JG Ballard archive acquired for British Library
Mark Brown writes 'Manuscripts, letters, notebooks and even the school reports of one of the most spectacularly imaginative literary minds of the 20th century, JG Ballard, have been saved for the British public.
Ballard's literary archive has been acquired for the nation through the acceptance in lieu (AIL) scheme and allocated to the British Library. The 100-year-old scheme allows families to give exceptional works or objects to the nation in return for settling death duties, in this case £350,000 in tax.
Jamie Andrews, the library's head of modern literary manuscripts, said the archive's arrival was "hugely exciting" and "an incredibly important and precious addition" to its collection. The archive, which occupies approximately 12 metres in shelf space in the British Library, is expected to be fully accessible by summer 2011.
Ballard died last year, aged 78, and is probably best known for his 1984 novel Empire of the Sun, inspired by his own childhood in a Japanese-controlled internment camp and made into a movie by Steven Spielberg. Then there is Crash, about the sexual kick to be had from car crashes, which was filmed by David Cronenberg. But more than that is a vast body of work, much of it science fiction, that made him one of the most influential of all British writers. There is even an adjective for his distinctive, dystopian themes in the Collins English dictionary: Ballardian.'
Read the full article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/10/jg-ballard-archive-british-library
Ballard's literary archive has been acquired for the nation through the acceptance in lieu (AIL) scheme and allocated to the British Library. The 100-year-old scheme allows families to give exceptional works or objects to the nation in return for settling death duties, in this case £350,000 in tax.
Jamie Andrews, the library's head of modern literary manuscripts, said the archive's arrival was "hugely exciting" and "an incredibly important and precious addition" to its collection. The archive, which occupies approximately 12 metres in shelf space in the British Library, is expected to be fully accessible by summer 2011.
Ballard died last year, aged 78, and is probably best known for his 1984 novel Empire of the Sun, inspired by his own childhood in a Japanese-controlled internment camp and made into a movie by Steven Spielberg. Then there is Crash, about the sexual kick to be had from car crashes, which was filmed by David Cronenberg. But more than that is a vast body of work, much of it science fiction, that made him one of the most influential of all British writers. There is even an adjective for his distinctive, dystopian themes in the Collins English dictionary: Ballardian.'
Read the full article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/10/jg-ballard-archive-british-library
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