Persistence of Light
by John Hoyte

In this memoir, John Hoyte tells his compelling life story. His childhood in China included nearly four years in a Japanese Prison Camp during World War ll. After the war, his family settled in England, where John eventually studied at Cambridge University. While there, John and his friend Richard followed a raging debate over Hannibal’s route over the Alps; this led to conceiving an Expedition crossing the Alps with an elephant. In 1959 John led the British Alpine Hannibal Expedition with Jumbo, an Indian elephant. The Expedition garnered international media coverage and seven pages in Life Magazine.

On completing his book onthe Expedition, titled Alpine Elephant, John appeared on the “To Tell the Truth” TV Show in New York. This engrossing memoir captures the twists and turns of his creative journey, its darkness and then its persistent light, that led to a fulfilling life as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He founded and was president of Spectrex Corporation, developing instruments using light for analysis. In the 1960s he witnessed the birth of Silicon Valley. He was involved with the development of the Light Emitting Diode and was a friend to Bob Noyce, founder of Intel and inventor of the Integrated Circuit. He also witnessed and was partly involved in the 1960s Counterculture. He now lives in Bellingham, married to the poet Luci Shaw.

As Sir Richard Jolly notes in his Preface: “This book, like John’s life, is an inspiration, full of fun, warm friendships, unexpected happenings, and serious achievement. A well-lived life, still on the move. I am sure Jumbo would approve.”