According to the OED,* a hurley-house is “a large house fallen into disrepair or nearly in ruins.” Right. Anyone who has ever come to the actual Hurley House to swill gin or browse through dusty columns of books from my personal collection can attest to the general spirit of the definition. Sure, it’s not large, and technically it’s an apartment, but …

More to the purpose, Hurley House is a website where you can read about books, see pictures of odd things people leave in books, read some things I’ve written. Poke around. I’ll keep adding blog entries and various books and collections of books. If you like, not just reading, but books themselves as incredible objects, examples of great design, things to collect, I think you’ll like Hurley House.

Some time ago, I started working on a poetry project. At first it was called Saturn. I came to realize it would be four connected books of poetry. As the project took shape, the related themes and structures of each book became clearer. Saturn Book II: Black Iron Prison was to be a sustained reflection on the major themes Philip K. Dick explored so brilliantly over his prolific, though far too brief, life. Now, I am in the thick of composing Black Iron Prison (a name taken from the Exegesis) and am rereading much of PKD’s oeuvre, noting down quotes and phrases that will be folded into the final poem. Little did I know at the time the project started that we would all be living in truly Phildickian times. Perhaps there is no better time to be reading this brilliant visionary than now.

Saturn Book II is still in progress, but Saturn Book I: Analogue Prologue is nearing completion and sections have appeared in various literary magazines. I invite fellow PKD fanatics (or Dickheads, if you prefer) to check out some of these poems that are on my poetry website or will be soon.

And if you happen to support this lifelong reader of Philip K. Dick by purchasing his first poetry collection, I would be truly grateful.

Please check back on this site as I finally get back to updating my PKD story summaries. I hope to have selections from Saturn Book II: Black Iron Prison up on my poetry website as soon as they have been published.