Although his reputation now rests on the science fiction novels he wrote in the 1890s, HG Wells had a longer and varied literary career, with books ranging from a biology textbook (his first published work), through comic novels, parodies and political polemics to his Experiment in Autobiography (1934)....
Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley in Kent, where his parents were not very successful shopkeepers. The family struggled financially and young Wells, after a poor education, was apprenticed to a draper at the age of 14. However, through his love of reading and determination, he eventually won a scholarship to study biology at the Normal School of Science (now Imperial College) in South Kensington.
After graduating, Wells worked as a science teacher and married his cousin Isabel Mary Wells in 1891. It was an unsuccessful marriage and in 1894, he left Isabel for Amy, a former pupil who later became his second wife. He gave up teaching as soon as he achieved success with his first novel, The Time Machine (1895).
The great science fiction books followed in quick succession – The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898) and three volumes of short stories – all popular with readers and critics for their novelty, gentle satire and an underlying concern for humanity.
In the early 1900s, Wells abandoned the fantastical for ordinary lives in his comic novels, notably The History of Mr Polly (1910) and Tono-Bungay (1909); and he became more involved in social issues, education and politics and less interested in fiction. He was a prominent figure in British cultural life, engaging in argument with well-known writers and politicians, particularly fellow Fabian Society members, George Bernard Shaw and Sidney and Beatrice Webb; and his advocacy and practice of free love attracted some notoriety.
Two world wars wore down Wells’ early optimism for the future of humankind. Ageing and in poor health, he remained in his house in central London throughout the Second World War, but still writing: his final book, Mind at the End of Its Tether (1945) depicts human society as doomed to be superseded by a higher form of being.
