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Herbert George Wells - English writer 1866-1946

Born in 1866, he was unsuccessfully apprenticed as a draper - his experiences in this occupation were later used as material in his novel `Kipps'. In 1883 he became a teacher at Midhurst Grammar school, until he won a scholarship to the National School of Science in London, studying biology under T.H. Huxley

In his early novels, described at the time as `scientific romances' he invented a number of themes that have been elaborated on by later science fiction writers, and have entered popular culture, with such works as The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds. Other novels, non-fantastic in nature were well received, such as the satire on Edwardian advertising, `Tono-Bungay', and `Kipps', which drew on his experiences a a draper's assistant.

From quite early in his career, he felt that there should be a better way of organising society, and wrote a number of Utopian novels; usually starting with the world heading inexorably towards catastrophe, until people realise a better way of living: whether by mysterious gases from a comet causing people to suddenly behave rationally ('In the Days of the Comet'), or a world council of scientists taking over, as in `The Shape of Things to Come' (1933), which he later adapted for the 1938 Alexander Korda film, Things to Come, This depicted, all too accurately, the impending World War, with cities being destroyed by aerial bombardment.

Not all his scientific romances ended in a happy Utopia, as the dystopian `When the Sleeper Awakes' shows. 'The Island of Dr. 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 Houyhnhms he finds himself unable to shake off the perceptions of his fellow humans as barely civilised beasts, slowly reverting back to their animal natures.

He called his political views socialist, and with his fondness for Utopias, he was initially quite sympathetic to Lenin's attempts at reconstructing the shattered Russian economy, as his account of a visit (`Russia in the Shadows') However, he became disillusioned at the increasing doctrinal rigidity of the Bolsheviks, and after a meeting with Stalin became convinced that the whole enterprise had gone horribly wrong. In this he was probably more clear-sighted than many intellectuals of his day. (1)

He grew increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for humanity in his later years, as the title of his last book, "Mind at the end of its tether" suggests. His later books tended rather to preach than tell a story, and they didn't have the energy and inventiveness of his earlier works - as one critic aptly put it "he sold his birthright for a pot of message" (2)

A partial listing of his novels:

The Time Machine (1896)

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896)

The Invisible Man (1897)

The War of the Worlds (1898)

Love and Mr Lewisham (1900)

Kipps (1905)

A Modern Utopia (1905)

Ann Veronica (1909

Tono-Bungay (1909)

The history of Mr Polly (1910)

The New Machiavelli (1911)

Marriage (1912)

Men Like Gods (1923)

The Shape of Things to Come (1933)

Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island

The World of William Clissold

In the Days of the Comet

The World Set Free

His autobiography was published in 1934, as `An Experiment in Autobiography'

(1) For examples of his contemporaries wilful disregard of the failings of the Soviet Union, see the book `Political Pilgrims' by Paul Hollander.

(2) I thought Theodore Sturgeon had coined the "pot of message" remark, but on rereading the source (a Sturgeon short story from 1948 entitled `Unite and Conquer') find that a character in the story was quoting a `Dr Pierce' with that remark. Wherever it came from, it's a perfect description of why his later books weren't as good as the early ones..

This needs a lot more yet....