Hyde’s wordless novel, Southern Cross, was his reaction to the testing of atomic bombs in the South Pacific following the end of the World War Two.
1925 Translation of Krakatit
NOTE: Hyde translated Krakatit by Karel Capek, a novel cited by some as being the first nuclear thriller, in which an engineer develops an explosive of world destroying power that can be detonated by remote control. This work seemingly predicted the atom bomb over two decades before The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project. It was first published in English in 1925.
This may have influenced his work on Southern Cross.
Hyde background
Laurence Evelyn Hyde: Born June 6, 1914 in the United Kingdom but immigrated to Canada with his parents in 1926. Hyde was a Canadian film maker, painter, and graphic artist, known for his work with the National Film Board of Canada and stamp designs for the Canadian Postal Service.
In 1934 Hyde worked on a series of engravings tentatively titled Discovery. They were intended to tell the story of the Viking discovery of America. Not all the intended blocks were cut and the story was never published.
Hyde’s only wordless novel is Southern Cross in 1951.
- Title: Southern Cross: A Novel of the South Seas
- Author and Illustrator: Laurence Hyde
- Introduction: Rockwell Kent
- Date: November, 1951
- ISBN: not applicable
- Publisher: The Ward Ritchie Press
- Place of publication: Los Angles, CA
- Printer: The Ward Ritchie Press
- Copyright: Laurence Hyde
- Size:
- Dust jacket: No? – may have been issued with a clear DJ
- slipcase: No?
- Binding: hard cover and a soft cover version
- Cover: cloth
- Language: English titles, etc
- Paginated: unpaginated
- Printed: images recto
- Edition: Trade only, not limited??
- Printed from the original matrix: yes printed from the original woodblocks
- References:
- Description: The book consists of 118 wood engravings. The story is a reaction to the testing of atomic bombs in the South Pacific following the end of the World War Two; the evacuation by American sailors of indigenous peoples living on a Polynesian island in the region, and the consequent destruction of their way of life.
staring out over his dead mother.
Soft cover – same in every respect except for the cover
