RE/Search #8/9 J.G. Ballard by V. Vale and Andrea Juno

A comprehensive special on this supremely relevant today as always writer, now famous for Crash, Empire of the Sun and High Rise. W.S. Burroughs once described Ballard's novel Love & Napalm: Export USA (1972) as 'profound and disquieting... this book stirs sexual depths untouched by the hardest-core illustrated porn.' We'll bare in mind this was long before the internet but we'll give Burroughs the benefit of the doubt on this one.

Highly recommended as both an introduction and a tribute to this remarkable writer, the book includes interviews, a biography of Ballard by David Pringle, fiction and non fiction excerpts, essays, quotations, a bibliography, sources, artwork and an index on the author.  Full of beautiful illustrations and incredible black and white photos of the artists and writers featured it makes for an incredible document of the time, published in 1984 it marks the 8/9th release of RE/Search books which is possibly the ONLY surviving 70s punk publisher who never quit, V. Vale’s RE/Search continues to provide ‘Against-the-Status-Quo’ publications that stimulate the imagination and optimistic skepticism to this day.

Vale has been doing counterculture publishing since 1977, when he founded the Punk tabloid, Search & Destroy, San Francisco’s first. It was published at City Lights Bookstore, where V. Vale worked, and was funded by $100 each from Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg. Then in 1980, V. Vale launched RE/SEARCH, which is best known for its impact on the total world of underground culture.

And we've got plenty more RE/Search publications which we'll be sharing here on the site and on our instagram over the next few days.

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Cover Design by Rebecca Wilson

Front and Back cover photos by Ana Barrado

Book Design by Andrea Juno

Publishers / Editors: Andrea Juno & V. Vale

Published 1984