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<Apr, 1966 |
Apr 1966 |
Not By Its Cover | Movie: TOTAL RECALL (1990) |
FIRST PUBLICATION
Fantasy & Science Fiction, Apr 1966. HISTORY:
Philip K. Dick wrote several more short stories in late 1965 and into 1966. After completing "Your Appointment Will Be Yesterday" in August the next two stories reached the SMLA on the same day: "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" and "Holy Quarrel." These stories arrived on Sep 13, 1965.
"We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" was first published in F & SF in Apr 1966. It reappeared in the 30th anniversary issue of F & SF in Oct 1979.
This story has been anthologized many times – it may be the most popular story of them all in this respect. But, although it was selected for NEBULA AWARD STORIES 1967 by Brian Aldiss and Harry Harrison, and also in WORLD’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION 1967 by Don Wollheim and Terry Carr, the story was never selected for one of PKD’s own collections until publication of THE COLLECTED STORIES in 1987. It’s most recent appearance was in Rosebud Magazine in 2002.
In 1990 the story formed the basis of the Hollywood movie, TOTAL RECALL, starring Arnold Schwarznegger and Sharon Stone.
The movie pretty much recapitulates the story with Doug Quail purchasing a ‘memory’ of a life as a secret agent on Mars. Turns out, though, that he really was a secret agent on Mars and is now the key to stopping an alien invasion.
"We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" rates ô ô ô
Other Magazine and Anthology appearances.
More Cover Pix here: 
| 1967 | BEST FROM F & SF 16, Doubleday, hb, ?, 1967, ?, $4.50 (?) {Ed. Ferman} | ||
| 1967 |  |
BEST FROM F & SF 16, Ace, pb, ?, 1967, ?,? (?) {Ed. Ferman} | |
| 1967 | NEBULA AWARD STORIES #2, Doubleday, hb, ?, 1967, ?,? (?) {Ed. Aldiss, Harrison} | ||
| 1967 | NEBULA AWARD STORIES 1967, Gollancz, hb, ?,? 25/- (?) {Ed. Aldiss, Harrison} | ||
| ??? |  |
NEBULA AWARD STORIES #2, ?, pb, ?, ?, ?, ? (?) | |
| 1967 |  |
WORLD'S BEST SF: 1967, Ace, pb, A-10, ? $0.75 (?) {Ed. Wollheim, Carr} | |
| ??? |  |
WORLD'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION THIRD SERIES, Ace, pb, S-1355, ?, $0.95 (?) {Ed.Wollheim, Carr} original title WORLD'S BEST SF: 1967 | |
| 1969 |  |
THE PRESERVING MACHINE And Other Stories, Ace, pb, 67800, ?,? (?) | |
| 1970 | 20 YEARS OF F & SF, Putnams, hb, ?,? $5.95 (?) {Ed. Ferman, Mills} | ||
| 1974 |  |
ALPHA 5, Ballantine, pb, 24140, ? $1.25 (?) {Ed. Silverberg} | |
| 1975 | REFLECTIONS OF THE FUTURE, Ginn & Co., hb, ?m 1975, ?, ? (?) {Ed. Russell Hill} | ||
| 1976 |  |
EARTH IN TRANSIT, Laurel-Leaf, hb, ?, Nov 1976, ?, ? (?) {Ed. Schwartz} | |
| 1976 | EARTH IN TRANSIT, Dell, pb, 2262, 1976, ?, $1.25 (?) {Ed. Schwartz} | ||
| 1979 Oct |
|
F & SF: 30th Anniversary, Mercury Press, pb, ?, 1979, ?, ?, ?, (?) {Ed. Ferman} | |
| 1980 |  |
F & SF: A 30 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE, Doubleday, hb, ?, Apr 1980, ?, $10 (?) {Ed. Ferman} | |
| 1979 |  |
THE ROAD TO SCIENCE FICTION #3, Mentor, pb, ?,Dec 1979, ? (?) {Ed. Gunn} | |
| 1987 |  |
THE COLLECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK, Vol.2 | |
| 1992 | REEL TERROR, Xanadu, ?,?,? (?) {Ed. Wolfe} | ||
| 1994 | REEL FUTURE, ?, SFBC, hb, ?,?,? (?) {Ed. Ackerman, Stine} | ||
| 1995 | SPACE MOVIES: Classic Science Fiction Films, Severn house, hb, ?, 1995, ?, ? (?) {Ed. Haining} | ||
| 1997 | THE PHILIP K. DICK READER, Citadel twilight, tp, ?,?,? (?) | ||
| 1998 |  |
CLASSIC SCIENCE FICTION, ?, ?, 1998, ?, ?, (?) {Ed. Haining} | |
| 1999 |  |
VINTAGE SCIENCE FICTION, Carroll & Graf, tp, ?, Jul 1999, 513pp, $11.95 (?) {Ed. Haining} 0-7867-0647-3. Omnibus anthology originally published as SPACE MOVIES (see above) and SPACE MOVIES II (no PKD) | |
