Recently, I was lucky enough to interview Anne Dick, Philip K. Dick’s third wife, about their life together and the recent publication of her revised memoir Search for Philip K. Dick, 1928-1982. The interview appears in this week’s Orlando Weekly.
The project itself grew out of a need for answers. “[It] was an attempt to understand what had happened to our relationship at the time of our divorce,” she says. “Actually, writing things down turned out to be therapeutic. In words I could go back and feel more in control during those chaotic times.”
As explored in Search and later books, Philip Dick famously used aspects of his real life in his surreal and often outlandish stories. “He wrote Confessions of a Crap Artist [one of his earliest and perhaps most successful ‘autobiographical non-science fiction mainstream’ works] on our honeymoon! I was stunned and somewhat dismayed, but I didn’t say anything except that I thought it was a good book. Privately I thought to myself, ‘I guess this is what writers do.’ There were a number of other Point Reyes books in which the principal female character is more or less based on me.”
Dick revealed several arguably unflattering aspects of her ex-husband. “Many people know now how eccentric Phil’s life was. Many great writers had strange and unsettling lives.” She explored several of his positive traits as well. “He always tried to help people throughout his life. His books are full of light. I think most people are different and strange way down in their psyches, and in some people their unusual characteristics are closer to the surface.”
After the interview, my brief piece “The essential Philip K. Dick: a beginner’s guide” gives some reading tips for the PKD neophyte.
