
genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games. Together with Jules Verne
and Hugo Gernsback
, Wells has been referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction".
Wells was an outspoken socialist
and sympathetic to pacifist
views, although he supported the First World War
once it was under way, and his later works became increasingly political and didactic
.
Strength is the outcome of need; security sets a premium on feebleness.
I grieved to think how brief the dream of the human intellect had been. It had committed suicide. It had set itself steadfastly towards comfort and ease, a balanced society with security and permanency as its watchword, it had attained its hopes—to come to this at last.
It is a law of Nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble. An animal perfectly in harmony with its environment is a perfect mechanism. Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs and dangers.
"There is, though I do not know how there is or why there is, a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven. There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope."
"We were making the future," he said, "and hardly any of us troubled to think what future we were making. And here it is!"
The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is or has been is but the twilight of the dawn.
Kipps was unprepared for the unpleasant truth; that the path of social advancement is and must be strewn with broken friendships.
And in the air are no streets, no channels, no point where one can say of an antagonist, "If he wants to reach my capital he must come by here." In the air all directions lead everywhere.
The third peculiarity of aerial warfare was that it was at once enormously destructive and entirely indecisive.
genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games. Together with Jules Verne
and Hugo Gernsback
, Wells has been referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction".
Wells was an outspoken socialist
and sympathetic to pacifist
views, although he supported the First World War
once it was under way, and his later works became increasingly political and didactic
. His middle-period novels (1900–1920) were less science-fictional; they covered lower-middle class life (The History of Mr Polly) and the "New Woman" and the Suffragette
s (Ann Veronica
).
Early life
Herbert George Wells was born at Atlas House, 47 High Street, Bromley, in the county
of Kent
, a small market town, on 21 September 1866. Called "Bertie" in the family, he was the fourth and last child of Joseph Wells (a former domestic gardener, and at the time a shopkeeper and professional cricket
er) and his wife Sarah Neal (a former domestic servant
). The family was of the impoverished lower middle class
. An inheritance had allowed the family to acquire a shop in which they sold china and sporting goods, although it failed to prosper: the stock was old and worn out, and the location was poor. Joseph Wells managed to earn a meagre income, but little of it came from the shop; Joseph received an unsteady amount of money from playing professional cricket for the Kent county team
. Payment for skilled bowlers and batsmen came from voluntary donations afterwards, or from small payments from the clubs where matches were played.
A defining incident of young Wells's life was an accident he had in 1874, which left him bedridden with a broken leg. To pass the time he started reading books from the local library, brought to him by his father. He soon became devoted to the other worlds and lives to which books gave him access; they also stimulated his desire to write. Later that year he entered Thomas Morley's Commercial Academy, a private school
founded in 1849 following the bankruptcy of Morley's earlier school. The teaching was erratic, the curriculum mostly focused, Wells later said, on producing copperplate handwriting
and doing the sort of sums useful to tradesmen. Wells continued at Morley's Academy until 1880. In 1877, his father, Joseph Wells, fractured his thigh. The accident effectively put an end to Joseph's career as a cricketer, and his subsequent earnings as a shopkeeper were not enough to compensate for the loss of the primary source of family income.
No longer able to support themselves financially, the family instead sought to place their sons as apprentice
s in various occupations. From 1880 to 1883, Wells had an unhappy apprenticeship as a draper
at the Southsea
Drapery Emporium, Hyde's. His experiences at Hyde's, where he worked a thirteen hour day and slept in a dormitory with other apprentices, were later used as inspiration for some of his novel material The Wheels of Chance
and Kipps
, which delve into the life of a draper's apprentice as well as providing a critique of the world's distribution of wealth.
Herbert's parents' marriage was a turbulent relationship: due primarily to his mother being a Protestant
and his father a self-confessed freethinker
. When his mother returned to work as a lady's maid
(at Uppark
, a country house
in Sussex
), one of the conditions of work was that she would not be permitted to have living space for her husband and children. Thereafter, she and Joseph lived separate lives: though they never divorced and neither ever developed extramarital liaisons. As a consequence, Herbert's personal troubles increased as he subsequently failed as a draper and also, later, as a chemist's assistant. After each failure, he would arrive at Uppark"the bad shilling back again!" as he saidand stay there until a fresh start could be arranged for him. Fortunately for Herbert, Uppark had a magnificent library in which he immersed himself, reading many classic works, including Plato
's Republic, and More
's Utopia
. This would be the beginning of Herbert George Wells's venture into literature.
