip and Nancy, is still around. Occasionally, I see Inez Storer at the Bovine Bakery. Missy Patterson works at the Point Reyes Light (the Baywood Press in Phil’s novels).
Phil was a unique super-being who made my life wonderful for a while and then terrible for a while. Recently, when I revised the early chapters of Search for Philip K. Dick, I enjoyed those happy times again, a period when Phil wrote many of the books that made him world-famous.
INDEX
Ace Books 48, 175
Ackerman, Gerry 234–235, 239–240, 245
agoraphobia 11, 190, 254–255
Allen, Bob 43, 84
Amazing Science Fiction 37, 168, 234
amphetamines (see also “Beans”) 104, 116, 123, 131–132, 136, 144, 156–157, 183, 254, 257
Apostolides, Kleo, see Dick, Kleo
Apostolides, Dr. 250, 253–254
Archer, Edna Matilda see Kindred, Edna Archer
Art Music 31, 232, 242, 249, 254
asthma 229, 231, 238
Astounding Science Fiction 37, 234
autism 257, 246
Bach, Johann Sebastian 40, 46, 179, 230, 236
Bailey, Mike 155–156, 162
Barbour, Connie 243, 248–249
Baty, Judge David 132, 269
Baty, Sue 93, 132, 269
Baywood Press 16, 41, 61, 84, 96, 269
“beans” (see also amphetamines) 144–145, 150–151
Bhagavadgita 66
Beckett, Samuel 38, 250, 254
Beethoven, Ludwig von 46, 64, 230, 232, 236
Bennett, Chuck 243, 249
Berkeley 23, 27, 31, 35, 39, 43, 46–47, 51, 57, 59, 61, 65, 68, 71–74, 76–77, 85, 97, 99, 102, 104–105, 112, 131, 205, 207, 219, 222–225, 227–8, 232–4, 241, 243–244, 246–247, 249–250, 252, 255, 258, 260–261, 264
Berkeley High School 31, 50, 57, 74, 79, 84, 94–95, 115, 130, 227, 233–239
Berner, David 159–162
Binswanger, Ludwig 79
Blake, William 17
Blaylock, Jim 164, 171, 185, 204, 206
Book of the Golden Flower, The 60, 66
Borges, Jorge Luis 17
Borman, Martin 65
Boucher, Anthony 251
Bradbury, Ray 171
Bradley, Marion Zimmer 112, 123–124
Breen, Walter 112
Buber, Martin 125
Busby, F. M. 155
Busby, Nita 164, 177
Busby, Tessa see Dick, Tessa
CIA 16, 121, 142–143, 147, 150, 168
California Preparatory Academy 229–231
Captain Video 58, 255
Carla 145
Carr, Carol 117, 137–138, 163
Carr, Terry 137–138
cats 27, 39, 48, 78, 96, 99, 105, 114, 121, 130, 140, 145, 178, 183–184, 188, 194–196, 216, 250
Characters
Abendsen 70
Archer, Angel 205
Arnie 80
Arctor, Bob 83, 141
Austurias, Mr. 84
Barefoot, Johnny 116
Bloodmoney, Dr. 43, 65, 79, 84–85, 233, 245, 264, 271
Bluthgeld, Dr. See Bloodmoney, Dr.
Bohlen, Dr. Jack 59, 79–80
Bohlen, Sylvia 80
Bundy, Bob 63
Childan, Robert 70
Dangerfield, Walt 85
Denkmal, Dr. 94
Irmgard 136
Esterhazy, Blanche 81
Fat, Horselover 196
Febbs, Surly G. 95
Fergesson, Jim 85
Flores, John 43
Frauenzimmer, Maury 63
Frauenzimmer, Pris 61, 63
Freid, Pete 95, 265
Frink, Frank 70
Frink, Juliana 70, 265
Gloria (Knudson) 196, 197
Hambro, Claudia 28, 46
Hardy, Dean and Ella 85
Harrington, Hoppy 85, 233
&n
bsp; Hnatt, Emily 53, 93, 103
Hnatt, Richard 53
Horstowski, Dr. 64
Hume, Charley 31, 53, 55
Hume, Fay 55–57, 179
Isidore, Jack 50, 55, 179
Kasoura, Betty 70
Keller, Bonny 65, 84
Keller, George 84
Kongrosian, Richard 92
Lotta 131
McConchie, Stuart 85
Mayerson, Barney 103–104
Rybys 183
Powderdry, Lars 95
Pris 136
Proxers 105
Rosen, Leo 57, 63
Rosen, Louis 63, 64
Sarapis, Louis 116
Sharp, Kathy Egmont 116
Stockstill, Dr. 84
Straud, Orion 84
Sweetscent, Kathy 95–96
Sweetscent, Dr. Eric 95–96
Tagomi 70, 265
Terance, Dr. 43
Topchev, Lilo 95
Tree, Mr. See Bloodmoney,
Vepp, Dr. Jack E. 43
Christensen, Bill 64, 77, 87–91, 101
