Additional related material 1970 - 2001, mainly 1970 - 1980
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was born on 10th July 1903 in Knowle, Warwickshire. His father was a barrister from South Wales and his mother was the daughter of an iron master. Wyndham experienced an unsettled childhood following the separation of his parents in 1911. His education was conducted at various schools, finishing with Bedales, a progressive co-educational boarding school, in Petersfield, Hampshire. Wyndham thrived at Bedales, and inspired by the science fiction of H.G.Wells began writing his own stories. After Bedales Wyndham chose not to attend university, believing it a mistake to do so without enough money to take a full part in the social activity - a decision he later regretted. Wyndham instead embarked upon a wide variety of occupations, including farming, law, commercial art and advertising.
Wyndham had begun to write short stories seriously in 1925 and was one of the few English exports to be published in the American Pulp magazines. Yet, he was not comfortable with the label science fiction, preferring the term "logical fantasy" instead. Nonetheless, he was published frequently in American and British science fiction magazines and was described as early as 1937 as "the best of our modern science fiction authors". His early work, however, did not bring him any great recognition and the Second World War brought an enforced break to his burgeoning writing career. During the war years Wyndham served as an official censor and from 1943 in the Royal Corps of Signals taking part in the Normandy landings. After the war, he began to write once again and in 1951 The Day of the Triffids was published under the pseudonym John Wyndham. The book launched Wyndham's name on both sides of the Atlantic and its enduring success has seen it remain in print ever since it was first published.
Wyndham's post-war works indicate a definite shift in basic subject matter. According to John Clute "he wrote effectively for a specific UK market at a specific point in time - the period of recuperation that followed World War Two." He wrote about perfectly familiar people and surroundings which makes the scenarios he presents more plausible to the reader. His novels are mainly concerned with catastrophe and its effects upon society. In The Day of the Triffids , the carnivorous plants had been farmed and controlled very successfully until the rain of the meteors caused mass blindness and the plants grew out of control. The Kraken Wakes 1953 and The Chrysalids 1955 both share the same themes as "Triffids" with the prospect of the end of mankind.
Wyndham continued to publish very successful work such as the novels The Midwich Cuckoos (1957) Chocky and two collections of stories The Seeds of Time and Consider Her Ways. . Due to the high popularity of Wyndham's work many of his stories were turned into radio, television and film versions. There were radio versions of Chocky and The Trouble with Lichen and film versions of The Day of the Triffids and perhaps most notably the film version of The Midwich Cuckoos titled Village of The Damned .
Despite his affability and his fame as an author Wyndham maintained a dislike for personal publicity. His desire for privacy and his wish to be judged solely on his work, led Wyndham to instruct that his personal papers be destroyed, although an extensive collection of his wartime letters to Grace Wilson have survived. Wyndham for many years lived at the P.E.N club in London, where he met his lifelong partner, Grace Wilson, a school teacher. They eventually married in 1963 and moved from London to Hampshire, near to Bedales, his former school, where Wyndham's last years were happily occupied with his house, his friends and the countryside he adored. John Wyndham died on the 11th March 1969. He left behind his wife, Grace and his brother Vivian Beynon Harris .
John Wyndham remains best known as the author of The Day of the Triffids . He was one of the few science fiction writers who crossed over into mass appeal due, perhaps, to the accuracy of his portrayal of British unease in the 1950's. His best-selling novels, often featuring traumatic disasters, remain in print and have frequently been adapted for radio and television. Recent BBC Radio 4 adaptations of The Kraken Wakes , Chocky and The Midwich Cuckoos , and the optioning of virtually the entire Wyndham catalogue by film makers, show that interest in the author remains strong and that his works retain relevance. At least one biography is being planned. John Wyndham remains a popular but often critically neglected writer.
For details of the books used to write the administrative/biographical history, see the bibliography for further details
The John Wyndham Archive is the author's Estate Collection. As such, it contains a large number of holograph manuscripts and corrected typescripts of his novels and short stories (including several unpublished and incomplete works), non-fiction articles and scripts for radio, screen and stage plays. The Archive also contains large amounts of correspondence with various editors and publishers, some fan mail and a collection of over 350 letters to Grace Wilson written during the Second World War. There are also a small number of taped conversations between Wyndham and his brother, Vivian Beynon Harris.
The original order of the papers has been preserved as far as possible. The collection has been arranged under the following headings:
The arrangement has been described in more detail at the appropriate levels
The John Wyndham Archive was acquired by the University of Liverpool with assistance from the Heritage lottery Fund and the Friends of the University, together with Sir Arthur C. Clarke and many writers and fans of science fiction in May 1998 . Additional material was donated by Dr Angel Luis Pujante in 2002, and by David Ketterer and the Bristol Cultural Development Group in 2004.