Teacher

at Wookey
in Somerset as a pupil-teacher, a senior pupil who acted as a teacher of younger children. In December that year, however, Williams was dismissed for irregularities in his qualifications and Wells was returned to Uppark. After a short apprenticeship at a chemist in nearby Midhurst
, and an even shorter stay as a boarder at Midhurst Grammar School
, he signed his apprenticeship papers at Hyde's. In 1883 Wells persuaded his parents to release him from the apprenticeship, taking an opportunity offered by Midhurst Grammar School again to become a pupil-teacher; his proficiency in Latin and science during his previous, short stay had been remembered.
The years he spent in Southsea had been the most miserable of his life to that point, but his good fortune at securing a position at Midhurst Grammar School meant that Wells could continue his self-education in earnest. The following year, Wells won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science (later the Royal College of Science
in South Kensington
, now part of Imperial College London
) in London, studying biology
under Thomas Henry Huxley. As an alumnus, he later helped to set up the Royal College of Science Association, of which he became the first president in 1909. Wells studied in his new school until 1887 with a weekly allowance of twenty-one shilling
s (a guinea
) thanks to his scholarship. This ought to have been a comfortable sum of money (at the time many working class
families had "round about a pound a week" as their entire household income) yet in his Experiment in Autobiography, Wells speaks of constantly being hungry, and indeed, photographs of him at the time show a youth very thin and malnourished.
He soon entered the Debating Society of the school. These years mark the beginning of his interest in a possible reformation of society. At first approaching the subject through The Republic by Plato
, he soon turned to contemporary ideas of socialism
as expressed by the recently formed Fabian Society
and free lectures delivered at Kelmscott House
, the home of William Morris
. He was also among the founders of The Science School Journal, a school magazine which allowed him to express his views on literature and society, as well as trying his hand at fiction: the first version of his novel The Time Machine
was published in the journal under the title, The Chronic Argonauts
. The school year 1886–1887 was the last year of his studies. In spite of having previously successfully passed his exams in both biology
and physics
, his lack of interest in geology
resulted in his failure to pass and the subsequent loss of his scholarship.
It was not until 1890 that Wells earned a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology
from the University of London External Programme. In 1889–90 he managed to find a post as a teacher at Henley House School where he taught and admired A. A. Milne
.
Upon leaving the Normal School of Science, Wells was left without a source of income. His aunt Mary—his father's sister-in-law—invited him to stay with her for a while, which solved his immediate problem of accommodation. During his stay at his aunt's residence, he grew increasingly interested in her daughter, Isabel. He would later go on to court her.
Personal life

Isabel Mary Wells, but left her in 1894 for one of his students, Amy Catherine Robbins (known as Jane), whom he married in 1895. Poor health took him to Sandgate
, near Folkestone
, where in 1901 he constructed a large family home: Spade House
. He had two sons with Jane: George Philip
(known as "Gip") in 1901 (d.1985) and Frank Richard in 1903. The marriage lasted until her death in 1927.
During his marriage to Jane Robbins, Wells had affair
s with a number of women, including the American birth-control
activist Margaret Sanger
and novelist Elizabeth von Arnim
. In 1909 he had a daughter, Anna-Jane, with the writer Amber Reeves
, whose parents, William
and Maud Pember Reeves
, he had met through the Fabian Society
; and in 1914, a son, Anthony West (1914–1987), by the novelist and feminist
Rebecca West
, twenty-six years his junior.
"I was never a great amorist", Wells wrote in Experiment in Autobiography (1934), "though I have loved several people very deeply".
Artist
As one method of self-expression, Wells tended to draw a lot. One common location for these sketches was the endpapers and title pages of his own diaries, and they covered a wide variety of topics, from political commentary to his feelings toward his literary contemporaries and his current romantic interests. During his marriage to Amy Catherine, whom he nicknamed Jane, he sketched a considerable number of pictures, many of them being overt comments on their marriage. It was during this period, and this period only, that he called his sketches "picshuas". These picshuas have been the topic of study by Wells scholars for many years, and recently a book was published on the subject.Writer
Wells's first non-fiction bestsellerwas Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought (1901). When originally serialised in a magazine it was subtitled, "An Experiment in Prophecy", and is considered his most explicitly futuristic
work. Anticipating what the world would be like in the year 2000, the book is interesting both for its hits (trains and cars resulting in the dispersion of population from cities to suburbs; moral restrictions declining as men and women seek greater sexual freedom; the defeat of German militarism
, and the existence of a European Union) and its misses (he did not expect successful aircraft
before 1950, and averred that "my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocate its crew and founder at sea").

