H. G. Wells
Author of The War of the Words, Father of Science-Fiction
One of the earliest writers of science-fiction (including The War of the Words). H.G. Wells was also a well know social commentator during his lifetime.
Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent on September 21, 1866. His father was a shop-keeper who earned a little extra money as a cricket player. His mother contributed by cleaning houses. For his first fourteen years, H. G. Wells attended school and fell in love with reading and writing. In 1880, the family found themselves in dire financial straights, and Herbert spent the next three years as an apprentice draper. It was an unhappy time for the young man, and in 1883 he was fired. Wells landed on his feet and quickly secured a post as an assistant teacher at a middle school. He soon earned a college scholarship but failed to complete his course and returned to various teaching jobs for the next ten years. In 1891 he married his cousin, Isabella Wells, but left her for one of his students Amy Catherine Robbins whom he married in 1895. Together they had two children. H. G. Wells and Amy remained married the rest of their lives, but Herbert was often unfaithful, fathering at least two other children to two other women.
In the early years of his marriage to Isabella, H. G. Wells became a full time writer, producing several non-fiction books. In 1895, his first novel, The Time Machine was published. Although termed a scientific-romance at the time, it is now considered to one of the first great works of science-fiction to be written in the English language. It was quickly followed by others: The Island of Dr. Moreau in 1896, The Invisible Man in 1897, and the book for which he is probably best know today, The War of the Worlds in 1898. These four books which form the core of his science-fiction writing have all been reproduced in countless editions and can still be found in bookstores today. They have also all been adapted for the big screen, some multiple times. Not only are these four works instrumental in the development of science-fiction as a literary genre, but it can also be considered one of the most successful four year periods by any science-fiction writer ever.
Within his science-fiction works, H. G. Wells makes many statements about society, especially class in society, most notably in The Time Machine. As the years went by, Wells continued to write science-fiction but also turned his pen to social causes. In the years leading up to World War I, he wrote extensively on his ideas of a world-state and the end to Nationalism. He thought that democracy as it was then practiced could not work, but that only those who had proved their value to society should be allowed to vote. H. G. Wells continued to be a voice on social issues throughout his life, but little can be said to have come from it. His later writings betray a bitterness and frustration.
H. G. Wells died in 1946. During his life he was well known as a social thinker and writer, but today those works are nearly forgotten. Instead, his true legacy has been to the world of science-fiction. Many of the ideas he first explored, such as the invasion of earth by an alien species in The War of the Worlds, have formed much of the basis of modern science-fiction writing.
