The Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick: 1980-1982 is the final volume in the selected letters series, covering the last years of Dick's life. ISBN 1-887424-26-1. At 344 pages, the volume documents Dick's correspondence during his final creative period, which saw the completion of The Transmigration of Timothy Archer and the continuation of his massive Exegesis project.
The volume opens with an extraordinary passage in which Dick describes what he calls his second theophany, which he considers the most treasured moment of his life. He describes standing in his kitchen with his friend Ray Torrence (who is mentioned in Dick's story "Frozen Journey," also known as "I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon") at about eleven in the morning, as Torrence was about to return to Northern California after spending the night at Dick's apartment. Dick notes that this experience was self-authenticating and not something he discusses with even his closest friends.
This final volume of letters provides irreplaceable documentation of Dick's state of mind during the period when he was completing his last novel and continuing to process the mystical experiences that had consumed his intellectual life since 1974. The letters reveal a writer simultaneously at the height of his philosophical ambition and nearing the end of his life.