Herbert George Wells
Herbert George Wells was born on September 21, 1866 in Bromley, Kent, England. His father
was a shopkeeper and a professional cricketer, and his mother served from time to time as a
housekeeper at the nearby estate of Uppark. His father's business failed and to elevate the
family to middle-class status, Wells was apprenticed like his brothers to a draper, spending
the years between 1880 and 1883 in Windsor and Southsea.
In 1883 Wells became a teacher/pupil at Midhurst Grammar Scool. He obtained a scholarship to
the Normal School of Science in London and studied there biology under T.H. Huxley. However, his
interest faltered and in 1887 he left without a degree. He taught in private schools for four
years, not taking his B.S. degree until 1890. Next year he settled in London, married his cousin
Isabel and continued his career as a teacher in a correspondence college. From 1893 Wells became
a full-time writer.
After some years Wells left Isabel for one of his brightest students, Amy Catherine, whom he
married in 1895. As a novelist Wells made his debut with The Time Machine, a parody of
English class division and a satirical warning that human progress is not inevitable. The Time
Traveller lands in the year 802701 and finds two people: the Eloi, weak and little, who live
above ground, and the Morlocks, carnivorous creatures that live below ground. Much of the
realism of the story was achieved by carefully studied technical details.
The basic principles of the machine contained materials regarding time as the fourth dimension
, years later Albert Einstein published his theory of the four dimensional continuum of space-time.
The work was followed by such science-fiction classics as THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (1896), in
which a mad scientist transforms animals into human creatures, The Invisible Man (1897), a Faustian
story of a scientist who has tampered with nature in pursuit of superhuman powers, and The
War of the Worlds (1898), a novel of an invasion of Martians. The story appeared at a time
when Percival Lowell's "observations" of "canals" on Mars arose speculations that there could be
life on the Red Planet. Inspite of the technological superiority of the Martians, their plan
fails, they start to die off because they have no immunity to the bacteria of Earth. THE FIRST
MEN ON THE MOON (1901) was prophetic description of the methodology of space flight, and
THE WAR IN THE AIR (1908) was a hybrid that places Kipps-like Cockney hero in the context of a
catastrophic aerial war. Although Wells's novels were highly entertaining, he also tried to pave
way for a wiser attitude about the future of the mankind.
Dissatisfied with his literary work, Wells moved into the novel genre, with LOVE AND MR.
LEWISHAM (1900). He strenghtened his reputation as a serous writer with Kipps, TONO-BUNGAY (1909),
and THE HISTORY OF MR. POLLY (1909), an ode to vanished England. He also published critical
pamphlets attacking the Victorian social order, among them ANTICIPATIONS (1901), MANKIND IN THE
MAKING (1903), and A MODERN UTOPIA (1905).
Passionate concern for society led Wells to join in 1903 the socialist Fabian Society in London,
but he soon quarreled with the society's leaders, among them George Bernard Shaw. This experience
was basis for his novel THE NEW MACHIAVELLI (1911), where he drew portraits of the noted Fabians.
At the outbreak of war in 1914, Wells was involved in a love affair with the young English author
Rebecca West, which influenced his work and life deeply.
After WWI Wells published several non-fiction works, among them THE OUTLINE OF HISTORY (1920)
, THE SCIENCE OF LIFE (1929-39), written in collaboration with Sir Julian Huxley and George Philip Wells,
and EXPERIMENT IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY (1934). At this time Wells had gained the status as a popular
celebrity, and he continued to write prolifically. In 1917 he was a member of Reserch Committee
for the League of Nations and published several books about the world organization. In the early
1920s he was a labour candidate for Parliament. Between the years 1924 and 1933 Wells lived mainly
in France. From 1934 to 1946 he was the International president of PEN. In 1934 he had discussions
with both Stalin and Roosevelt, trying to recruit them to his world-saving schemes. However, he
despaired of the whole business when the global war broke the peace for the second time.
In THE HOLY TERROR (1939) Wells studied the psychological development of a modern dictator
based on the careers of Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler. In 1938 Orson Welles' Mercury Theater
radio broadcast, based on The War of the Worlds, caused a panic which spread across the United
States. Wells lived through World War II in his house on Regent's Park, refusing to let the
blitz drive him out of London. His last book, MIND AT THE END OF ITS TETHER (1945), expressed
pessimism about mankind's future prospects. Wells died in London on August 13. 1946.
