#10874 Clans of the Alphane Moon. Philip K. Dick.
Philip K. Dick

Clans of the Alphane Moon

Clans of the Alphane Moon is a 1964 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick that explores mental illness and the definition of crazy. Based on Dick's 1954 short story "Shell Game", originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine. True first edition published as a paperback original by Ace Books, Ace F-309 ($0.40).

Signed by Dick on the title page. Part of a group of titles that PKD signed for a collector at the 1972 World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles, in one of his rare convention appearances.


Softcover. First Edition, Paperback Original. New York: Ace Books, 1964. Levack 4a. #10874.
Very minor soft crease on front corner, else fine nearly immaculate copy.

Additional Details
Clans of the Alphane Moon is a 1964 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, written during one of his most prolific periods. Alpha III M2 is a former psychiatric institution located on a satellite moon inside the Alpha Centauri (“Alphane”) star system. Since being abandoned the inhabitants of the Alphane Moon have formed themselves into caste-like groups determined by their clinical diagnoses. There are the Pares, people suffering from paranoia; the Manses, people suffering from mania; the Skitzes, Heebs, and Polys, all suffering from different types of schizophrenia; and the Ob-Coms and the Deps, the obsessive compulsives and clinically depressed. Sent on an expedition with questionable motives to the Alphane Moon are the CIA agent, Chuch Rittersford, and his telepathic slime mold companion and advisor, Lord Running Clam.