HAILED AS THE GREATEST SCIENCE-FICTION MASTERPIECE OF OUR TIME
John Wyndham _-_ The Day Of The Triffids
Scanned by Umberto
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John Wyndham (10 July 1903 - 11 March 1969)
BIOGRAPHY
John Wyndham is the most well known pseudonym of the British writer John Wyndham Parkes
Lucas Beynon Harris. According to the bio supplied by Penguin books, John Wyndham was
born in 1903 in Knowle, Warwickshire. Until 1911 he lived in Edgbaston, Birmingham,
England, and then in many other parts of England. After attending several English
prepatory schools, he attended Bedales between 1918 and 1921. John Wyndham was not
initially a professional writer; he began writing short stories for sale in 1925, having
already tried to make a career in law, farming, commercial art and advertising.
Throughout the 1930's he wrote many stories for periodicals, mainly American, under
a wide selection of pseudonyms, and also tried his hand at detective stories. In 1946,
after spending the Second World War in the English civil service and later the British
Army, he resumed writing for the American market. During the early 1950's he began
experimenting with the idea of speculative fiction. His stories are often classed as
"science fiction," although in truth they contain relatively little "science, " instead
concentrating on a "what if" motif set in otherwise ordinary terrestrial surroundings.
In any event his attempts were enormously successful, and several of his novels are now
regarded as classics of the science fiction genre. He married Grace Wilson in 1963.
John Wyndham died in March 1969, but several book titles were released after his death,
the last two being "Web" and "Exiles On Asperus," in 1979. All of his major works have
been published as Penguin books, and some titles appeared in North America under the
Fawcett Crest label.
Wyndham is one of the few Science Fiction authors which found early acceptance among non-SF
readers. Although he began publishing stories in 1931. His rise to prominance happened after
WWII when his apocolyptic outlook echoed the fears of many.
Starting with The Day of the Triffids (1951), Wyndham continued where H.G. Wells left off.
However, Wyndham didn't just rehash a disaster motif, he reached down into the psyche of
the day to criticize the seeming lack of social change. His characters often confront more
of a mindless reaction in their fellow humans than any external danger.
Wyndham had a string of hits that had many similarities including the novels: The Kraken Wakes (1953), The Chrysalids (1955), The Midwich Cuckoos (1957), Trouble with Lichen (1960) and the short story collections: Jizzle (1954), Tales of Gooseflesh and Laughter (1956), The Seeds of Time (1956).
Critics have concentrated on The Day of the Triffids, The Kraken Wakes and The Midwich Cockoos.
IMHO, this is because of the sales success of these books and the fact that both Triffids and
Cockoos have each been made into two movies - not because these are Wyndham's best books. For
the nonce, I shall leave the debate as to whether these books have social value outside of the Cold War. While I enjoy them very much, I submit that Wyndham got better as he kept working.
There is no doubt that The Chrysalids and Trouble with Lichen consider social ills on their own merits. In addition, some of his short stories, like "Consider Her Ways" (see below) are strictly discussions of the social values of Wyndham's day. What is similar with the earlier books is Wyndham's pessimistic outlook of the people around him.
Heinlien's concept of "speculative fiction" had not been formulated by the time of these novels and,
perhaps not surprisingly, Wyndham falls into some of the pitfalls. After having said that, the fact
that Wyndham succeed in producing bestsellers with flawed novels is a major testement to his writing
ability. Increasingly, Wyndham came under criticism for the negative outlook of his novels. By the mid-60's people wanted to be happy. After years of badgering, Wyndham wrote Chocky (1968). On the surface, this story seems to have a happy ending. After sleeping on it for a couple of days, you realize this may be Wyndham's most pessimistic novel.
On a personal level, I think that Chocky is Wyndham's best outing. Here Wyndham is less interested
in sociology as he is in psychology. There is no refuge for the reader in the sociological crowd.
The reader has been sucked in; Wyndham's pessimism has won.
