Editing J. G. Ballard (section)

===Professional writer===
In 1960, the Ballard family moved to [[Shepperton]], Surrey, where he resided till his death in 2009.<ref>{{cite news|last=Clark|first=Alex|title=Microdoses of madness|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/09/fiction.jgballard|access-date=3 October 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|date=9 September 2000|archive-date=6 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006223017/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/09/fiction.jgballard|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Smith|first=Karl|title=The Velvet Underground of English Letters: Simon Sellars Discusses J.G. Ballard|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/10226-ballard-extreme-metaphors-simon-sellars-interviewed|website=thequietus.com|date=7 October 2012 |access-date=3 October 2014}}</ref> To become a professional writer, Ballard forsook mainstream employment to write his first novel, ''[[The Wind from Nowhere]]'' (1962), during a fortnight holiday,<ref name="auto1"/> and quit his editorial job with the ''Chemistry and Industry'' magazine. Later that year, his second novel, ''[[The Drowned World]]'' (1962), also was published; those two novels established Ballard as a notable writer of [[New Wave science fiction]]; he also popularized the related concept and genre of [[Inner space (science fiction)|inner space]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Stableford |first=Brian M. |title=Science fact and science fiction: an encyclopedia |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-97460-8 |location=New York, NY}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=415}}<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last1=Clute |first1=John |last2=David |first2=Langford |last3=Nicholls |first3=Peter |title=SFE: Inner Space |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/inner_space |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction |archive-date=20 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231220183330/https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/inner_space |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Mayo |first=Rob |url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-27275-3.pdf |title=Healthy Minds in the Twentieth Century: In and Beyond the Asylum |date=2019-09-16 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-27275-3 |editor-last=Taylor |editor-first=Steven J. |language=en |chapter=The Myth of Dream-Hacking and ‘Inner Space’ in Science Fiction, 1948-201 |series=Mental Health in Historical Perspective |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-27275-3 |editor-last2=Brumby |editor-first2=Alice |access-date=5 March 2024 |archive-date=28 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240228192243/https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-030-27275-3.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Rp|pages=260}} From that success followed the publication of short-story collections, and was the beginning of a great period of literary productivity from which emerged the short-story collection ''[[The Terminal Beach]]'' (1964).
[[File:Fantastic 196310.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Another Emshwiller cover illustrating the [[Vermilion Sands]] story "The Screen Game" (1963)]]
[[File:If 196303.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Ballard's novelette "The Time Tombs" was the cover story on the March 1963 issue of ''[[If (magazine)|If]]''.]]
In 1964, Mary Ballard died of pneumonia, leaving Ballard to raise their three children, James, Fay and [[Bea Ballard]]. Although he did not remarry, his friend [[Michael Moorcock]] introduced Claire Walsh to Ballard, who later became his partner.<ref>"Author J. G. Ballard dies at 78", [[Deseret News]], 20 April 2009, p. A12</ref> Claire Walsh worked in publishing during the 1960s and the 1970s, and was Ballard's sounding board for his story ideas; later, Claire introduced Ballard to the expatriate community in [[Sophia Antipolis]], in southern France; those expatriates provided grist for the writer's mill.<ref>{{cite web |last=Self |first=Will |author-link=Will Self |date=15 October 2014 |title=Claire Walsh obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/14/claire-walsh |access-date=22 January 2019 |website=The Guardian}}</ref>

