Wells, Herbert George (1866-1946)

Wells, Herbert George (1866-1946)

English novelist and journalist, known for his popular fantasies on pseudo-scientific themes, his satires on the English life of his day, his popularized accounts of history and science, and his outspoken social and political theories.

His works include Select Conversations with an Uncle ( 1895); The Island of Dr. Moreau ( 1896); The Time Machine ( 1895); The Invisible Man ( 1897); Thirty Strange Stories ( 1897); The War of the Worlds ( 1898); Tales of Space and Time ( 1899); Love and Mr. Lewisham ( 1899); When the Sleeper Wakes ( 1899); The Sea Lady ( 1902); A Modern Utopia ( 1904); Twelve Stories and a Dream ( 1905); Kipps ( 1905); The Misery of Boots ( 1907); Tono-Bungay ( 1908); The War in the Air ( 1908); Ann Veronica ( 1909); New Worlds for Old ( 1908); The History of Mr. Polly ( 1910); The New Machiavelli ( 1910); Marriage ( 1912); The Passionate Friends ( 1913); The Wife Of Sir İsaac Harman ( 1914); The Research Magnificent ( 1915); Mr. Britling Sees It Through ( 1916); War and the Future ( 1917); The Soul of a Bishop ( 1917); The Undying Fire ( 1919); The Outline of History ( 1920); The Salvaging of Civilization ( 1921); Men Like Gods ( 1923); A Short History of the World ( 1925); Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island ( 1928); The Open Conspiracy: Blue Prints for a World Revolution ( 1928); The King Who Was a King ( 1929); The Autocracy of Mr. Parham ( 1930); The Way to World Peace ( 1930); The Work, Wealth, and Happiness of Mankind ( 1931); The Shape of Things to Come ( 1933); The Anatomy of Frustration ( 1936); Star Begotten ( 1937); Man's Mind and Behavior ( 1937); Apropos of Dolores ( 1938); The Brothers ( 1938); All Aboard for Ararat ( 1940); Babes in the Darkling Wood ( 1940); The New World Order ( 1940); Phoenix: A Summary of the Inescapable Conditions of World Reorganization ( 1942); You Can't Be Too Careful ( 1942).

Wells was the son of a small shopkeeper and was himself apprenticed to dry-goods dealers and druggists before going to college. In his early career he taught and was a student of biology and sociology, subjects which greatly influenced his writings and his ideas. He aroused much controversy by his criticisms of 20th-century society and his sensational predictions of the future, such as tanks, air warfare, and the atomic bomb.