On this analysis, I submit that Wyndham's earlier work should be reviewed. If one extrapolates back
from Chocky to The Day of the Triffids and beyond, there is a consistancy of outlook. When we read of
the blinded masses, we are reminded of the bomb, of the cold war (cf the "communist" pods in Invasion
of the Body Snatchers), of the mindless consumerism of the 1950's... Wyndham didn't need an external
agent to create his speculative fiction; he had reality.
Some of Wyndham's work was made into movies:
Village of the Damned (1960, UK, B/W, MGM, based on The Midwich Cuckoos)
The Day of the Triffids (1962, UK, Colour, Security Pictures)
Children of the Damned (1963, UK, B/W, MGM, a sequel to Village)
Quest for Love (1971, South Africa/UK, Colour, based on the short story "Random Quest")
John Wyndham is a pseudonym for John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (he seems to have generated
pseudonyms by taking two random names of the six). He's one of a handful of british authors who
achieved SF fame in the 1950's by destroying the earth in a variety of interesting ways (see also
J. G. Ballard, Brian Aldiss & John Christopher).
[C] == Story Collection.
[CP] == Chapbook (a very short book, or pamphlet).
[O] == Omnibus. Includes other books.
aka == Also known by this other title.
as == Originally published using this pen name.
based on == The stories in this collection are largely equal to
(but not identical to) the stories in the other collection
Harris, John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon [U.K., 7/10/1903-3/11/1969]
[as John Wyndham]
The John Wyndham Omnibus [1964] [O]
The Day of the Triffids [1951] [aka "Revolt of the Triffids"]
The Kraken Wakes [1953] [aka "Out of the Deeps"]
The Chrysalids [1955] [aka "Re-Birth"]
The Secret People [1935] [as John Beynon] [as John Wyndham]
Stowaway to Mars [1936, 1953] [aka "Planet Plane"] [as John Beynon]
[as John Wyndham] [as John Beynon Harris]
Love in Time [1945] [CP] [as Johnson Harris]
Jizzle [1954] [C]
The Seeds of Time [1956] [C]
Tales of Gooseflesh and Laughter [1956] [C] [based on "Jizzle"]
The Midwich Cuckoos [1957] [aka "The Village of the Damned"]
The Outward Urge [1959] [as John Wyndham & Lucas Parkes]
[self-collaboration!]
Trouble with Lichen [1960]
Consider Her Ways [1961] [C]
The Infinite Moment [1961] [C] [based on "Consider Her Ways"]
Chocky [1968]
Sleepers of Mars [1973] [C]
Wanderers of Time [1973] [C]
The Best of John Wyndham [1973] [C] [aka "The Man from Beyond"]
[split into:]
The Best of John Wyndham: 1939 - 1949 [1985] [C]
The Best of John Wyndham: 1950 - 1969 [1985] [C]
Web [1979]
Exiles on Asperus [1979] [C]
Wyndham, John & Nobes, Patrick
The Triffids [1973] [adapted from "The Day of the Triffids"]
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A FEW NOTES ABOUT THIS E-BOOK:
There were many mistakes in the original text. I tried not to change even one of them.
I feel an E-Book should represent the printed version as much as possible.
Also, much of the spelling in this book is British, and I'm sure John Wyndham
made up a few words as well! So I tried to leave it authentic.
I did, however, do my best to correct scanning mistakes. This wasn't easy
because of all the British slang, Latin words, and the made up words or
mistakes in the original book.
I did my best and I think it will show!
TIPS FOR SCANNERS:
1. Always check for "tbe" and replace with "the".
2. Always check for "1" to see if you need to replace with "I".
3. Check for " ~ " and other weird characters which arn't found too much
in text. Make sure they should be there.
4. Check for "shc" and see if it should be "she".
5. If using Textbridge then do about 5 scans at a time. Then edit
them with the book in front of you.
6. Check your work! Check your work! Check your work!
JOHN WYNDHAM LINKS:
http://www.jamesdawe.com/wyndham.html
http://www.kymlicka.ca/stephen/wyndham.htm
http://members.tripod.com/~gwillick/wyndham.html
Just Search Yahoo...
Have fun!