s", invented a number of themes now classic in science fiction
in such works as The Time Machine
, The Island of Doctor Moreau
, The Invisible Man
, The War of the Worlds
, When the Sleeper Wakes
, and The First Men in the Moon
. He also wrote other, non-fantastic novels that have received critical acclaim including Kipps
and the satire on Edwardian advertising, Tono-Bungay
.
Wells wrote several dozen short stories and novellas, the best known of which is "The Country of the Blind
" (1904). His short story "The New Accelerator
" was the inspiration for the Star Trek
episode Wink of an Eye.
Though Tono-Bungay
was not a science-fiction novel, radioactive decay
plays a small but consequential role in it. Radioactive decay plays a much larger role in The World Set Free
(1914). This book contains what is surely his biggest prophetic "hit". Scientists of the day were well aware that the natural decay of radium
releases energy at a slow rate over thousands of years. The rate of release is too slow to have practical utility, but the total amount released is huge. Wells's novel revolves around an (unspecified) invention that accelerates the process of radioactive decay, producing bombs that explode with no more than the force of ordinary high explosive—but which "continue to explode" for days on end. "Nothing could have been more obvious to the people of the earlier twentieth century", he wrote, "than the rapidity with which war was becoming impossible... [but] they did not see it until the atomic bombs burst in their fumbling hands". Leó Szilárd
acknowledged that the book inspired him to theorise the nuclear chain reaction
.
Wells also wrote nonfiction. His bestselling three-volume work, The Outline of History
(1920), began a new era of popularised world history. It received a mixed critical response from professional historians. Many other authors followed with "Outlines" of their own in other subjects. Wells reprised his Outline in 1922 with a much shorter popular work, A Short History of the World, and two long efforts, The Science of Life
(1930) and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1931). The "Outlines" became sufficiently common for James Thurber
to parody the trend in his humorous essay, "An Outline of Scientists"—indeed, Wells's Outline of History remains in print with a new 2005 edition, while A Short History of the World has been recently reedited (2006).
From quite early in his career, he sought a better way to organise society, and wrote a number of Utopia
n novels. The first of these was A Modern Utopia
(1905), which shows a worldwide utopia with "no imports but meteorites, and no exports at all"; two travellers from our world fall into its alternate history. The others usually begin with the world rushing to catastrophe, until people realise a better way of living: whether by mysterious gases from a comet
causing people to behave rationally and abandoning a European war (In the Days of the Comet
(1906)), or a world council of scientists taking over, as in The Shape of Things to Come
(1933, which he later adapted for the 1936 Alexander Korda
film, Things to Come
). This depicted, all too accurately, the impending World War
, with cities being destroyed by aerial bombs. He also portrayed the rise of fascist
dictators in The Autocracy of Mr Parham (1930) and The Holy Terror (1939).

and questions humanity in books such as The Island of Doctor Moreau
. Not all his scientific romances ended in a happy Utopia, and in fact, Wells also wrote the first dystopia
novel, When the Sleeper Wakes
(1899, rewritten as The Sleeper Awakes
, 1910), which pictures a future society where the classes have become more and more separated, leading to a revolt of the masses against the rulers. The Island of Doctor Moreau is even darker. The narrator, having been trapped on an island of animals vivisected (unsuccessfully) into human beings, eventually returns to England; like Gulliver
on his return from the Houyhnhnm
s, he finds himself unable to shake off the perceptions of his fellow humans as barely civilised beasts, slowly reverting to their animal natures.
Wells also wrote the preface for the first edition of W. N. P. Barbellion
's diaries, The Journal of a Disappointed Man, published in 1919. Since "Barbellion" was the real author's pen name
, many reviewers believed Wells to have been the true author of the Journal; Wells always denied this, despite being full of praise for the diaries, but the rumours persisted until Barbellion's death later that year.