In 1965, after the death of his wife Mary, Ballard's writing yielded the thematically-related short stories, that were published in New Worlds by Moorcock, as ''[[The Atrocity Exhibition]]'' (1970).{{cn|date=March 2025}} In 1967, the novelist [[Algis Budrys]] said that [[Brian W. Aldiss]], [[Roger Zelazny]], [[Samuel R. Delany]] and J. G. Ballard were the leading writers of New Wave Science Fiction.<ref name="budrys196710">{{Cite magazine|last=Budrys|first=Algis|date=October 1967 |title=Galaxy Bookshelf|url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v26n01_1967-10_modified#page/n175/mode/2up|magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction|pages=188–194}}</ref> In the event, ''The Atrocity Exhibition'' proved legally controversial in the U.S., because the publisher feared libel-and-slander lawsuits by the living celebrities who featured in the science fiction stories.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jgballard.ca/criticism/walls_atrocityx_1991.html|title=1991 Science Fiction Eye magazine article on Atrocity Exhibition|website=jgballard.ca|access-date=30 June 2023|archive-date=30 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630221241/https://www.jgballard.ca/criticism/walls_atrocityx_1991.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In ''The Atrocity Exhibition'', the story titled "Crash!" deals with the psychosexuality of car-crash enthusiasts; in 1970, at the [[New Arts Laboratory]], Ballard sponsored an exhibition of damaged automobiles titled "Crashed Cars"; lacking the commentary of an art curator, the artwork provoked critical vitriol and layman vandalism.<ref name="atrocity">Ballard, J.G. (1993). ''The Atrocity Exhibition'' (expanded and annotated edition). {{ISBN|0-00-711686-1}}.</ref> In the story "Crash!" and in the "Crashed Cars" exhibition, Ballard presented and explored the sexual potential in a car crash, which theme he also explored in a short film made with [[Gabrielle Drake]] in 1971. Those interests produced the novel ''[[Crash (1973 novel)|Crash]]'' (1973), which features a protagonist named James Ballard, who lives in Shepperton, Surrey, England.<ref name="atrocity"/>

''Crash'' was also controversial upon publication.<ref>{{cite journal | first=Sam | last=Francis | title='Moral Pornography' and 'Total Imagination': The Pornographic in J. G. Ballard's ''Crash'' | journal=English | year=2008 | volume=57 | issue=218 | pages=146–168 | doi=10.1093/english/efn011}}</ref> In 1996, the [[Crash (1996 film)|film adaptation]] by [[David Cronenberg]] was met by a [[Tabloid journalism|tabloid]] uproar in the UK, with the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' campaigning for it to be banned.<ref>{{cite book |last=Barker |first=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Eph3leyfK2kC |title=The Crash Controversy: Censorship Campaigns and Film Reception |last2=Arthurs |first2=Jane |last3=Harindranath |first3=Ramaswami |publisher=Wallflower Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-903364-15-4 |access-date=15 September 2009 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> In the years following the initial publication of ''Crash'', Ballard produced two further novels: 1974's ''[[Concrete Island]]'', about a man stranded in the traffic-divider island of a high-speed motorway,<ref name="ballardian">{{cite web|last=Sellars|first=Simon|title=Concrete Island (1974)|url=http://www.ballardian.com/biblio-concrete-island|website=Ballardian|access-date=7 March 2016|date=16 September 2006|archive-date=29 October 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061029172648/http://www.ballardian.com/biblio-concrete-island/|url-status=dead}}</ref> and ''[[High-Rise (novel)|High-Rise]]'', about a modern luxury high-rise apartment building's descent into tribal warfare.<ref name="curbed">{{cite web |last=Sisson |first=Patrick |date=28 September 2015 |title=New Film High-Rise Explores The Symbolism and Terror of Tower Living |url=http://www.curbed.com/2015/9/28/9916680/high-rise-film-jg-ballard |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308073004/http://www.curbed.com/2015/9/28/9916680/high-rise-film-jg-ballard |archive-date=8 March 2016 |access-date=7 March 2016 |website=Curbed}}</ref>

