Small Town

Publisher Marketing: This early work by Philip K. Dick was originally published in 1953 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Small Town' is a short story about a man with godlike power over two towns. Philip Kindred Dick was born on December 16 1928, in Chicago, Illinois. Dick and his family moved to the Bay Area of San Francisco when he was young, and later on to Washington DC following his parents divorce. Dick attended Elementary school and then a Quaker school before the family moved back to California. It was around this time that Dick began to take an active interest in the science fiction genre, reading his first magazine 'Stirring Science Stories', at age twelve. Dick married five times between 1959 and 1973, and had three children. He sold his first story in 1951 and from that point on he wrote full-time, selling his first novel in 1955. In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote an estimated 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. In addition to 44 published novels, Dick wrote an estimated 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime. After his death, many of his stories made the transition to the big screen, with blockbuster films such as Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report being based on his works. Contributor Bio:  Dick, Philip K Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was an American science-fiction novelist, short-story writer and essayist. A contemporary of Ursula K. Le Guin, Dick's first short story, "Beyond Lies the Wub," was published shortly after his high-school graduation. Many of Dick's works drew upon his personal experiences with drug abuse, addressing topics such as paranoia and schizophrenia, transcendental experiences and alternate reality, and the childhood death of his twin sister is reflected through the recurring theme of the "phantom twin" in many of his novels. Despite ongoing financial troubles and issues with the IRS, Dick had a prolific writing career, winning both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award multiple times. Some of his most famous novels and stories--A Scanner Darkly, "The Minority Report," "Paycheck," and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (adapted into the film Blade Runner)--have been adapted for film. Dick died in 1982.