You Love His Stories; You Just Don't Know It

Philip K. Dick android

For 30 years, movie lovers around the would have been enthralled by the wild imaginings of a writer most people have never heard of.  A dozen films, many of them mega-hits, have been based on his works.  The latest, to be released Aug. 3, 2012, is a remake of the movie "Total Recall" and starts Colin Farrell.

This author is Philip K. Dick (1928-1982), whose paranoiac visions of the near future inspired such films as "Blade Runner,"  "Minority Report," "A Scanner Darkly," and "The Adjustment Bureau."  Filmmakers regularly plunder his writings for movie plots, an indicator of the growing interest in the writing of PKD (as he is commonly known).

During his lifetime, PKD's reputation as a writer was little known beyond science fiction fans.  Since his death, however, not only have his ideas become part of American pop culture, but his writing has been discovered by a wide range of serious literary critics and academicians, who now place him among the top rank in American letters and literature.

The new Philip K. Dick Display at the Al Harris Library shows the award-winning science fiction novels for which he was known.  Also presented are the mainstream literary works written throughout his career that were rejected in favor of his science fiction.  Most were written during the 1950s and 1960s and  are urban tales about young men who are dissatisfied with their jobs and have disastrous love lives.  The fact that these works have been made available by publishers for the first time during the past few years is another indicator of PKD's increasing reputation as a great American  writer.

Also on display is the 2011 release of "The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick," a weighty reproduction of journal entries from the last eight years of the author's life in which he grapples to understand religious expriences he had during a three-month period in 1974.  This long-awaited work among PKD aficionados would not be available in print if the author's prestige was not on the rise.

The display also includes biographical and critical works about Philip K. Dick and his work.

Remembering Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury (Aug. 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012)

Ray Bradbury, recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, died on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91 after a long illness. He lived in Los Angeles.

In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He wrote the screen play for John Huston's classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree.

Click here to see books by Ray Bradbury that are available from the SWOSU Libraries.

Graphic Novel Display: The Amazing Spider-Man

The Al Harris Library is home to a diverse collection of graphic novels. On July 3rd,
The Amazing Spider-Man will swing onto the big screen.

To coincide with the release of this new comic book adaptation from Columbia Pictures, we have collected some of the graphic novels in our collection that recount Spidey’s exciting adventures from the pages of MARVEL comics.

Although the concept has been modified, extrapolated and adapted into other media, the premise remains the same:

“With Great Power there must also come - Great Responsibility!”

Spider-Man debuted in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August, 1962), created by writer, Stan Lee and artist, Steve Ditko.

The story of Peter Parker; his heroism, hardships and humanity, has endured and entertained for fifty years!

Feel free to check out any of these books!

Just ask the staff at the Circulation Desk for assistance.