Editing J. G. Ballard (section)

===Britain and Canada===
In late 1945, Ballard's mother returned to Britain with J. G. and his sister, where they resided at [[Plymouth]], and he attended [[The Leys School]] in Cambridge,<ref name=SFiction>{{cite web |last=Campbell|first=James|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/14/saturdayreviewsfeatres.guardianreview10 |title=Strange Fiction|date=14 June 2008|work=The Guardian}}</ref> where he won a prize for a well-written essay.<ref name="Pringle"/> Within a few years, Mrs Ballard and her daughter returned to China and rejoined Mr Ballard; and, whilst not at school, Ballard resided with grandparents. In 1949, he studied medicine at [[King's College, Cambridge]], with the intention of becoming a [[psychiatry|psychiatrist]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Frick|first=Interviewed by Thomas|date=21 May 1984|title=J. G. Ballard, The Art of Fiction No. 85|url=https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2929/j-g-ballard-the-art-of-fiction-no-85-j-g-ballard|journal=The Paris Review|volume=Winter 1984|issue=94|access-date=21 May 2018}}</ref>
[[File:Fantastic 196207.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Ballard's [[Vermilion Sands]] story "The Singing Statues" took the cover of the July 1962 issue of ''[[Fantastic (magazine)|Fantastic]]'', featuring artwork by [[Ed Emshwiller]].]]
At university, Ballard wrote [[avant-garde]] fiction influenced by [[psychoanalysis]] and the works of [[surrealism|surrealist]] painters, and pursued writing fiction and medicine. In his second year at Cambridge, in May 1951, the short story "The Violent Noon", a Hemingway [[pastiche]], won a crime-story competition and was published in the ''[[Varsity (Cambridge)|Varsity]]'' newspaper.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/40c6c3d5-4163-39ea-b085-0cff9f356266|title=The Papers of James Graham Ballard – Archives Hub|access-date=28 March 2020|archive-date=28 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200328105108/https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/40c6c3d5-4163-39ea-b085-0cff9f356266|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ballardian.com/collecting-the-violent-noon-and-other-assorted-ballardiana |title=Collecting 'The Violent Noon' and other assorted Ballardiana |publisher=Ballardian |date=5 February 2007 |access-date=3 July 2014 |archive-date=4 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090204192744/http://www.ballardian.com/collecting-the-violent-noon-and-other-assorted-ballardiana |url-status=dead }}</ref> In October 1951, encouraged by publication, and understanding that clinical medicine disallowed time to write fiction, Ballard forsook medicine and enrolled at [[Queen Mary University of London|Queen Mary College]] to read English literature.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/notablealumni/24997.html|title=Notable Alumni/ Arts and Culture|publisher=Queen Mary, University of London|access-date=8 August 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020112410/http://www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/notablealumni/24997.html|archive-date=20 October 2014}}</ref> After a year, he quit the College and worked as an advertising copywriter,<ref name="lrb.co.uk">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n07/thomas-jones/whisky-and-soda-man|title=Whisky and Soda Man|first=Thomas|last=Jones|date=10 April 2008|pages=18–20|access-date=21 May 2018|magazine=London Review of Books|archive-date=29 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191129100913/https://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n07/thomas-jones/whisky-and-soda-man|url-status=live}}</ref> then worked as an itinerant encyclopaedia salesman.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ballardian.com/ballards-adventures-in-advertising-1|title='What exactly is he trying to sell?': J.G. Ballard's Adventures in Advertising, part 1|website=Ballardian.com|access-date=21 May 2018|date=4 May 2009|archive-date=22 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422063034/http://www.ballardian.com/ballards-adventures-in-advertising-1|url-status=dead}}</ref> Throughout that odd-job period, Ballard continued writing short-story fiction but found no publisher.<ref name="Pringle">{{cite news|last=Pringle|first=David|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/19/jg-ballard-obituary |title=Obituary:JG Ballard |date=19 April 2009|access-date=3 June 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|author-link=David Pringle }}</ref>

In early 1954, Ballard joined the [[Royal Air Force]] and was assigned to the [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] flight-training base in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. In that time, he encountered American [[science fiction magazine]]s,<ref name="lrb.co.uk"/> and, in due course, wrote his first science fiction story, "Passport to Eternity", a pastiche of the American science fiction genre; yet the story was not published until 1962.<ref name="Pringle"/>

In 1955, Ballard left the RAF and returned to England,<ref>''London Gazette'', 1 July 1955.</ref> where he met and married Helen Mary Matthews, who was a secretary at the ''Daily Express'' newspaper; the first of three Ballard children was born in 1956.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/20/jg-ballard-daughter-mother-couldnt-mention|title=JG Ballard's Daughter on the Mother who Could Never be Mentioned|date=20 June 2014|website=the Guardian}}</ref> In December 1956, Ballard became a professional science-fiction writer with the publication of the short stories "Escapement" (in ''[[New Worlds (magazine)|New Worlds]]'' magazine) and "Prima Belladonna" (in ''[[Science Fantasy (magazine)|Science Fantasy]]'' magazine).<ref name="NYTOrbit">{{cite news|last=Weber|first=Bruce|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/books/21ballard.html|title=J.G Ballard, novelist, Is Dead at 78|date=21 April 2009|access-date=15 October 2014|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|archive-date=10 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010185125/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/books/21ballard.html|url-status=live}}</ref> At the ''New Worlds'' magazine, the editor, [[John Carnell|Edward J. Carnell]], greatly supported Ballard's science-fiction writing, and published most of his early stories.

From 1958 onwards, Ballard was assistant editor of the scientific journal ''Chemistry and Industry''.<ref name=ChemLife>{{cite web|last=Bonsall|first=Mike|url=http://www.ballardian.com/jg-ballards-experiment-in-chemical-living|title=JG Ballard's Experiment in Chemical Living|date=1 August 2007|website=Ballardian.com|access-date=1 April 2015|archive-date=18 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418161222/http://www.ballardian.com/jg-ballards-experiment-in-chemical-living|url-status=dead}}</ref> His interest in art involved the emerging [[Pop Art]] movement, and, in the late 1950s, Ballard exhibited [[collage]]s that represented his ideas for a new kind of novel. Moreover, his avant-garde inclinations discomfited writers of mainstream science fiction, whose artistic attitudes Ballard considered [[Philistinism|philistine]]. Briefly attending the 1957 [[Worldcon|World Science Fiction Convention]] in London, Ballard left disillusioned and demoralised by the type and quality of the science-fiction writing he encountered, and did not write another story for a year;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jgballard.ca/media/1969_feb_speculation_magazine.html|title=JG Ballard Interviewed by Jannick Storm|website=Jgballard.ca|access-date=1 April 2015|archive-date=16 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016001008/http://www.jgballard.ca/media/1969_feb_speculation_magazine.html|url-status=live}}</ref> however, by 1965, he was editor of ''[[Ambit (magazine)|Ambit]]'', an avante-garde magazine, which had an editorial remit amenable to his [[aesthetic]] ideals.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jgballard.ca/terminal_collection/jgb_ambits.html|title=JGB in Ambit Magazine|website=Jgballard.ca|access-date=7 April 2015|archive-date=30 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140730101536/http://www.jgballard.ca/terminal_collection/jgb_ambits.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-101436|isbn = 978-0-19-861412-8|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/101436|title = The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year = 2004}}</ref>