BBC is reporting that J.G. Ballard’s literary archives have found their way to the British Library, which expects to make the entire collection accessible to the public by next summer. The 15 “large storage boxes”, which should take up 12 linear meters of library space, contain “manuscripts, notebooks, and letters” covering Ballard’s output “from 1962’s The Drowned World to Miracles of Life in 2008. They demonstrate how his fiction and memoirs were composed, and include corrections written on A4 sheets of paper, as well as notebooks filled with ideas such as: ‘Topics that interest me—airports ideas re passengers take over airport & establish a city-state.'”
In addition to his literary files, the collection also includes “photographs of a young Ballard with his family, and ephemera including school reports, passports and his birth certificate.”
Before his death, Ballard had expressed his hope that his papers would wind up in the Library. In a statement, his daughters (Fay and Bea) said “The material has been gathered from his home to offer an insight into his creative process. We hope the public will come and read his manuscripts, notebooks, letters and more, knowing that these materials will be cared for by the British Library in perpetuity.”
The archive passed into the Library’s hands under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, which enables taxpayers to transfer important works of art and other heritage objects into public ownership while paying Inheritance Tax. Ballard’s archive satisfied a tax bill of about £350,000.
Ballard died in April 2009. See this obituary for more information.
[Edited 3 August 2010: Tim Martin looked through the archives, and reports on it in this article published in the Telegraph.]