Writer and journalist Erle Cox was best-known for his 1925 novel, Out of the Silence, which has been described as 'a classic work of science fiction. Set in rural Australia, it tells the story of a young vigneron who discovers, buried beneath his land, a huge sphere containing the culture and technology of a past civilization. Cox began to write the book about 1916 but had shaped the idea for it earlier - "pacing up and down the St Kilda sands". At first he was unable to find a publisher but in 1919 the Argus printed the story in weekly instalments between 19 April and 25 October'. Heralding 'its appearance in Melbourne in book form', the Australasian declared: '"No more successful serial story has been published in Australia"'.
For over twenty years, he worked extensively as a film critic, primarily for the Argus and the Australasian. When he died in 1950, his obituary in the Argus noted that 'For 32 years he was a leading figure in Melbourne journalism, and for 17 of those years he wrote, in a style he made his own, pungent criticisms of motion pictures for The Argus and The Australasian.'
Sources:
Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Erle Cox.
'Death of "The Chiel",' The Argus, 21 November 1950, p.6.
