H. G. Wells 1866–1946

Abstract

Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent, and educated at the Normal School of Science, in Kensington. He was a schoolteacher and journalist for a while; he published A Textbook of Biology in 1893. The Time Machine (1895) was the first of a series of works of science fiction. Kipps (1905) and The History of Mr Polly (1910) are classic novels of lower-middle-class life and Tono-Bungay (1909) is a shrewd social comedy. Wells wrote prolifically. His Outline of History (1920) and The Shape of Things to Come (1933) were widely popular, educational books. A Fabian Socialist, Wells believed in social reform and in science, but his last books, including The Fate of Homo Sapiens (1939) and Mind at the End of Its Tether (1945), are very pessimistic. He was quick to see the dangers of science.