Ishiguro archives bought for $1m by Texas University

The University of Texas has bought the archives of Kazuo Ishiguro for just over $1m, which include some unpublished work and a song track.

Reuters has reported that the archives – bought for just over $1m (£635,000) - also include a discarded opening chapter of his novel Remains of the Day along with other unpublished works, notes for stories, screenplays and songs, including a track called Shingles, which Ishiguro wrote when trying to land a contract with a major record label.

Ishiguro said: “For many years, I’ve been in the habit of keeping a large cardboard box under my desk into which I throw, more or less indiscriminately, all papers produced during my writing that I don’t want to file neatly and take into the next stage of composition.”

The files will also include many rejected pages, Ishiguro added.

The author has kept extensive notes and multiple drafts of his work including Never Let Me Go and The Buried Giant, Reuters reported.

The documents will now be held at research library Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.

The author was born in Japan in 1954 but has lived in the UK since he was a child.

Photo credit to Jeff Cottenden