In Pursuit of Valis
First trade edition, 1991
In Pursuit of VALIS: Selections from the Exegesis (1991) is the first publication to draw on Philip K. Dick's vast unpublished theological journal, edited by Lawrence Sutin with an introduction by Jay Kinney and an afterword by Terence McKenna. This is the first trade edition, published simultaneously with the limited editions by Underwood-Miller.
Hardcover. First Trade Edition. Octavo, cloth binding. Novato, CA, Lancaster, PA: Underwood-Miller, 1991. Wintz & Hyde NF9.b. ISBN: 0887330916. #11192.
Near fine in near fine dust jacket (corner bumped).
Hardcover. First Trade Edition. Octavo, cloth binding. Novato, CA, Lancaster, PA: Underwood-Miller, 1991. Wintz & Hyde NF9.b. ISBN: 0887330916. #11192.
Near fine in near fine dust jacket (corner bumped).
Additional Details
In Pursuit of VALIS: Selections from the Exegesis (1991) was the first publication to draw on the vast unpublished journal that Philip K. Dick kept during the final eight years of his life, the document he called his Exegesis. The full Exegesis ran to more than eight thousand handwritten pages, sorted after his death into ninety-one manila folders, and remained an archival problem until Lawrence Sutin undertook the selection and editing work that produced this volume. The complete Exegesis was eventually published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2011.
Dick began keeping the Exegesis following the experiences of February and March 1974, which he called "2-3-74." The entries attempt to explain what happened to him, and they do so through every available framework: Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Jungian psychology, Zoroastrianism, early Christian theology, conspiracy theory, and quantum physics, among others. Dick never settled on a single explanation. The Exegesis circles the same events obsessively, proposing and abandoning theories with equal urgency. It is the record of a mind that could not stop.
Sutin organized the selections into eight thematic sections, moving from direct personal accounts through theoretical explanations, writings on his own novels, political concerns, and three closing parables. Jay Kinney's introduction places the Exegesis in context for readers unfamiliar with the events it describes. Terence McKenna's afterword, characteristically, ranges further than the material strictly requires, but is worth reading for its sympathetic intelligence. A PKD chronology by Paul Williams is also included. Published by Underwood-Miller in 1991 in a total edition of 276 copies plus a trade edition.
Dick began keeping the Exegesis following the experiences of February and March 1974, which he called "2-3-74." The entries attempt to explain what happened to him, and they do so through every available framework: Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Jungian psychology, Zoroastrianism, early Christian theology, conspiracy theory, and quantum physics, among others. Dick never settled on a single explanation. The Exegesis circles the same events obsessively, proposing and abandoning theories with equal urgency. It is the record of a mind that could not stop.
Sutin organized the selections into eight thematic sections, moving from direct personal accounts through theoretical explanations, writings on his own novels, political concerns, and three closing parables. Jay Kinney's introduction places the Exegesis in context for readers unfamiliar with the events it describes. Terence McKenna's afterword, characteristically, ranges further than the material strictly requires, but is worth reading for its sympathetic intelligence. A PKD chronology by Paul Williams is also included. Published by Underwood-Miller in 1991 in a total edition of 276 copies plus a trade edition.
Related items
