London, Jonathan Cape, (1973). According to Ballard, "the first pornographic novel about technology"; one of Pringle's 100 best science fiction novels; filmed in 1997 by David Cronenberg. This copy is inscribed by Ballard to Christopher Evans, National Physical Laboratory psychologist, computer scientist, author of science writings, editor of science fiction anthologies, and, citing Ballard's autobiography, "the closest friend I have made in my life. In appearance he resembled Vaughan, the auto-destructive hero of my novel Crash, though he himself was nothing like that deranged figure....I was sitting in his office in the early 1970s when something in the waste basket beside his desk caught my eye...Seeing my eyes light up, Chris offered to send me the contents of his waste basket from then on. Every week a huge envelope arrived, packed with handouts, brochures, research papers and annual reports from university labs and psychiatric institutions, a cornucopia of fascinating material that fired my imagination." In 1969, Ballard published a story in the form of a computer printout (likely in collaboration with Evans) entitled "How Dr. Christopher Evans Landed on the Moon," noting columns of altitude, fuel use, and velocity of descent. According to an article in The Sunday Mirror, in 1968, Ballard, Evans, and the sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi were planning a play entitled Crash, with "all the horror and realism of an actual road smash," and including "a meta-commentary narrated by Evans." The play never happened, but the book, here, is inscribed, "Chris, All the best. Jim, and includes, stapled beneath the inscription, a black and white snapshot of Ballard, with the handwritten caption "Photo of J G Ballard by Chris Evans." Splaying to boards; foxing, mostly to the endpages and pages edges; rust and offsetting from the stapled photograph; a very good copy in a very good dust jacket with minor fading and modest edge wear and creasing to the lamination. There is no printed dedication in the book and therefore no possible "dedication copy" of it, so this may well be the best possible association copy of Ballard's most famous and highly acclaimed novel. [#032851] SOLD