Typed Letter Signed to Literary Executor Paul Williams - 11/11/1972
Original letter typed on two leaves of plain white stock measuring 8.5" x 11", signed "Phil" in black ballpoint pen; ca.1150 words. Dated November 11, 1972 and included in The Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick 1972-1973, pp.90-92.
Revealing letter in which Dick chronicles a break-in at his home in November 1971, a defining moment in his life. Dick claimed his safe had been blown open and personal papers stolen. “I came home and found my files blown up with plastic military explosives, windows smashed in, doorlocks smashed, everything of value gone such as stereo, business records and cancelled checks, correspondence and papers gone, rubble everywhere… I never really was able to live there afterward because of the loss and damage.” In chapter 9 of Radio Free Albemuth, the same event is described in very similar fashion. The letter goes on about “hostile people” operating around him at the time, who he at first took for undercover narcotics agents. He claims that he was threatened and blackmailed and that the culprits tried to involve him in a murder conspiracy. Oozing with conspiracy and paranoia, the letter mentions the FBI, the Birchers, and the Black Panthers, before finally arriving at the notion that a paramilitary, neo-Nazi group is to blame.
During this time, Dick’s home on Hacienda Way in San Rafael, had become an open house for druggies and hippies alike. In Anthony Peake’s A Life of Philip K. Dick: The Man Who Remembered the Future, he writes: "PKD had started to source his amphetamines from the local 'chapter' of the Hell's Angels, a motorcycle gang linked with drug dealing and violent crime" (Peake, p.92), and his safe held a bag of heroin, replenished by William S. Burroughs's supplier. There are numerous other scattered but interesting personal anecdotes and details in the letter, and Dick’s strong affection for Paul is prominent throughout. Paul Williams (1948-2013) was Dick's close friend and eventual literary executor. In 1966, he created Crawdaddy!, considered the first US magazine of rock criticism. Williams met Dick in 1968, and they stayed friends through the remainder of Dick’s life. In 1975, a profile of PKD written by Williams appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, and covered different theories about the 1971 break-in, among other topics. In 1986, Williams published Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick, one of the first biographies about the author. Williams was also instrumental in publishing many of Dick’s posthumous works. Exceptional letter for both its association as well as its insight into the author's paranoid mind.
Fullerton, CA: 1972. #10893.
Very good in a fine custom slipcase and chemise. The letter shows signs of handling, folds have been smoothed out, with scattered holograph notations (in pen and pencil) on verso of second page.