Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was born in Chicago but lived in California for most of his life. He went to college at Berkeley for a year, ran a record store and had his own classical-music show on a local radio station. He published his first short story, 'Beyond Lies the Wub' in 1952. Among his many fine novels are The Man in the High Castle, Time Out of Joint, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.
Ray Nelson is a Science Fiction author and cartoonist, well known for his art work from the golden age of Science Fiction fandom in the 1940s and '50s, up until the present day.
In addition to having written numerous novels and short stories, Ray is the inventor of the propeller beanie, and his short story "8 O'clock in the Morning" was made into the paranoid cult classic "They Live", directed by John Carpenter.