 The wordless novel had enjoyed popularity in the 1920s and 1930s , but had become rare by the 1940s . Such books tended to be melodramatic works about social injustice . Hyde was familiar with some of Ward 's books and the German Otto Nückel 's Destiny ( 1926 ) . The only work he knew of the Flemish artist Frans Masereel , the form 's first and most prolific practitioner , was Passionate Journey ( 1919 ) , which he had read in a 1949 American edition . Like his forebears in the genre , Hyde had a left @-@ wing agenda that he expressed in his art . When Southern Cross appeared , the genre had been out of the public eye for so long that Hyde included a historical essay with the book to orient the reader . Hyde had asked Ward to proofread this history , but the book was published without Ward 's corrections — errors remained , such as Masereel 's forename given as " Hans " , and a listing of only four of Ward 's six wordless novels . 