In 1927, Florence Deeks sued Wells for plagiarism
, claiming that he had stolen much of the content of The Outline of History
from a work, The Web, she had submitted to the Canadian Macmillan Company, but who held onto the manuscript for eight months before rejecting it. Despite numerous similarities in phrasing and factual errors, the court found the evidence inadequate and dismissed the case. A Privy Council report added that, as Deek's work had not been printed, there were no legal grounds at all for the action.
In 1933 Wells predicted in The Shape of Things to Come that the world war he feared would begin January 1940, a prediction which ultimately came true just four months early, when the Second World War broke out in September 1939.
In 1936, before the Royal Institution
, Wells called for the compilation of a constantly growing and changing World Encyclopedia
, to be reviewed by outstanding authorities and made accessible to every human being. In 1938, he published a collection of essays on the future organisation of knowledge and education, World Brain
, including the essay, "The Idea of a Permanent World Encyclopaedia".
Near the end of the Second World War, Allied forces
discovered that the SS
had compiled lists of people slated for immediate arrest during the invasion of Britain in the abandoned Operation Sea Lion, and Wells was included in the alphabetical list on the same page of "The Black Book
" as Rebecca West. Wells, as president of the International PEN
(Poets, Essayists, Novelists), had already angered the Nazis
by overseeing the expulsion of the German PEN club from the international body in 1934 following the German PEN's refusal to admit non-Aryan
writers to its membership.
Seeking a more structured way to play war games, Wells also wrote Floor Games
(1911) followed by Little Wars
(1913). Little Wars is recognised today as the first recreational wargame
and Wells is regarded by gamers and hobbyists as "the Father of Miniature War Gaming".
The Fabian Society
Wells called his political views socialist. He was for a time a member of the socialist Fabian Society
, but broke with them as his creative political imagination, matching the originality shown in his fiction, outran theirs. He later grew staunchly critical of them as having a poor understanding of economics and educational reform. He ran as a Labour Party
candidate for London University
in the 1922
and 1923 general elections
after the death of his friend W. H. R. Rivers
, but at that point his faith in the party was weak or uncertain.
Class
Social class was a theme in Wells's The Time Machinein which the Time Traveller speaks of the future world, with its two races, as having evolved from
the gradual widening of the present (19th century) merely temporary and social difference between the Capitalist and the Labourer ... Even now, does not an East-end worker live in such artificial conditions as practically to be cut off from the natural surface of the earth? Again, the exclusive tendency of richer people ... is already leading to the closing, in their interest, of considerable portions of the surface of the land. About London, for instance, perhaps half the prettier country is shut in against intrusion.
Nevertheless, Wells has this very same Time Traveller speak in terms antithetical to much of socialist thought, referring approvingly and as "perfect" and with no social problem unsolved, to an imagined world of stark class division between the rich assured of their wealth and comfort, and the rest of humanity assigned to lifelong toil:
Once, life and property must have reached almost absolute safety. The rich had been assured of his wealth and comfort, the toiler assured of his life and work. No doubt in that perfect world there had been no unemployed problem, no social question left unsolved.
World Government
His most consistent political ideal was the World State. He stated in his autobiography that from 1900 onward he considered a World State inevitable. He envisioned the state to be a planned society that would advance science, end nationalism, and allow people to progress by merit rather than birth.
World War I
He supported Britain in the First World War, despite his many criticisms of British policy, and opposed, in 1916, moves for an early peace. In an essay published that year he acknowledged that he could not understand those British pacifists who were reconciled to "handing over great blocks of the black and coloured races to the [German Empire] to exploit and experiment upon" and that the extent of his own pacifism depended in the first instance upon an armed peace, with "England keep[ing] to England and Germany to Germany". State boundaries would be established according to natural ethnic affinities, rather than by planners in distant imperial capitals, and overseen by his envisaged world alliance of states.In his book In the Fourth Year published in 1918 he suggested how each nation of the world would elect, "upon democratic lines" by proportional representation
, an electoral college
in the manner of the United States of America, in turn to select its delegate to the proposed League of Nations
. This international body he contrasted with imperialism
, not only the imperialism of Germany, against which the war was being fought, but also the imperialism, which he considered more benign, of Britain and France.
His values and political thinking came under increasing criticism from the 1920s and afterwards.