| 2002 |  |
Rosebud, mag, pb, ?, 2002, ?,? (?) | |
NOTES:
Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3, June 1982, pp. 47-52 John Boonstra
Philip K. Dick may be a household word - in Hollywood, at least - by year's end. With his sf novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? filmed by Ridley Scott as Blade Runner, and with the Disney studio budgeting an equally large sum for the forthcoming Total Recall, based on his story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," fresh attention is certain to come to Dick's thirty years of outstanding work.
SRG 44
... Wish fulfillment in "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" is not as simple. Deciding to fulfill a long-held desire to visit Mars, a minor clerk engages the services of Rekal, Inc., a commercial illusion mill. he argues that an objective illusion deludes but a subjective illusion will satisfy. The memory implant fails because Rekal operators uncover evidence of an earlier, not completely erased memory of a Martian trip while acting as a secret agent. After much unpleasantness at the hands of the secret Interplan group, our clerk-cum-agent returns to Rekal to buy, of all possible realities, a memory implant in which he fulfills a boyhood dream of saving earth from alien invasion. {Hazel Pierce}
Denver Clarion, October 23, 1980. Interview by George Cain and Dana Longo
How much time does Dick spend writing? "All the time," he claims. "From the moment I get up until the moment I go to bed, except when I'm with my friends or watching television. I spend a lot of time with my friends."
His family life isn't what it once was. "I'm divorced now," he says. "I live with two cats, Harvey and Mrs. Mabel M. Tubbs. I don't like living alone very well at all. I do have a girlfriend in France, who I met at a convention in Europe. She keeps calling me and trying to convince me to move over there. If I wasn't so involved with my work, I'd do it. And there's all these big Hollywood deals..."
What big Hollywood deals?
"They want to make a film of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. It's going to be directed by Ridley Scott, who directed Alien. The last reported budget on it was $20 million."
The assistant producer of Alien is interested in making a movie out of "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale," a short story. Another film company reportedly is interested in rights to "Second Variety," with a screenplay written by Dan O'Bannon, who, just by coincidence, wrote the screenplay for Alien.
As for the release date of these movies, "God only knows!" says Dick. The actor's strike hasn't had a good effect on the progress.
"I thought I was getting an exorbitant sum of money for the films," he remarks. "And I was having a drink with Ray Bradbury, telling him about it, and he had an apoplectic stroke He told me I was a babe in the woods and I wasn't getting nearly enough out of it. I thought it was large amounts of money. I was crushed."
Collector’s Notes
Rudy’s Books: "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" in F & SF, Apr 1966 (1st). VG+. $10
Allbookstores.com: "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" in WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE, Vol. 2, Citadel Twilight, pb, 1990. ?. $12.95
Phildickian: "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" in THE PHILIP K. DICK READER, Citadel Twilight, pb, 1997. NF. Very light reading stress. $20
Biblion: "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" in WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE, Vol. 5 of THE COLLECTED STORIES OF PKD, Orion Publishing Co., pb, June 2000. NEW. $22.50
Credits Navigation philipdick.com Novels Short Stories References
