Manuscript / Postcard / Ephemera / Print / Image

Postcard from J G Ballard to Angela Carter, 4 December 1991

Description

J G Ballard sent this postcard of Mae West, a painting by Salvador Dalí, to Angela Carter on 4 December 1991. He was writing to congratulate her on The Holy Family Album and the publication of Wise Children, which would be her last novel. Close friends, Ballard and Carter had a mutual interest in Surrealist art and poetry.

Ballard’s main reason for writing was to praise Carter’s ‘demolition job on Our Saviour’ – the TV documentary, The Holy Family Album, written and narrated by Carter. It aired in December 1991 on Channel 4. The controversial programme deconstructed visual images of Christ using Freudian analysis and irreverent montages of image, music and voiceover.

Ballard serves Carter perhaps the highest compliment one could pay to a devotee of Surrealism: ‘Breton + Ernst would have been proud of you’.

Full title:: Angela Carter Papers: Postcards 1 (part 1)
Created:: 4 December 1991; whole volume 1973–92
Format:: Manuscript / Postcard / Ephemera / Print / Image
Language:: English
Creator:: J G Ballard, Salvador Dalí
Usage terms: Postcard to Angela Carter, 4 December 1991, by J. G. Ballard © J. G. Ballard. Reproduced by permission of the J. G. Ballard Estate. All rights reserved. You may not use this work for commercial purposes and the copyright holder must be credited.
Held by: British Library
Shelfmark:: Add MS 88899/3/4

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This item is featured in:

Discovering Literature: 20th century

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