The findind aid was edited and a new collection level description was created for inclusion on the Archives Hub by Roy Lumb in October 2003 . Further information was added by Elinor Robinson in April 2005 .
Access is open to bona fide researchers.
Reproduction and Licensing rules available on request.
Electronic and hard copy finding aids are available for consultation in the reading room.
Special Collections and Archives also holds the papers of John Wyndham's brother, Vivian Beynon Harris . Vivian was one of the literary executors of his brother's estate, therefore his papers mainly consist of business correspondence relating to the literary estate. The call number for the collection is VBH.
These have been arranged chronologically according to the date of publication. The original manuscripts and typescripts for Stowaway to Mars and The Secret People were not part of the archive. It is not known whether or not they exist. Many of the manuscripts and typescripts are undated. For a bibliography of Wyndham's work see reference PX 400.A1.W96.87.1985 O/S in the Science Fiction Foundation Collection and also the bibliography thought to have been compiled by Vivian Beynon Harris in this collection Wyndham 13/3/2 .
This section lists the published novels by Wyndham in chronological order according to the date of publishing and includes many draft versions and proof copies of the various works.
Wyndham 1/1/2 is a collection of incoming correspondence that Wyndham had kept tied together with a leather tie. The binding has been removed to prevent the deterioration of the documents, but the original order has been preserved.
The first page is stamped "4 Sep 1935 First 15". Also included is one scrap of paper with some corrections.
The following correspondence and invoices had been tied together and labelled by Wyndham. They mainly consist of invoices for the novel. There is a copy of the agreement between John Beynon Harris, under the name of John Beynon on the first part and George Newnes Ltd. on the second, dated 28 August 1935 .
See also Incoming Correspondence Wyndham 11/2/1
The taster for the novel on the dust wrapper says
A novel of outstanding imaginative originality.
The time is 70 years hence. Many expeditions to Mars have been planned - none have been successful. Dale Constance builds a Rocket Plane which is an improvement on all others, and he, with four chosen companions start out. After a few days travel they discover a fifth member of the expedition - a stowaway girl - hidden in the plane.
The rocket plane reaches Mars and the adventure that follow are reminiscent of Verne and Wells with a dash of sharp satire added.
Beynon, John
Planet Plane
Edition:
First edition
London
Published by:
Newnes
1936
These are the author's set of galley proofs. These were the author's set and have been lightly corrected, initialled and dated 8 February 1936
A galley proof is a printout of a document in which the margins are especially large. The idea is that you can read over what you have printed and have room for writing comments. This system was important in the days of manuscripts and lead-cast type, because the layout of your document was under the control of the publisher's typesetter. You would receive a galley proof from your publisher and make comments about mistakes or changes to be made.
This is the dust wrapper of the first edition of Planet Plane by John Beynon
The tearsheet was taken from The Passing Show and was published in novel form as Planet Plane in 1936 . This is an incomplete sequence as the serialisation continued until July 1936 .
The tearsheet was taken from Modern Wonder Volume 1, number 1 and was published in novel form as Planet Plane in 1936 . The story was also published as Stowaway to Mars .
This is probably Wyndham's best known novel. The word triffid can even be found in the Oxford English Dictionary as a result of this novel. It is explained as
It was made into a film starring Howard Keel in 1963 and a television film by the BBC in the 1980s. The original title of Day of the Triffids was Revolt of the Triffids .one of a race of menacing plants, possessed of locomotor ability and a poisonous sting, which threaten to overrun the world. Hence used allusively of vigourous plants, or transferred sense of anything invasive or rapid in development.
Wyndham wrote
This is an optimistic book. It assume that when the old bottles cannot hold the new wine any longer there will still be somebody left to record the explosion.
William Masen, who here gives his autobiographical account of the event and its aftermath, was a man distinguished from millions like you and me only by one critical piece of luck. When a single sharp stroke wrecked the world he had known, he and a few others found themselves facing the struggle to start again - with the alternative of going as the rest had gone...
His problem was what, in a world where all values had changed, was the best, the right thing to do - if there were one.
He did his best, conscious all the time of those ominous plants, the TRIFFIDS, pressing failure upon him, and waiting patiently to inherit the earth...
Includes page proofs for the preliminary pages of the English edition stamped 14 April 1951 . Reinstates the original text, corrected and revised for the First English Edition (published by Michael Joseph ). The volume has been heavily deleted and revised.
