Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) Signed First Edition Reference

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is Philip K. Dick’s most famous novel, the source material for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) and its sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Published by Doubleday in 1968, the novel follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter tasked with “retiring” rogue androids in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco. But Dick’s novel is far stranger and more philosophically ambitious than any film adaptation: the Voigt-Kampff empathy test, the religion of Mercerism, the electric animals that substitute for extinct real ones, and the question of whether Deckard himself might be an android create a narrative that questions the foundations of human identity.

The Book

The novel’s central question — what distinguishes a human from an artificial being? — has become more urgent with each passing decade. As artificial intelligence advances, Dick’s 1968 meditation on empathy, consciousness, and the ethics of creating beings that can suffer reads less like science fiction and more like prophecy.

First Edition Identification

Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York Publication date: 1968 Format: Hardcover in dust jacket

The Doubleday first edition is the undisputed collectible format. First printings are identified by the Doubleday first edition statement. The original dust jacket features a distinctive design that has become iconic in science fiction collecting.

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed first edition, fine/fine: $30,000–$100,000+
• Inscribed to a named recipient: $50,000–$150,000+
• Unsigned first edition, fine/fine: $5,000–$20,000

The PKD trophy alongside The Man in the High Castle. Any “signed” copy must survive the most rigorous authentication process — given the extreme values, the forgery incentive is enormous. Verified signed copies are among the most valuable items in science fiction collecting.