The Soviet Union
The leadership of Joseph Stalinled to a change in his view of the Soviet Union even though his initial impression of Stalin himself was mixed. He disliked what he saw as a narrow orthodoxy and obdurance to the facts in Stalin. However, he did give him some praise saying in an article in the left-leaning New Statesman
magazine, "I have never met a man more fair, candid, and honest" and making it clear that he felt the "sinister" image of Stalin was unfair or simply false. Nevertheless he judged Stalin's rule to be far too rigid, restrictive of independent thought, and blinkered to lead toward the Cosmopolis he hoped for. In the course of his visit to the Soviet Union in 1934, he debated the merits of reformist
socialism over Marxism-Leninism
with Stalin.
Eugenics
Wells believed in the theory of eugenics. In 1904 he discussed a survey paper by Francis Galton
, co-founder of eugenics, saying "I believe ... It is in the sterilisation of failure, and not in the selection of successes for breeding, that the possibility of an improvement of the human stock lies". Some contemporary supporters even suggested connections between the "degenerate" man-creatures portrayed in The Time Machine and Wells's eugenic beliefs. For example, the economist Irving Fisher
said in a 1912 address to the Eugenics Research Association: "The Nordic race will ... vanish or lose its dominance if, in fact, the whole human race does not sink so low as to become the prey, as H. G. Wells images, of some less degenerate animal!"
Zionism
Wells had given some moderate, unenthusiastic support for Territorialismbefore the First World War, but later became a bitter opponent of the Zionist movement in general. He saw Zionism
as an exclusive and separatist movement which challenged the collective solidarity he advocated in his vision of a world state. No supporter of Jewish identity in general, Wells had in his utopian writings predicted the ultimate assimilation of Jewry.
Other endeavours
Wells brought his interest in Art & Design and politics together when he and other notables signed a memorandum to the Permanent Secretaries of the Board of Trade, among others. The November 1914 memorandum expressed the signatories concerns about British industrial design in the face of foreign competition. The suggestions were accepted, leading to the foundation of the Design and Industries Association.
In the end his contemporary political impact was limited. His efforts regarding the League of Nations
became a disappointment as the organisation turned out to be a weak one unable to prevent World War II
. The war itself increased the pessimistic side of his nature. In his last book Mind at the End of its Tether (1945) he considered the idea that humanity being replaced by another species might not be a bad idea. He also came to call the era "The Age of Frustration".
Religion
Wells wrote in his book God the Invisible King that his idea of God did not draw upon the traditional religions of the world: "This book sets out as forcibly and exactly as possible the religious belief of the writer. [Which] is a profound belief in a personal and intimate God". Later in the work he aligns himself with a "renascent or modern religion ... neither atheist nor Buddhist nor Mohammedan nor Christian ... [that] he has found growing up in himself".Of Christianity he has this to say: "... it is not now true for me ... Every believing Christian is, I am sure, my spiritual brother ... but if systemically I called myself a Christian I feel that to most men I should imply too much and so tell a lie." Of other world religions he writes: "All these religions are true for me as Canterbury Cathedral is a true thing and as a Swiss chalet is a true thing. There they are, and they have served a purpose, they have worked. Only they are not true for me to live in them ... They do not work for me."
Final years
He spent his final years venting his frustration at various targets which included a neighbour who erected a large sign to a servicemen's club, and being hostile towards the Catholic Church. Wells's literary reputation declined as he spent his later years promoting causes that were rejected by most of his contemporaries. G. K. Chestertonquipped: "Mr. Wells is a born storyteller who has sold his birthright for a pot of message."
Wells was a diabetic
, and a co-founder in 1934 of what is now Diabetes UK
, the leading charity for people living with diabetes in the UK.
On 28 October 1940 Wells was interviewed by Orson Welles
, who two years previous had performed an infamous radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds
, on KTSA
radio in San Antonio, Texas
. In the interview, Wells admitted his surprise at the widespread panic that resulted from the broadcast, but acknowledged his debt to Welles for increasing sales of one of his "more obscure" titles.
He died of unspecified causes on 13 August 1946 at his home at 13 Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park
, London, aged 79. Some reports indicate the cause of death was diabetes or liver cancer. In his preface to the 1941 edition of The War in the Air
, Wells had stated that his epitaph
should be: "I told you so. You damned fools." He was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium
on 16 August 1946 and his ashes were scattered at sea. A commemorative blue plaque
in his honour was installed at his home in Regent's Park.
