Australian singer Nick Cave has donated 2000 books to a British charity shop, sparking a flurry among his fans.
Nick Cave fans flocked to the Oxfam Bookshop on Hove’s Blatchington Road to try to snare a book from the collection, which was previously part of an art installation that toured Denmark and Canada.
The Times newspaper reported the collection included titles by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and a first edition copy of the novel Man in White by Johnny Cash.
“It’s a very interesting donation. The types of books are very wide ranging – there’s philosophy, art, religion, even old fiction paperbacks,” one of the shop’s staff, named only as Richard told the Argus:
“It’s an incredibly varied donation. He clearly held on to his books, some of them are quite old.”
Other treasures reportedly found included a boarding pass for a flight to Amsterdam, an empty packet of cigarettes and an envelope with the words “Luke’s tooth” written in Cave’s handwriting, relating to his son Luke.
“It’s a very interesting donation. The types of books are very wide ranging – there’s philosophy, art, religion, even old fiction paper backs. It’s an incredibly varied donation,” Richard said.
“He clearly held onto his books, some of them are quite old.”
Cave and his family moved to the Brighton area in the 2000s but it was marked by tragedy after the death of his 15-year-old son Arthur in 2015, who fell from a cliff at Ovingdean Gap.
“Brighton had just become too sad … we did, however, return once we realised that, regardless of where we lived, we just took our sadness with us,” the singer said in an interview.
Cave suffered more grief seven years later when son Jethro, 31, died in May 2022.
In an interview for ABC TV’s Australian Story, Cave said he realised he had spent years wrapped up in his own ego. The despair of losing his children made him see the “folly” of his ways and how he had been too wrapped up in his music.
“For most of my life I was just sort of in awe of my own genius,” he said.
“I had an office and I would sit there and write every day and whatever else happened in my life was peripheral. Even annoyances. Because I was involved in this great work.
“This just collapsed completely and I just sort of saw the folly of that … disgraceful sort of self indulgence of the whole thing.”
He said he had since prioritised his role as a husband and father, rather than being a musician.
“You know, I still work all the time, I still go on tour, I still p–s everyone off because I’m making a new record or I’m depressed because I can’t write songs,” he said.
“The same things still apply but that idea that art trounces everything, it just doesn’t apply to me anymore.
“I’m a father and a husband and a … person of the world. These things are much more important to me than the concept of being an artist.”
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