PKD's Berkeley Houses: 1411 Arch St.

 

Today's house is an interesting one, mostly because none of the biographers seems to have known about 1411 Arch St, where Phil apparently lived at least in 1944. In fact, we learned of Dick's residency only because the special folks at SFFaudio found and Tweeted a letter from sixteen-year-old Philip K Dick to Amazing Stories published in March of 1944. The letter to the editors demonstrates that Dick was a careful and knowledgeable consumer of SF stories, who clearly had a sense for what they liked and dislike. 

In the letter young Philip bemoans the current state of SF in the monthlies, stating the most recent issue of Amazing was the first that didn't "come up to par." 

Not because the editor can't pick good stories, but because "We all realize that most of your best men have gone to war." 

If there's an income gradient in Berkeley from the blue-collar "flats" as they're called to the 1% at the top of the Berkeley Hills, this house on Arch St. represents Dorothy and Phil's high water mark. In fact the house is less than five hundred feet from Ursula LeGuin's amazing house at 1325 Arch St! 

Records are scarce on this house, and I suppose it's possible young Phil wrote a fake address to the magazine, but that seems less likely than him living in the house without it making it to the biographies. While we don't know when exactly Phil and Dorothy moved in or out of this house, we do know that they were living on Walnut St in 1940 and by 1946 had moved to 1711 Alston Way, which I will write about tomorrow.