The complete archive of British author J.G. Ballard, famous for his book Empire Of The Sun, was handed over to the British Library by his daughters in lieu of inheritance tax. The Ballard archive satisfied £350,000 of tax.
Cambridge University-educated Ballard gained worldwide recognition after American director Steven Spielberg filmed Empire Of The Sun, his semi-autobiographical novel about World War II and his experience of a Japanese internment camp.
His daughters Fay and Bea Ballard applied to the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, which enables taxpayers to transfer important works of art and other important heritage objects into public ownership while paying inheritance tax.
Papers of novelist Anthony Powell (1905-2000) and poet Katherine Raine (1908-2003) were also accepted in lieu of inheritance tax, a scheme introduced in the UK in 1910.
Ballard’s papers, including manuscripts for all his novels, are contained in 15 large storage boxes.
These boxes contain manuscripts, notebooks, letters, photographs and ephemera spanning 50 years, covering the full range of Ballard’s writing from The Drowned World (1962) to Miracles of Life (2008).
These will be fully catalogued and are expected to be accessible to researchers at the British Library by summer 2011.
Described as one of the most visionary British writers of the 20th century, Ballard predicted the rise of terrorism against tourists, the alienation of a society obsessed by new technology and ecological disasters like the melting of the ice caps in his novels.
He also managed to win critical acclaim and created major controversy for his book Crash, which was later made into a film too.
The controversial book, which documented sexual fetish of protagonists who became sexually aroused by participating in car crashes, was made into a film in 1996 by Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg.
Ballard died April 19 last year.