| Collections |
The Sleeper Awakes and Men Like Gods
The Stolen Bacillus: And Other Incidents (1895)
The Plattner Story: And Others (1897)
Thirty Strange Stories (1897)
Tales of Space and Time (1899)
The Time Machine (1901)
Twelve Stories and a Dream (1903)
The Country of the Blind: And Other Stories (1911)
Tales of the Unexpected (1923)
Selected Short Stories (1927)
The Short Stories of H G Wells (1927)
Three Prophetic Science Fiction Novels of H. G. Wells (1960)
The Cone (1965)
The Complete Short Stories of H G Wells (1966)
The First Men in the Moon and The World Set Free (1989)
The Red Room: And Other Stories (1998)
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| Non Fiction |
Text Book of Biology (1893)
Mankind in the Making (1903)
New Worlds For Old (1908)
The War That Will End War (1914)
God the Invisible King (1917)
The Outline of History (1920)
The Salvaging of Civilization (1921)
A Short History of the World (1922)
Socialism And the Scientific Motive (1923)
The Way the World Is Going: Guesses and Forecasts of the World Ahead (1928)
The Open Conspiracy: Blue Prints For a World Revolution (1928)
The Science of Life [with Julian Huxley and G.P. Wells] (1930)
The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind [2 volumes] (1931)
Experiment in Autobiography: Discoveries and Conclusions of a Very Ordinary Brain [Since 1866] [2 volumes] (1934)
The Anatomy of Frustration: A Modern Synthesis (1936)
World Brain (1938)
The Fate of Homo Sapiens (1939)
The New World Order (1939)
Phoenix (1942)
The Conquest of Time (1942)
The Happy Turning: A Dream of Life [chapbook](1945)
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| Novels |
The World Set Free (1888)
The Lord of the Dynamos (1894)
The Time Machine (1895)
The Wonderful Visit (1895)
The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)
The Wheels of Chance (1896)
The Invisible Man (1897)
The War of the Worlds (1898)
The Sleeper Awakes (1899)
Love and Mr Lewisham (1900)
The First Men in the Moon (1901)
The Sea Lady (1902)
The Food of the Gods (1904)
Kipps (1905)
A Modern Utopia (1905)
In the Days of the Comet (1906)
This Misery of Boots (1907)
The War in the Air (1908)
Ann Veronica (1909)
Tono-Bungay (1909)
The History of Mr Polly (1910)
The New Machiavelli (1911)
Marriage (1912)
The Passionate Friends (1913)
The War That Will End War (1914)
The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914)
Boon (1915)
The Research Magnificent (1915)
Mr Britling Sees It Through (1916)
God the Invisible King (1917)
The Soul of a Bishop (1917)
The Undying Fire (1919)
The Outline of History (1920)
Russia in the Shadows (1920)
The Secret Places of the Heart (1922)
Washington and the Hope of Peace (1922)
Men Like Gods (1923)
The Dream (1924)
Christina Alberta's Father (1925)
The World of William Clissold (1926)
Mr Blettsworthy on Rampole Island (1928)
The Autocracy of Mr Parham (1930)
The Bulpington of Blup (1932)
The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932)
The Shape of Things to Come (1933)
The Croquet Player (1936)
The Camford Visitation (1937)
Star Begotten (1937)
World Brain (1938)
The Holy Terror (1939)
Travels of a Republican Radical in Search of Hot Water (1939)
All Aboard for Ararat (1941)
You Can't Be Too Careful (1941)
The Empire of the Ants (1943)
The inexperienced ghost (1944)
Mind at the end of Tether (1945)
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| Short Stories |
A Family Elopement (1884)
A Tale Of The Twentieth Century (1887)
The Devotee Of Art (1888)
The Flying Man (1893)
Aepyornis Island (1894)
A Deal in Ostriches (1894)
The Diamond Maker (1894)
The Final Men (1894)
The Flowering of the Strange Orchid (1894)
The Hammerpond Park Burglary (1894)
How Gabriel Became Thompson (1894)
In the Avu Observatory (1894)
In the Modern Vein: An Unsympathetic Love Story (1894)
The Jilting of Jane (1894)
The Lord of the Dynamos (1894)
The Man With A Nose (1894)
A Misunderstood Artist (1894)
The Stolen Bacillus (1894)
The Thing In No. 7 (1894)
Through a Window (1894)
The Thumbmark (1894)
The Treasure in the Forest (1894)
The Triumphs of a Taxidermist (1894)
The Argonauts of the Air (1895)
A Catastrophe (1895)
The Cone (1895)
How Pingwell Was Routed (1895)
Le Mari Terrible (1895)
The Moth (1895)
Our Little Neighbour (1895)
Pollock and the Porroh Man (1895)
The Reconciliation (1895)
The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes (1895)
The Temptation of Harringay (1895)
The Time Machine (1895)
Wayde's Essence (1895)
The Apple (1896)
In the Abyss (1896)
The Plattner Story (1896)
The Purple Pileus (1896)
The Rajah's Treasure (1896)
The Red Room (1896)
The Sea Raiders (1896)
A Slip Under the Microscope (1896)
The Story of the Late Mr Elvesham (1896)
Under the Knife (1896)
The Crystal Egg (1897)
The Ghost of Fear (1897)
The Invisible Man (1897)
The Lost Inheritance (1897)
Mr Marshall's Doppelganger (1897)
A Perfect Gentleman On Wheels (1897)
The Presence By The Fire (1897)
The Star (1897)
A Story of the Days to Come (1897)
A Story of the Stone Age (1897)
Jimmy Goggles the God (1898)
The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1898)
Miss Winchelsea's Heart (1898)
Mr Ledbetter's Vacation (1898)
The Stolen Body (1898)
Walcote (1898)
Mr Brisher's Treasure (1899)
A Vision of Judgement (1899)
A Dream of Armageddon (1901)
Filmer (1901)
Mr Skelmersdale in Fairyland (1901)
The New Accelerator (1901)
The Inexperienced Ghost (1902)
The Loyalty Of Esau Common (1902)
The Land Ironclads (1903)
The Magic Shop (1903)
The Truth About Pyecraft (1903)
Twelve Stories and a Dream (1903)
The Valley of the Spiders (1903)
The Country of the Blind (1904)
The Empire of the Ants (1905)
The Door in the Wall (1906)
The Beautiful Suit (1909)
Little Mother Up the Morderberg (1910)
My First Aeroplane (1910)
The Sad Story of a Dramatic Critic (1915)
The Story of the Last Trump (1915)
The Wild Asses of the Devil (1915)
The Grisly Folk (1921)
The Pearl of Love (1924)
The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper (1932)
Answer To Prayer (1937)
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