No doubt Dick would have appreciated both the irony and tragedy of the situation, and probably would have written a story about it if he had not died so suddenly and, yes, so tragically, in 1982.ĭick was a product of the great epoch of pulp literature, both as a consumer and as a producer. It is hard to imagine that Dick himself would not have been pleased to see these handsome volumes measured on the ancient Greek's "golden section" (a concept that finds a place in the pages of this volume). In many ways the Library of America series represents the "canon" of our native literature, and on the shelves next to Melville, Whitman and Hawthorne, the works of Dick now find their rightful place. Now consider the fact that the prestigious publisher Library of America has just published a third volume of novels by Dick. Dick's struggle to be accepted as a mainstream author, to have his work appreciated and understood outside the genre of science fiction, which was a dilemma he considered "a very long-term tragedy - of my creative life." Tragedy and irony can be fickle playmates. Dick (The Library of America 849 pages $35)
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