Philip K. Dick was an American novelist born on December 16, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois. Dick’s parents divorced when he was five, so he was raised by his mother in Washington D.C. Although he did not receive stellar grades, his elementary and middle school teachers still praised him for his passion for literature, particularly science-fiction. After graduating high school, Dick attended UC Berkeley to study philosophy and history. His foray into the literary scene began with various short stories published in Planet Stories Magazine. In 1955, he released his debut novel entitled Solar Lottery.
The Minority Report and Other Stories is a collection of science-fiction short stories by Philip Dick, including Autofac, Service Call, Captive Market, The Mold of Yancy, The Minority Report, Recall Mechanism, The Unreconstructed M, Explorers We, War Games, If There Were No Benny Cemoli, Novelty Act, Waterspider, What the Dead Men Say, Orpheus with Clay Feet, The Days of Perky Pat, Stand-By, What’ll We Do with Ragland Park?, and Oh, to be a Blobe. Many of them explore the negative effects of advancing technology and take place in a post-apocalyptic world. The Minority Report, for example, tells the story of a universe in which crime is detected before it occurs. However, when a man named John A. Anderton is prematurely accused of murder, he believes that it was an act of sabotage within the system and ventures on a mission to clear his name.
Upon its publication, The Minority Report and Other Stories received rave reviews from audiences and critics alike for its thrilling portrayal of a futuristic universe. Philip Dick would go on to write many more stories and full-length novels afterward, but his illustrious career was cut short when he died of a stroke on March 2, 1982 at age 53.
