The JG Ballard Preliminary Inventory



I found this at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre at the University of Texas website. My research leads me to believe Harry Ransom is the still-mourning son of Dr Charles and Judith Ransom (their adventures were chronicled in the history of The Drought), and this library/shrine to The Man is his way of honouring the memory of his dessicated dad and mummified mum. Just kidding.


JGB in .42 linear feet

And take note, you PhD supplicants sans thesis: this box of clues has yet to be exhumed and autopsied... I note it features extensive re-writes & changes... no doubt making it a potentially fascinating study of JGB's unconscious tastebuds at work on what probably is a transition piece that leads to Empire. And just as an aside, has anyone ever analysed the painting of JGB and family on the cover of the novel?. Just wondering.





J. G. Ballard, 1930-
Manuscripts for The Unlimited Dream Company,
1976-1978 Preliminary Inventory

2 boxes (.84 linear feet)

Acquisition: Purchase, 1995 (Reg. no. 13526)
Access: Open for research
Processed by: Joan Sibley, 2005
RLIN Record ID: None

Table of Contents:
1. Scope and Contents
2. Folder List


Scope and Contents

The composition of J. G. Ballard's The Unlimited Dream Company (1979) is documented by his heavily revised first and second drafts of the novel, created 1976-1978. Both manuscripts were signed and dated by Ballard on 24 August 1984, and received in a collector's slipcase bearing a logo of a book being netted along with the initials LMS. According to a note by Ballard accompanying the second draft, Fury and The Stunt Pilot were the other titles he considered for the book.

Additional materials by or relating to J. G. Ballard and his works are also present in several other manuscript collections at the Ransom Center, including those for Bananas, Robert Park Mills, Peter Owen, Ltd., Iain Sinclair, and Tom Stoppard. The Library also holds copies of many of Ballard's books, including one of the few surviving copies of the suppressed Doubleday edition of The Atrocity Exhibition (1970).


Folder List

The Unlimited Dream Company (1979)
First draft, composite typewritten and handwritten manuscript with extensive changes and additions, May - December 1976

Box 1
Folder 1: pp 1-58
Folder 2: pp 59-99
Folder 3: pp 100-195
Folder 4: pp 196-305

Second draft, typescript with extensive handwritten changes, February 1977 - March 1978
Folder 5: Chapter list
Folder 6: pp 1-78
Folder 7: pp 79-160
Folder 8: pp 161-252
Folder 9: pp 253-341

Box 2
Collector's slipcase