Herbert George "H. G." Wells
(September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946) was an English author best known
for his science fiction novels; along with Jules Verne, he is sometimes
called the father of science fiction. He was born the youngest of four
in Bromley, Kent to a father who was a professional cricketer and
shopkeeper with a small private income; his mother had been a domestic
servant. He became an avid reader at age 8 when a broken leg left him
bedridden and likely set him on a path of intensive self-education. At
age 11 he was taken from school and apprenticed to a draper after his
father’s fractured thigh drastically reduced the family income. Family
connections later helped him secure a position as a pupil-teacher at
Midhurst Grammar School, which enabled him to win a scholarship to the
Normal School of Science. There he studied biology under the tutelage of
the noted Thomas Henry Huxley and co-founded the Science School
Journal, where an early version of the Time Machine appeared.
He obtained a teaching certificate and taught at Henley House School. He
married his first cousin Isabel in 1891; they separated in 1894 and
Wells married Amy Catherine Robbins, later called Jane, in 1895. At that
time he published his four great novels called scientific romances in
rapid succession: The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds
(1898). These books invented the classic scientific themes, made his
name and gave him the resources to build a substantial home near
Folkestone. He turned to non-fiction in the early 1900’s, addressing
subjects of history, politics, and social commentary in addition to
science. The Outline of History in 1920 was an immensely
popular and commercial success. This and other works, many concerning
utopian notions of social organization, made him enormously influential,
to the degree that critic Malcolm Cowley stated “his influence was
greater than any other living writer.”