In popular fiction
H. G. Wells has been portrayed in a number of novels, films, and games, including:- The novel The Time ShipsThe Time ShipsThe Time Ships is a 1995 science fiction novel by Stephen Baxter. A sequel to The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, it was officially authorized by the Wells estate to mark the centenary of the original's publication. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and the Philip K. Dick Award in 1996, as...
, by British author Stephen BaxterStephen BaxterStephen Baxter is a prolific British hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.- Writing style :...
, was designated by the Wells estate as an authorised sequel to The Time MachineThe Time MachineThe Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 for the first time and later adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction...
, marking the centenary of its publication, and features characters, situations and technobabbleTechnobabbleTechnobabble , also called technospeak, is a form of prose using jargon, buzzwords, esoteric language, specialized technical terms, or technical slang that is incomprehensible to the listener...
from several of Wells's stories, as well as a representation of Wells (unnamed, and referred to as 'my friend, the Author'). - Christopher Priest's novel The Space Machine thematically references both The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds.
- The first volume of the graphic series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, by Alan MooreAlan MooreAlan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and Kevin O'NeillKevin O'Neill (comics)Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
features cavorite, the fictional substance from Well's The First Men in the Moon. In addition the second volume includes Wells's character Doctor Moreau. - In the film adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (film) the character of an Invisible thief is inspired by H.G Well's novel The Invisible ManThe Invisible ManThe Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H.G. Wells published in 1897. Wells' novel was originally serialised in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, and published as a novel the same year...
. The character namely Rodney Skinner was specially created, due to copyright issues regarding H.G. Wells's original novel. In his comic book "League" incarnation, Skinner is a thief who stole the invisibility formula from (we are led to assume) the original novel's anti-hero GriffinGriffinThe griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle... - In C. S. LewisC. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
's novel That Hideous StrengthThat Hideous StrengthThat Hideous Strength is a 1945 novel by C. S. Lewis, the final book in Lewis's theological science fiction Space Trilogy. The events of this novel follow those of Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra and once again feature the philologist Elwin Ransom...
, the character Jules is a caricature of Wells, and much of Lewis's science fiction was written both under the influence of Wells and as an antithesis to his work (or, as he put it, an "exorcism" of the influence it had on him). The devoutly Christian Lewis was especially incensed at Wells's The Shape of Things to ComeThe Shape of Things to ComeThe Shape of Things to Come is a work of science fiction by H. G. Wells, published in 1933, which speculates on future events from 1933 until the year 2106. The book is dominated by Wells's belief in a world state as the solution to mankind's problems....
where a future world governmentWorld governmentWorld government is the notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity. Its modern conception is rooted in European history, particularly in the philosophy of ancient Greece, in the political formation of the Roman Empire, and in the subsequent struggle between secular authority,...
systematically persecutes and completely obliterates Christianity (and all other religions), which the book presents as a positive and vitally necessary act. (Lewis had, however, kind words to say for Wells as an author; in a note at the beginning of Out of the Silent PlanetOut of the Silent PlanetOut of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy, Ransom Trilogy or Cosmic Trilogy. The other volumes are Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, and a fragment of a sequel was published posthumously as The...
, he writes, "Certain slighting references to earlier stories of this type which will be found in the following pages have been put there for purely dramatic purposes. The author would be sorry if any reader supposed he was too stupid to have enjoyed Mr. H. G. Wells's fantasies or too ungrateful to acknowledge his debt to them.") - Wells's photo appears on a stairway wall of time traveller Alex Hartdegen's New York brownstoneBrownstoneBrownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
, in a 2002 version of The Time MachineThe Time Machine (2002 film)The Time Machine is a 2002 American science fiction film loosely adapted from the 1895 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells, and the 1960 film screenplay by David Duncan...
, directed by Wells's great-grandson Simon WellsSimon WellsSimon Wells is an English-American film director of animation and live-action films. He is the great grandson of famous author, H. G. Wells.Born in Cambridge, he attended De Montfort University where he studied audio-visual design...
