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Timoleon · 04-19-2009, 07:50 PM

Quoting from the Associated Press today:

"LONDON – Writer J.G. Ballard, best known for the autobiographical novel "Empire Of The Sun," which drew on his childhood detention in a Japanese prison camp in China, died Sunday, his agent said. He was 78.

Ballard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006. He had been ill "for several years" and died in London at the home of his long-term partner, his agent Margaret Hanbury said. She did not give the cause of death.

"His acute and visionary observation of contemporary life was distilled into a number of brilliant, powerful novels which have been published all over the world and saw Ballard gain cult status," Hanbury said.

Ballard was born in Shanghai, China, and was interned there in a prison camp by Japanese troops in 1941 — an experience he drew on in the 1984 novel "Empire of The Sun," later adapted as a film by U.S. director Steven Spielberg."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/...bit_jg_ballard

I remember as a kid reading a great short story by him called something like "The Wind From Nowhere."

EDIT: Actually, it was a novel --- memory fails me!

God rest his soul.

04-19-2009, 07:50 PM	#1
Timoleon Time Enough at Last Posts: 387 Karma: 1151316 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: New England Device: iPad 3, iPhone 5, Kindle 3, Fire, Sony PRS-350	Death of J. G. Ballard Quoting from the Associated Press today: "LONDON – Writer J.G. Ballard, best known for the autobiographical novel "Empire Of The Sun," which drew on his childhood detention in a Japanese prison camp in China, died Sunday, his agent said. He was 78. Ballard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006. He had been ill "for several years" and died in London at the home of his long-term partner, his agent Margaret Hanbury said. She did not give the cause of death. "His acute and visionary observation of contemporary life was distilled into a number of brilliant, powerful novels which have been published all over the world and saw Ballard gain cult status," Hanbury said. Ballard was born in Shanghai, China, and was interned there in a prison camp by Japanese troops in 1941 — an experience he drew on in the 1984 novel "Empire of The Sun," later adapted as a film by U.S. director Steven Spielberg." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090419/...bit_jg_ballard I remember as a kid reading a great short story by him called something like "The Wind From Nowhere." EDIT: Actually, it was a novel --- memory fails me! God rest his soul. Attached Thumbnails Last edited by Timoleon; 04-19-2009 at 07:54 PM.