A Scanner Darkly (1977) Signed First Edition Reference

A Scanner Darkly is Dick’s most personal novel — a thinly veiled autobiographical account of his years in the drug culture of 1970s Orange County, California. Bob Arctor is an undercover narcotics agent investigating a drug called Substance D, but the drug’s brain-splitting effects have caused him to forget that he is the person he is investigating. Published by Doubleday in 1977, the novel is dedicated to Dick’s friends who were damaged or killed by drug use, and its afterword list of casualties is one of the most devastating pages in American fiction.

The Book

Unlike Dick’s other reality-questioning novels, the unreliable perception in A Scanner Darkly has a specific, devastating cause: drug-induced brain damage. The novel’s power comes from its refusal to romanticize the drug experience — Dick writes about addiction with the authority of someone who lived it and lost friends to it. The 2006 Richard Linklater film, using rotoscope animation, is one of the most faithful Dick adaptations.

First Edition Identification

Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York Publication date: 1977 Format: Hardcover in dust jacket

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed first edition, fine/fine: $5,000–$15,000
• Unsigned first edition, fine/fine: $500–$1,500

A Scanner Darkly is the PKD novel most valued by literary readers — its emotional honesty and autobiographical intensity transcend genre. The afterword dedication, listing friends destroyed by drugs, transforms the novel into a memorial.