. The 1960 movie versionThe Time Machine (1960 film)The Time Machine is a 1960 American science fiction film based on the 1895 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells in which a man in Victorian England constructs a time-travelling machine which he uses to travel to the future...
has a plate on the Time Machine telling that it had been manufactured by "H. George Wells" (a.k.a. George, the protagonist of the film). - Arthur Sammler, the main character of Saul BellowSaul BellowSaul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
's Mr. Sammler's PlanetMr. Sammler's PlanetMr. Sammler's Planet is a 1970 novel by the American author Saul Bellow. It was awarded the National Book Award for fiction in 1971.- Plot synopsis :Mr...
, knew Wells, and is urged by other characters to use that fact as the basis for writing a biography of Wells, a project about which HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
survivor and self-made philosopher Sammler has decidedly mixed feelings. - Wells appears as the protagonist in the 1979 film Time After TimeTime After Time (1979 film)Time After Time is a 1979 American fantasy film written and directed by Nicholas Meyer. His screenplay is based largely on a novel by Karl Alexander and a story by Steve Hayes. It concerns British author H. G...
, and in the novel The Martian WarThe Martian WarThe Martian War: A Thrilling Eyewitness Account of the Recent Invasion As Reported by Mr. H.G. Wells is a 2006 science fiction novel by Kevin J. Anderson . It is a retelling of H.G...
by Kevin J. AndersonKevin J. AndersonKevin J. Anderson is an American science fiction author with over forty bestsellers. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and with Brian Herbert is the co-author of the Dune prequels...
(as "Gabriel Mesta"). Both works use the conceit that Wells's works were based upon actual adventures he had. In the film Time After Time, he meets and falls in love with a woman named Amy Robbins (the name of his real-life second wife). - In an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of SupermanLois & Clark: The New Adventures of SupermanLois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was a live-action American television series based on the Superman comic books...
, titled "Tempus Fugitive", a time-travelling H. G. Wells (Terry KiserTerry KiserTerry Kiser is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of the dead title-character in the comedy Weekend at Bernie's, and its sequel, Weekend at Bernie's II....
) seeks out Superman's help to stop a criminal from the future whom Wells had accidentally unleashed on the present. The concept of Wells's time machine being stolen and used for evil closely resembles the plot of Time After Time. Both H. G. Wells and the criminal Tempus (Lane Davies) returned for three later episodes. - In an adventure in the BBC's Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, the two-part, 90-minute "TimelashTimelashTimelash is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts from 9–16 March 1985.-Synopsis:...
", the time-travelling Doctor (Colin BakerColin BakerColin Baker is a British actor who is known for playing Paul Merroney in The Brothers from 1974 to 1976 and as the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, from 1984 to 1986.- Background:Colin Baker was born in London, but moved north to...
) encounters an excitable young man, Herbert, in the Scottish HighlandsScottish HighlandsThe Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
, taking him on an adventure that is revealed to have been inspirational when it is finally realised this is the pre-published Wells. - In Ben BovaBen BovaBenjamin William Bova is an American science-fiction author and editor. He is the recipient of six Hugo Awards for Best Professional Editor for his work at Analog Science Fiction in the 1970's.-Personal life:...
's short story "Inspiration", the narrator gets Wells to meet a young Albert EinsteinAlbert EinsteinAlbert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
and Lord Kelvin. In the end of the story he (Wells) gave a tip to a 6-year-old Adolf HitlerAdolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. - The movie The Librarian: Quest for the SpearThe Librarian: Quest for the SpearThe Librarian: Quest for the Spear is the first in The Librarian franchise of movies which was originally released on American cable channel TNT in December 2004, directed by Peter Winther and starring Noah Wyle in the title role....
, ends with the main character, Flynn Carsen, getting a mission to retrieve H. G. Wells's Time MachineTime travelTime travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
. - Newt GingrichNewt GingrichNewton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
, former Speaker of the United States House of RepresentativesSpeaker of the United States House of RepresentativesThe Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
and staunch RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, praised Wells in his book To Renew America, writing, "Our generation is still seeking its Jules VerneJules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
or H. G. Wells to dazzle our imaginations with hope and optimism." - In the movie The Maltese FalconThe Maltese Falcon (1941 film)The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 Warner Bros. film based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett and a remake of the 1931 film of the same name...
Kasper Gutman recounts the history of the bird emphasising that "Those are facts, historical facts, not school book history, not Mr. Wells' history, but facts nevertheless." - In the science/historical fiction novel And Having Writ..., Wells is a major character.
