“Collecting was intrinsic to King’s emergence and growth as an author, and all of the books he conceived were constructed from materials he had painstakingly assembled and could now use in whatever way he wanted. Of those who knew King in the throes of this mammoth feat of accumulation, Martina Margetts makes a particularly telling point: ‘if you are a collector, you have power over that material because you’ve got ownership and you’ve got authority to disseminate. As Margetts observes, there is a close congruity between King’s interest in political power relations and the social and artistic power, or capital, he gained by disseminating this material through his own projects. It is important to remember, though, that King’s archive, unlike so many private collections, was never a purely inward-looking exercise, whatever immense satisfaction it brought him. From the start, the collection was turned outwards to the world, as a source of information and insight, and as a frequently melancholy message about politics and history that was always intended for others to see.”
— Rick Poynor on David King’s collection (via)