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Philip K. Dick Public Appearances Timeline (1955-1982)

Scholarship

This document presents a comprehensive chronological timeline consolidating every documented instance of Philip K. Dick speaking publicly, appearing at conventions, giving interviews, or making other public-facing appearances across his lifetime (1928-1982). Each entry records the date, event description, type of appearance (newspaper interview, formal speech, convention keynote, live radio broadcast, etc.), location, and primary source documentation. The earliest documented appearance is a January 10, 1955 Oakland Tribune profile and interview headlined 'Local Kid Makes Good,' published when Dick was 26 years old and beginning to gain recognition as a science fiction writer. The timeline confirms that during the 1960s, Dick's public life was 'essentially nothing,' despite this being his most prolific publishing period, with the 1963 Hugo Award for The Man in the High Castle at Discon I in Washington, D.C. noted without evidence that Dick attended the ceremony in person. The bulk of documented appearances fall between 1971 and 1982, beginning with interviews by a Norwegian journalist, Loren Cavit at Redwood High School in Larkspur, Goran Bengtson (a Swedish journalist visiting via the U.S. State Department), and Patrice Duvic (published in Revue Galaxie, No. 100, September 1972). The 1972 entries are particularly dense, documenting Dick's 'The Android and the Human' speech at UBC and VCON 2 in Vancouver, CBC and CKLG FM radio interviews, interviews at LACon I (the 30th Worldcon), and a three-hour KPFK FM live broadcast with Norman Spinrad focused on fascism in science fiction. The timeline notes the September 29, 1972 KPFK broadcast as a significant lost recording, identifying the Eric Foss Collection on Hour 25 (MS 054) at UC Riverside's Special Collections as the most promising lead for locating it. This resource is invaluable for scholars seeking to map Dick's engagement with the public sphere and trace the evolution of his public persona from reclusive pulp writer to celebrated intellectual figure.

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