- Wells is a major character in John Kessel'sJohn KesselJohn Kessel is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. He is a prolific short story writer and the author of two solo novels, Good News From Outer Space and Corrupting Dr...
award-winning short story "Buffalo", first printed in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science FictionThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science FictionThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
, February, 1991. - H. G. Wells makes an appearance in Chapter 10 of The Hollow Lands by Michael MoorcockMichael MoorcockMichael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
. This being the second book in The Dancers at the End of TimeThe Dancers at the End of TimeThe title of this volume comes from the poem "The Last Word" by Ernest Dowson.Reunited at the end of Time, Jherek and the other inhabitants of the End of Time have returned to their preferred amusements of parties and games. They are interrupted by a ship of alien musician/pirates, the Lat...
series. The hero has gone back in time and needs help returning to the future. - Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's comedy film SleeperSleeper (film)Sleeper is a 1973 futuristic science fiction comedy film, written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman, and directed by Allen. The plot involves the adventures of the owner of a Greenwich Village, NY health food store played by Woody Allen who is cryogenically frozen in 1973 and defrosted 200...
(1973) is loosely based on Wells's novel, When the Sleeper AwakesThe Sleeper AwakesThe Sleeper Awakes is a dystopian novel by H. G. Wells about a man who sleeps for two hundred and three years, waking up in a completely transformed London, where, because of compound interest on his bank accounts, he has become the richest man in the world...
. - The Infinite Worlds of H. G. WellsThe Infinite Worlds of H. G. WellsThe Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells is a four-hour miniseries conceived by Nick Willing and released in 2001 by the Hallmark Channel. It is based on a number of short stories by H. G. Wells, and in some territories was titled The Scientist.-Production:...
is a 4-hour dramatisation of the origin of several of Wells's stories. Originally made for TV, the series has been released on DVD. - In Libba BrayLibba BrayLibba Bray is an author of young adult novels, including the books A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing and Going Bovine....
's novel The Sweet Far ThingThe Sweet Far ThingThe Sweet Far Thing is a novel by Libba Bray that was released on December 26, 2007. It is the sequel to the best-selling A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels....
, H. G. Wells makes an appearance in chapter twenty-four. - Ronald WrightRonald WrightRonald Wright is a Canadian author who has written books of travel, history and fiction. His nonfiction includes the bestseller Stolen Continents, winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times...
's 1998 novel A Scientific Romance imagines that a Wells contemporary built a working time machine, which the protagonist uses to travel 500 years into the future, where he explores England which has become overgrown with jungle, and the few remaining people live in stone age conditions with peculiar remnants of civilisation. - The sci-fi television show Warehouse 13Warehouse 13Warehouse 13 is an American fantasy television series that premiered on July 7, 2009 on the Syfy network.Executive-produced by Jack Kenny and David Simkins, the dramatic comedy from Universal Media Studios has been described as borrowing much from 1980s television series Friday the 13th: The...
prominently includes H. G. Wells as one of its Warehouse agents. Wells, acted by Jaime MurrayJaime MurrayJaime Murray is an English actress, best known for playing Stacie Monroe in Hustle and Lila Tournay in season two of the Showtime series Dexter. She has also had recurring roles as H.G...
, is portrayed as a female.
Further reading
- Dickson, LovatLovat DicksonLovat Dickson, born Horatio Henry Lovat Dickson was a notable publisher and writer, the first Canadian to have a major publishing role in Britain. He is best known today for his biographies of Grey Owl, Richard Hillary, Radclyffe Hall and H. G. Wells...
. H.G. Wells: His Turbulent Life & Times. 1969. - Gilmour, David. The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002 (paperback, ISBN 0-374-18702-9); 2003 (paperback, ISBN 0-374-52896-9).
- Gomme, A. W.Arnold Wycombe GommeArnold Wycombe Gomme was a British classical scholar, Lecturer in Greek and Greek History , Professor of Greek, University of Glasgow . Fellow of the British Academy .-Life:...
, Mr. Wells as Historian. Glasgow: MacLehose, Jackson, and Co., 1921. - Gosling, John. Waging the War of the Worlds. Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland, 2009 (paperback, ISBN 0786441054).
- Mauthner, Martin. German Writers in French Exile, 1933–1940, London: Vallentine and Mitchell, 2007, ISBN 9780853035404.
- West, Anthony. H. G. Wells: Aspects of a Life. London: Hutchinson, 1984.