Person:Herbert Wells (9)

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Biography

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Herbert George Wells^[1] (21 September 186613 August 1946) was an English writer. Prolific in many genres, he wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, history, popular science, satire, biography and autobiography. Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and has been called the "father of science fiction."

In addition to his fame as a writer, he was prominent in his lifetime as a forward-looking, even prophetic social critic who devoted his literary talents to the development of a progressive vision on a global scale. A futurist, he wrote a number of utopian works and foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television and something resembling the World Wide Web. His science fiction imagined time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering. Brian Aldiss referred to Wells as the "Shakespeare of science fiction", while Charles Fort referred to him as a "wild talent".

Wells rendered his works convincing by instilling commonplace detail alongside a single extraordinary assumption per work – dubbed “Wells's law” – leading Joseph Conrad to hail him in 1898 as "O Realist of the Fantastic!". His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), which was his first novel, The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898) and the military science fiction The War in the Air (1907). Novels of social realism such as Kipps (1905) and The History of Mr Polly (1910), which describe lower-middle-class English life, led to the suggestion that he was a worthy successor to Charles Dickens, but Wells described a range of social strata and even attempted, in Tono-Bungay (1909), a diagnosis of English society as a whole. Wells was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.^[2]

Wells's earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a Darwinian context. He was also an outspoken socialist from a young age, often (but not always, as at the beginning of the First World War) sympathising with pacifist views. In his later years, he wrote less fiction and more works expounding his political and social views, sometimes giving his profession as that of journalist. Wells was a diabetic and co-founded the charity The Diabetic Association (known today as Diabetes UK) in 1934.

Literary Works

Books Written By Wells

H.G. Wells wrote dozens of books over the course of his literary career, a career which spanned over half a century. As well as writing many classic works of science fiction, Wells also wrote non-fiction, as well as many popular realist novels such as Kipps and The History of Mr Polly. Since he's best remembered for his science fiction, the following list is what many consider as his 10 best books (all science fiction novels).^[10]

1. The Time Machine (1895)[11]	2. The War of the Worlds (1898)[12]	3. The First Men in the Moon (1901)	4. The Invisible Man (1897)
5. The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)	6. The Sleeper Awakes (1910)	7. The War in the Air (1908)	8. The Shape of Things to Come (1933)
9. The Food of the Gods (1904)	10. In the Days of the Comet (1906)

Books Written About Wells

H.G. Wells: A Biography by Norman & Jeanne MacKenzie (1973)[13]

The Science Fiction of H.G. Wells by Frank D. McConnell (1981)

H.G. Wells: First Citizen of the Future by Keith Ferrell (1983)

H.G. Wells: Aspects of a Life, by his son, Anthony West (1984)

Other Publications

• Time Magazine Topics: H.G. Wells

Video Tributes

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} H. G. Wells, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
   9 Feb 2015.

   From the opening of the Wikipedia article: "...a prolific English writer in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, and social commentary, and textbooks and rules for war games."

2. ↑ H.G. Wells, in The Literature Nework
   2007.
3. ↑ New York Times Sunday Book Review: H.G. Wells, the Man Who Invented Tomorrow by Christopher Benfey, in The New York Times. (New York, New York)
   16 Sep 2011 .

   Book review of "A MAN OF PARTS", by David Lodge

4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} H. G. Wells, in Find A Grave: Golders Green Crematorium, London, England
   Memorial# 19940, Jan 29, 2001.

   Birth: Sep. 21, 1866
   Death: Aug. 13, 1946
   Burial: Golders Green Crematorium, Golders Green, London Borough of Barnet, Greater London, England
   Plot: Cremated here on August 16th, 1946. His ashes were later scattered from an aircraft.

   Writer. Although he is primarily remembered as a science fiction writer, he wrote prolifically in a great many other genres as well.

5. ↑ HG Wells, in HG Wells' letter goes on display in Sevenoaks
   1 February 2011.

   A letter written by HG Wells in 1934 goes on display in Sevenoaks, where he wrote The Time Machine.

6. ↑ HG Wells, in War of the Words: HG Wells Publications
   2014.

   Listing of free downloads from Project Gutenberg.

7. ↑ ^7.0 7.1 H G Wells, in H G Wells: Artist & Writer.
8. ↑ H.G. Wells, in H.G. Wells Photo Gallery.
9. ↑ Among family members
10. ↑ Interesting Literature: The Best H. G. Wells Novels, 28 Jun 2015.
11. ↑ The Time Machine (1895). Wells’s first novel, based loosely on a story he wrote while still in his early twenties, The Chronic Argonauts (1888). It is, as many opine, his best, and embodies early Wells in its vision, its storytelling, and its engagement with scientific and political issues, many of which are still with us today. It also more or less invented the concept of the time machine. The short novel recounts the adventures of the Time Traveller, who builds a machine which enables him to travel into the future. He ends up in the year 802,701, and discovers that mankind has evolved into two distinct subspecies: the Eloi and the Morlocks. But what the precise relationship is between the two remains at first a mystery – until the Time Traveller discovers the horrific truth.
12. ↑ The War of the Worlds (1898). A pioneering work of ‘invasion’ literature, this classic early Wells novel inspired countless film adaptations (as well as the infamous radio broadcast made by Orson Welles in 1938), and was undoubtedly a major influence on all subsequent films and novels about aliens coming to Earth from space. The aliens in this case, of course, are the Martians.
13. ↑ Goodreads: H.G. Wells: A Biography