Ballard published several novels and short story collections throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but his breakthrough into the mainstream came with ''[[Empire of the Sun (novel)|Empire of the Sun]]'' in 1984, based on his years in Shanghai and the [[Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center|Lunghua internment camp]]. It became a best-seller,<ref>Collinson, G. "[https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/empire-of-the-sun.shtml Empire of the Sun] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040206050139/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/empire-of-the-sun.shtml |date=6 February 2004 }}". BBC Four article on the film and novel. Retrieved 25 April 2009.</ref> was shortlisted for the [[Booker Prize]] and awarded the [[Guardian First Book Award|Guardian Fiction Prize]] and [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for fiction.<ref name="jtb"/> It made Ballard known to a wider audience, although the books that followed failed to achieve the same degree of success. ''[[Empire of the Sun (film)|Empire of the Sun]]'' was filmed by [[Steven Spielberg]] in 1987, starring a young [[Christian Bale]] as Jim (Ballard). Ballard himself appears briefly in the film, and he has described the experience of seeing his childhood memories reenacted and reinterpreted as bizarre.<ref name="lookback"/><ref name="rickmcgrath"/>

Ballard continued to write until the end of his life, and also contributed occasional journalism and criticism to the British press. Of his later novels, ''[[Super-Cannes]]'' (2000) was well received,<ref>{{cite news |first=Stephen |last=Moss |title=Mad about Ballard |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/critics/reviews/0,5917,368007,00.html |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=13 September 2000 |access-date=25 April 2009 |location=London |archive-date=5 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005171340/http://books.guardian.co.uk/critics/reviews/0,5917,368007,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> winning the regional [[Commonwealth Writers' Prize]].<ref name="BCLit">{{cite web |title=J. G. Ballard |url=https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/j-g-ballard |website=British Council Literature |publisher=[[British Council]] |access-date=17 January 2016 |archive-date=5 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205150941/https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/j-g-ballard |url-status=live }}</ref> These later novels often marked a move away from science fiction, instead engaging with elements of a traditional [[crime novel]].<ref name="Noys">{{cite news|last=Noys|first=Benjamin|title=La libido réactionnaire?: the recent fiction of J.G. Ballard|url=http://www.jgballard.ca/criticism/jgb_noys_libido_reactionnaire.html|access-date=7 March 2016|publisher=Sage Publishers|year=2007|archive-date=29 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160429123105/http://www.jgballard.ca/criticism/jgb_noys_libido_reactionnaire.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Ballard was offered a [[CBE]] in 2003, but refused, calling it "a [[Ruritania]]n charade that helps to prop up our top-heavy monarchy".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/dec/22/uk.books|title='It's a pantomime where tinsel takes the place of substance'|last=Branigan|first=Tania|date=22 December 2003|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=25 February 2017|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Lea |first=Richard |last2=Adetunji |first2=Jo |name-list-style=and |date=19 April 2009 |title=Crash author JG Ballard, 'a giant on the world literary scene', dies aged 78 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/19/jg-ballard-author-dies-aged-78 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225213855/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/19/jg-ballard-author-dies-aged-78 |archive-date=25 February 2017 |access-date=25 April 2009 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref> In June 2006, he was diagnosed with terminal [[prostate cancer]], which [[metastasis]]ed to his spine and ribs. The last of his books published in his lifetime was the autobiography ''[[Miracles of Life]]'', written after his diagnosis.<ref>{{cite news |first=Stuart |last=Wavell |title=Dissecting bodies from the twilight zone: Stuart Wavell meets JG Ballard |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3215274.ece |newspaper=[[The Sunday Times]] |date=20 January 2008 |access-date=21 January 2008 |location=London |archive-date=17 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517020132/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3215274.ece |url-status=dead }}</ref> His final published short story, "The Dying Fall", appeared in the 1996 issue 106 of ''[[Interzone (magazine)|Interzone]]'', a British sci-fi magazine. It was later reproduced in ''[[The Guardian]]'' on 25 April 2009.<ref name="BallardDyingFall">{{Cite news |last=Ballard |first=JG |date=2009-04-24 |title=The Dying Fall by JG Ballard |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/25/dying-fall-jg-ballard |access-date=2024-07-15 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> He was buried in [[Kensal Green Cemetery]].