This is the final typescript heavily deleted and revised by the author and editor and marked for the printer of the Doubleday and Company Inc. first edition. In the course of editing Doubleday reduced the author's final typescript by a number of pages. These were apparently removed when the typescripts were sent to the printer for setting and then not restored when it was returned to the author's agent.
The volume includes a carbon typescript of 3 Tentative Blurb Projects offering three different versions of a dust-wrapper blurb for the book by John Wyndham . There are also twelve suggestions for illustrations for the Day of the Triffids
11pp of proofs and dummies for the preliminary pages are also included.
Four-part serialisation from American weekly publication Colliers
Four-part serialisation from American weekly publication Colliers
The tearsheet is taken from World Digest . The story is a condensed version of the novel.
Book jacket and one page of promotional material for the Danish edition of Day of the Triffids
In the United States, this novel was entitled Out of the Deep
The title for this novel was taken from a poem by Tennyson and the book tells of the awakening and rise to power of forces from beneath the surface of the sea. In August 1953 , a review for the novel said
Admirers of H. G. Wells early "scientific" novels may expect to enjoy The Kraken Wakes . This review can be found in the Press Cuttings volume Wyndham 9/4
Original holograph manuscript that has many corrections and revisions. The title page reads The Kraken Wakes... A Reportage edited by John Wyndham. Below the thunders of the upper deep; Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep, the Kraken sleepeth... "
First carbon copy of the final typescript presumably that used for the first American Edition (Ballantine) which incorporated textual changes. Includes carbon and ribbon typescripts of an "Alternative Ending to The Kraken Wakes". The ribbon typescript is marked " for Ballantine, N. Y."
The novel was initially entitled Time for a Change In the United States it was entitled Rebirth
According to the publisher's book jacket text:
This quote is taken from Wyndham, John The Chrysalids MiddlesexThe Chrysalids is the story of a world in which genetic mutations - in plant, animal and human life - are continually occurring, and when they do they are rooted out and destroyed as Offences and Abominations - whether they are a field of mutant corn, a calf with two heads, or a human child. The anguish this causes to the families which live in terror of deviation and in a small area surrounded by the Wild Country where the chance of breeding true is less than fifty per cent, and the Fringes and Badlands beyond where the chances are far less, is described by John Wyndham in a manner all the more frightening for being so realistic and credible.
The volume has some corrections and several large deletions. The title page has been altered. Initially the novel was entitled Time for a Change , this has been crossed out and The Chrysalids inserted. Two pages of corrected page proofs for the preliminary pages are also included.
The Bolton Evening News reported that The Midwich Cuckoos was
an unusual science fiction novel by English writer John Wyndham has been bought by MGM. It is a story of mental telepathy and the visit of an unknown force to a small English village.
In a letter to Betty Balantine of 7 February 1958 , Alan D. Williams , the editor of J.B. Lippincott Company publishers wrote
William Milligan Sloane's novel was first published c.1938 by Arthur Baker , London .Both my wife and I enjoyed The Midwich Cuckoos enormously - although possibly enjoyed is too frivolous a word. As science-fiction it is superb in its handling of that weary old superman or mutant theme. Much more important, it is a small classic of the imagination and a ringing answer to people who claim that books of science fiction and fantasy are devoid of humanity. I would rank it with or above William Sloane 's To Walk the Night .
The book was also made into a feature film Village of The Damned shortly after publication in 1957. The " teaser" for the book reads
Cuckoos lay eggs in other birds' nests. The clutch that was fathered on the quiet little village of Midwich, one night in September, proved to possess a monstrous will of its own. It promised to make the human race look as dated as the dinosaur.
The volume has been heavily deleted and corrected. Includes amended page proofs for the preliminary pages of the English edition. Published by Michael Joseph Ltd.
The first page has a pasted label of Ballantine Books , New York, publication date 20 January 1958. Loosely inserted is the front cover of the Ballantine edition. This item did not appear in the Bertram Rota inventory. This item was left to Bedales School under the conditions of the First Codicil of Grace Harris 's will dated 4 December 1985 and should be considered on loan from the school. See correspondence from the Head of Bedales, Ms Alison Willcocks , dated 25 June 1998 .
Holograph manuscript of an unfinished sequel to The Midwich Cuckoos with some deletions and corrections. There is a note on the front cover, possibly in the handwriting of Vivian Beynon Harris, that reads
Originally commissioned by M. G. M. and abandoned by Jack.
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