Southern Cross: a Novel of the South Seas told in Wood Engravings

1951

Special Collections NE1112 H92 A74 1951

Los Angeles: Ward Ritchie Press

Southern Cross is a true graphic novel; all images and no text. Loosely based on the nuclear testing that took place on Bikini Atoll in the 1940s, the book was described by Rockwell Kent in the introduction as ‘a story of love and happiness culminating in immeasurable disaster’. It contains 118 images all printed from the original wood engravings by English-born Laurence Hyde (1914-87), who immigrated to Canada, aged 12. The multi-talented Hyde, a wood engraver, artist and film maker, designed postage stamps for Canada’s Postal Service. Southern Cross has a New Zealand connection; Hyde consulted Sir Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa) on facts about Polynesia.