Christian Science 39
“Cindy” 15, 141, 143–145, 148, 150, 152–153, 156, 161, 168
Civil War 38, 68
claustrophobia 244
“Clint” 145–150, 152
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 52
comics and comic books 38, 95
Communism 40, 225, 242–243
Daniels, Dick 227, 232–238
Davidson, Avram 111
Davidson, Grania 111–114, 117–124, 142–143, 151
Davis, Grania see Davidson, Grania
Desert Fathers 66
Diamond, Anne 114–115, 126
Diamond, Bernard 115
Dianetics 258
Dick, Bessie Mack 214
Dick, Christopher Kenneth 172, 178, 181, 183, 185, 187, 205
Dick, Dorothy Kindred 47–48, 59, 65, 77, 79, 88, 101–102, 105, 131, 136, 142, 151, 155,
170, 172, 198, 212–225, 227–229, 233, 237, 239, 242–243, 245, 253–254, 258–261
Dick, Edgar 15, 202, 213–216, 218–223, 228, 253, 258
Dick, Isolde Hackett (Isa) 129, 134, 148, 171, 220
Dick, Jane Charlotte 47, 209, 213–214
Dick, Kleo 15, 25–29, 32–35, 46, 113, 123, 129, 173, 187, 198, 206, 222, 243, 246,
248–261, 269
Dick, Laura Archer 59–62, 69, 76–77, 96, 121, 133, 139, 141, 152, 172–174, 184,
188–189, 193–194, 196–198, 200–208, 218, 220, 265
Dick, Tessa 15, 163–164, 168–172, 175–179, 181, 183, 185, 187–188, 190, 203, 205, 207
Dickens, Charles 17, 49
Disneyland 16, 62, 170, 174
divorce 16–17, 35, 40, 83, 104–105, 114–118, 126, 132, 158, 170, 177, 206, 222, 235,
246, 250
dogs, 27, 45, 73, 77, 94, 96, 118, 132–133, 136, 145, 148, 220
“Don” 143, 145–147
Doyle, Janet 76, 258
Dr. A 31–35, 86–93, 106, 114–115, 138, 150
Dr. J 92–94, 99, 102, 115, 122, 125
Dr. S 90–92
Drake, Sir Francis 42
drugs 26, 87, 93–95, 101, 104, 123–124, 131, 136, 141–144, 147, 149, 157, 165, 183–184,
186, 188, 257, 267
Duncan, Robert 239–240
Durkheim, Emile 39
Eichmann, Adolf 65
Ellison, Harlan 199–200
Encyclopedia Britannica 37, 52, 63, 105
ESP 197
FBI 16, 121, 147, 150, 152, 164, 168, 241, 252–253, 268
Feinstein, Janet see Doyle, Janet
Finney, Jack 258
Flannery, Pat 238–239
flying saucers 28, 46, 76, 156
Freud, Sigmund 38, 130
Friedan, Betty 74
Fullerton, CA 152, 155, 160, 163–164, 169, 171, 175, 177
“Fuzzy” 138–139, 170
Galen, Russ 182, 267
games 28–29, 81, 235
Garfield Junior High School 228–229, 231
Gegenearth 40
German 39, 68, 94, 175, 201, 214–215, 235, 238, 246–247, 249, 268–269
Ghirardelli, Inez 243
Gilbert, David 199
Gilbert, W. S., and Sullivan, Arthur 47, 244
Gildersleeve, John 71, 241, 244, 250, 255
Gold, Herb 256
Gomez, Joe 45
Grand Prix du Festival 189
Graveson, Alys 81, 132, 136, 138
Gryphon 26
Guy, Maury (Iskandar) 63, 70, 85, 87, 131, 259–261
Hackett, Maren 97, 123, 130–132, 134, 206
Hackett, Nancy 15, 95, 97, 123–125, 129–139, 141–142, 145, 148, 170, 172–173, 187,
189, 197, 206, 269
Halevy, Al 117, 123
Hall, Avis 23, 35, 261
Handel, George Frideric 46
Handelsman, Anne 30, 35–36, 57–58
Handelsman, Maury 30, 35–36, 57–58, 63, 80
Harcourt Brace 58–59
Haydn, Franz Joseph 132, 236
Hesse, Herman 27
Hirsch, Jerry 259
Hirsch, Marge 259
Hnatt, Angelina 256
Hnatt, Mike 31, 53
Hoglind, Sue 164, 166
Hollis, Herb 25, 232–233, 242, 251, 254
Hollis, Pat 232, 238, 242, 254
homosexuality 102, 239, 244–246
horses 45, 133, 155–157, 169, 185, 189, 216, 220, 252
Hovel 64, 100–101, 115
Hudner, Dorothy see Dick, Dorothy Kindred
Hudner, Joe 47–48, 59, 77, 88, 131, 136, 142, 149, 151, 218, 233, 253–254, 258–260
Hudner, Lynne 73, 101, 105, 117, 127, 135, 138, 142, 172, 198, 216–217, 222, 235, 250,
253–254, 258
Hudner, Marion 216, 233, 253
Hudner, Neil 47, 149, 151, 172, 217, 254, 258
