1) Early Life
Herbert George Wells
Born on September 21, 1866 in Kent, England
Parents were Joseph and Sarah, and had an older sister that died before he was born
One of 4 children
Parents called him Bertie
Had much respect for his parents, and although he was poor, he still loved them
Realized his father was rather sexist, and led to his being a little sexist as well
2) Into The Real World
Father suffered a severe injury; HG had to work at father’s store
At time, was introduced to literature by Thomas Paine and Plato
Became interested in socialist readings, such as Jonathan Swift
Had no religious inclinations, as he thought God would not be create the difficult situations in the world
These ideas, along with the “Adam and Eve” belief instilled by John Ball, led to his becoming a socialist believing in equality for all.
Family hit more economic issues, and he was forced out of school to work permanently.
Refused to work, as it was not fair to do “hopeless drudgery”, and taught himself and graduated from University of London in 1890
3) Love Life
Had many affairs with women, stemming from his father’s thoughts of women
His cousin Isabel was one such affair
Married her in 1891, but marriage was short lived, as he did not respect her.
In 1893, fell in love with Amy Robbins while still married to Isabel, and later married Amy
Somewhat of a confused womanizer
4) Beginnings of Writing
Inspiration for writing came from his childhood memories, and the remembrance of injustices he had seen
Wells wanted to write about his love affairs, and wanted to make parents happy
First books were Textbook of Biology and Honours Physiography
First literature under the name H.G. Wells was “The Stolen Bacillus” in 1894
Was not accepted by many publishers, and started his writing career over many times
Socialist ideas of Oscar Wilde helped jumpstart his writing
5) The Time Machine and Other Novels
Published in 1895, it was popular as a “what if” novel against Victorian ideals of conquest and classes
Began writing science fiction, starting with The Time Machine, as it allowed him to express his dislike for inequality in the social system (like Bellamy)
Also wrote:
The Invisible Man (1897)
The First Men in the Moon (1901)
The War in the Air (1908)
Non-fiction books about love
2 autobiographies
A Modern Utopia (1905)
Books mainly tried to set up a new, more fair society of socialist roots
6) Role in WWI
Was for the war in the sense that he thought it would be the last war ever
However, found out that his prediction was wrong and thought that the thing the world needed was “world education”, as it would create a civilized world with less injustice; documented this in Outline of History in 1920
If world was more educated, he believed, the fortunes that he faced as a child would no longer occur.
After war, became very interested in the spotlight, and rather than writing books, became more interested in writing essays on all the things wrong with the world and what needed to be done
7) Late Life
From 1934-1946, he wrote approximately 28 books, dealing mostly with things of non-science fiction nature. Depressingly, his final book was called Mind at the End of its Tether in 1945 which showed quite a bleak look into the following years.
Wrote a humor book called Apropos of Delores
Died on August 13, 1946
8) Sources Used
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/herbert-george-wells/
http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~tdoyle/hgbib.html
Foot, Michael. H.G.: The History of Mr. Wells. Washington, D.C: Counterpoint, 1995. Print.
http://blog.mpl.org/mke_reads/HGWells.jpg
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