Illustrated by Shan Jiang
Introduced by Ursula K. Le Guin
Winner of the 1963 Hugo award, Philip K. Dick’s alternative history is a classic of modern science fiction, presented here with vivid illustrations by Shan Jiang.
Considered Philip K. Dick’s greatest novel when first published in 1962, this mind-bending work redefined the sci-fi genre. In it Dick conjured a new vision of our world – a twisted simulacrum of modern history in which the Axis Powers have won the Second World War. America is now divided: the eastern United States is a puppet of the German Reich – a regime of madness and brutality – while the western Pacific seaboard is governed by a militaristic, yet spiritual, Japanese dictatorship. Amongst the complexities of this new existence, a group of seemingly unremarkable people play out their everyday lives. As their narratives intersect, Dick poses larger metaphysical questions concerning the authentication of history, perception and the building blocks of destiny.
Three-quarter-bound in cloth with a printed and blocked Modigliani paper front board
Set in Utopia with Market Street Neon display
272 pages
Frontispiece and 7 full-page colour illustrations
Blocked slipcase
9˝ × 6¼˝
The Man in the High Castle is considered to be Dick’s greatest novel, and was awarded the Hugo Award in 1963. With it, he jettisoned the traditional trappings of science fiction that had defined much of his previous work. Gone were the spaceships, strange worlds and telepaths; what remained were the ideas that had begun to set him apart as a significant thinker of the age. As Ursula K. Le Guin discusses in her new introduction, the text’s innovation and skill took some of the first steps in dismantling the traditional barriers between science and mainstream fiction: it would become ‘the first big, lasting contribution science fiction made to American literature’.
This edition features the work of Shanghai-born Shan Jiang. His graphic images, strongly influenced by manga and comic book art, channel the text’s melding of cultures.
‘This is my first ever work for The Folio Society, of which I have been a fan for many years. When I opened the package and held the book, the print and the binding made me feel that it is very precious ... Although I am familiar with every stroke of the design and illustration, those are all on paper or on screen. It is more than exciting to hold the real book in my hand’
- Shan Jiang
Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago in 1928. At around the age of 12 Dick read his first science-fiction magazine, which led to a lifelong engagement with the genre. After a brief stint at the University of Berkeley in 1949, he worked in a record store, Art Music Company. He wrote full-time from 1951, when he sold his first short story, and went on to produce 44 novels and five collections of short stories. Dick struggled to achieve mainstream success, his non-science-fiction novels being returned by his agent in 1963, but received enormous acclaim in the science-fiction world for his works exploring metaphysics, theology and politics. His best-known novels include The Man in the High Castle (1962; Folio Society, 2015), which won the Hugo Award in 1963; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968; Folio Society, 2017); and Ubik (1969; Folio Society, 2019). Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1975. Married five times, Dick died in 1982.
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) was born in Berkeley and lived in Portland, Oregon. She published 21 novels, 11 volumes of short stories, 4 collections of essays, 12 books for children, 6 volumes of poetry and 4 translated works, and received many honours and awards, including the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, a National Book Award and the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) is her best-known work; it is the first book of Earthsea, which includes The Tombs of Atuan (1971), The Farthest Shore (1972), Tehanu (1990), Tales from Earthsea (2001) and The Other Wind (2001). Her Hugo Award-winning novel The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) is also availabe as a Folio edition. Her most recent publications were Finding My Elegy: New and Selected Poems, 1960–2010 (2012) and The Unreal and the Real: Selected Short Stories (2012).
Shan Jiang was born in Shanghai in 1979 and studied fine art at Shanghai University. He completed an MA at Edinburgh College of Art in 2004 and worked for the design studio LoveDust from 2005–12. He went on to become the third partner at design company Shotopop, in London, where he has worked for numerous high-profile clients. Shan’s work is strongly influenced by his home city of Shanghai: its skyscrapers and bungalows, contemporary concepts and traditional superstitions, Communist ideology and flourishing subcultures. He has been inspired by Chinese Meticulous painting, Ukiyo-e, Bauhaus design, Dürer, manga and anime. He lives and works in London.
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