Hugo Award 12, 96, 148
Hynes, Lorraine 61, 68, 100
hypertension 172, 183, 205
I Ching 66, 77, 87, 111, 148
Inferno 26, 30
Iskandar see Guy, Maury (Iskandar)
James, William 247
Jamis 156–161
Jeter, K. W. 164, 168, 185, 187, 203
jewelry 12–13, 61, 68–69, 85, 88, 122, 125, 133, 173, 198, 204, 271
“Jim” 145
Johnson, Samuel 38
Jones, James 26
Joyce, James 27, 159, 250, 269
Jung, Carl 65–66, 163
KGB 16, 186, 197
KPFA 40, 84, 242, 255, 259
Kafka, Franz 17, 27, 38
Kaiser Hospital 59–60
Kennedy, John F. 62, 96
Kindred, Earl Grant 215–216, 223–224
Kindred, Edna Archer 213–216, 223–224, 230, 233, 261
Kindred, Dorothy Grant see Dick, Dorothy Kindred
King, Martin L. 62
Koehler, George 227, 235
Kresy, Jerry 28, 51, 69, 73, 80, 138, 261
Kresy, June 34, 51, 87, 93, 261
Landor, Walter 43, 95
Lanferman, Walter 95, 238
Langley Porter Clinic 90–93, 124, 239, 243, 260
Lee, Gwen 164
Leibnitz, Gottfried 39
Levy, Linda 15, 164–168
Lincoln 16, 38, 62–64
literary novels 26, 38, 49, 57, 59, 63, 65, 125, 179, 205, 246, 250–251, 257, 260, 269
Lovecraft, H. P. 37–38, 76
LSD 103, 124, 137, 268
Lusby, Monica 246, 257
Lusby, Vince 76, 85, 116, 224, 241–246, 249–252, 256–257
Lusby, Virginia 76, 85, 116, 241–242
Mad Magazine 38
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 26, 37, 111, 251
Magnavox record player 37, 46, 64, 114, 116, 235, 246–247
Mailer, Norman 56, 79
Mandrake the Magician 38
Manson, Charles 146
Marais and Miranda 46
Marin General Hospital and Marin Medical Clinic 129, 136, 150
Marlin, Jeannette 15, 245–246
marriage 16, 30–31, 36, 41, 46, 73–74, 85–87, 91–92, 97, 100, 102, 105, 122, 130, 132, 135, 138, 172, 175, 193, 199, 241, 245, 253, 264
Martians 75, 80, 103
“Mary Lou” 145, 148, 168
Maxfield, Dick 234, 245
McLuhan, Marshall 159
McMahon, Joanne 164–166
McNelly, Professor Willis 152, 155, 160–161, 163–166, 171, 177
Meemaw see
Kindred, Edna Archer Mexico 35, 40, 77, 89, 111, 120, 258
Miller, Henry 28, 243
Milne, E. E. 38
Mini, Kleo see Dick, Kleo
Mini, Lois 43, 51, 72, 76–77, 241, 244
Mini, Norman 43, 76, 173, 206, 241, 243, 249, 251
Moore, Ward 68
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 95, 117, 230, 236
mushrooms 41, 60, 71–72, 83, 103, 137
music 29, 31, 46–47, 52, 54, 61, 84, 98, 132–133, 144–145, 159, 224–225, 229–230, 232, 236, 240, 242–246, 249–250, 254–256
National Science Fiction Convention 121
Nelson, Kirsten 15, 112–113, 117–121, 124, 130, 133, 136–137, 142, 170, 194, 197, 265
Nelson, Ray 93, 112–113, 117, 120–121, 123–124, 136, 142, 152, 207, 255, 273
Neurotica 26
nervous breakdown 105, 137, 139, 190, 239
Newcomb, Jack 117, 123–124, 130
New-Path 141
Nicholls, Eldon 233, 249
Nixon, Richard M. 62
Noseworthy, Frank 158
obituary 209
Oedipus Complex 30
Oko, Adolph 42
Oko, Gladys 42
Orr, Robert 71
paranoia 137, 188
Partch, Harry 98
Plattes, Dr. 43
Point Reyes Station 12, 16, 23–27, 33, 36–37, 41–42, 56–57, 62, 72, 77, 80, 83, 91–92, 97, 100, 104–105, 113–116, 118, 124–127, 133–138, 141–142, 152, 172–175, 181, 186, 188, 193–194, 197–198, 204, 206–7, 209, 211, 221, 223, 227, 238, 249, 252, 255, 260, 264, 267, 269, 271
proletarian writer 49, 59, 95
Psychiatry 15, 26, 31–32, 35, 63, 79, 89–90, 92, 106, 115, 127, 130, 135, 149, 178–179, 181, 186, 217, 222, 227, 243, 260, 265
Psychology 32, 38, 53, 79–80, 92, 102, 115–116, 130, 137–138, 156, 174, 181, 188, 196–197, 202, 217, 223–224, 239, 259–260
The Search for Philip K. Dick Page 32
