{"id":3434,"date":"2008-06-05T02:38:18","date_gmt":"2008-06-05T02:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2008\/06\/05\/philip-k-dick-topples-the-american-canon-2\/"},"modified":"2008-06-05T02:38:18","modified_gmt":"2008-06-05T02:38:18","slug":"philip-k-dick-topples-the-american-canon-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2008\/06\/05\/philip-k-dick-topples-the-american-canon-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Philip K Dick Topples the American Canon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediabistro.com\/galleycat\/authors\/philip_k_dick_topples_the_american_canon_86317.asp?c=rss\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"postlink\">This bit<\/a> comes from <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Media Bistro<\/span>:<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<table width=\"90%\" cellspacing=\"1\" cellpadding=\"3\" border=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tr>\n<td><span class=\"genmed\"><b>Quote:<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"quote\">When the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.libraryofamerica.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"postlink\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Library of America<\/span><\/a>\u2018s publicist informed me that last year\u2019s collection of four classic <span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Philip K. Dick<\/span> novels was their fastest-selling title ever, I was pleasantly surprised, but I wanted some proof. LOA marketing manager <span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Brian McCarthy<\/span> was happy to oblige, informing me that the Library had shipped 23,750 copies of <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Four Novels of the 1960s<\/span>\u2014the better part of two complete print runs\u2014and that returns were a &ldquo;staggeringly low&rdquo; 5 percent. By way of comparison, the Library\u2019s last major foray into science fiction and fantasy, the <span style=\"font-weight: bold\">H.P. Lovecraft<\/span> <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Tales<\/span> published in 2005, sold 11,860 copies (with a similar return rate) in its first year (with gross sales-to-date now standing at 26,000-plus.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><span class=\"postbody\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is better than other more traditional LoA &ldquo;heavy-hitters&rdquo; such as the first collection of Jack Kerouac novels (shipped just under 15,000 copies in its first year, with a return rate of 10 percent), two-volume collection of Edmund Wilson\u2019s critical writings (9250 and 12%)  and the <span style=\"font-style: italic\">American Poetry: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries<\/span> anthology (4200 and 8%).<\/p>\n<p>And the trend should continue with the second PKD volume (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.loa.org\/volume.jsp?RequestID=285\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"postlink\"><span style=\"font-style: italic\">Five Novels of the 1960s and 70s<\/span><\/a> which includes <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Martian Time-Slip<\/span>, <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb<\/span>, <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Now Wait for Last Year<\/span>, <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said<\/span>, and <span style=\"font-style: italic\">A Scanner Darkly<\/span>).  The book is not due out until July 31 and pre-orders already exceed 10,000.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a good time to be a Dickhead!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/412C1wjX1yL._SS500_.jpg\" border=\"0\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"tumblr-crosspostr-linkback\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2008\/06\/05\/philip-k-dick-topples-the-american-canon\/\" title=\"Go to the original post.\" rel=\"bookmark\" target=\"_blank\">Philip K Dick Topples the American Canon<\/a> was originally published on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\" target=\"_blank\">The Geek Curmudgeon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This bit comes from Media Bistro: Quote: When the Library of America\u2018s publicist informed me that last year\u2019s collection of four classic Philip K. Dick novels was their fastest-selling title ever, I was pleasantly surprised, but I wanted some proof. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2008\/06\/05\/philip-k-dick-topples-the-american-canon-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.2.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.revolutionsf.com\/revblogs\/geekcurmudgeon\/2008\/06\/05\/philip-k-dick-topples-the-american-canon-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philip K Dick Topples the American Canon - The Geek Curmudgeon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This bit comes from Media Bistro: Quote: When the Library of America\u2018s publicist informed me that last year\u2019s collection of four classic Philip K. 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