Herbert George Wells "H. G."

 

Herbert George Wells, better known as H.G. Wells, was an English author, best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary. Together with Jules Verne, Wells has been referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction".Wells was an outspoken socialist and very sympathetic to technocracy and pacifist views, although he supported the First World War once it was under way, and his later works became increasingly political and didactic. His middle period novels (1900-1920) were more realistic; they covered lower-middle class life. As a young man, an accident left him bedridden with a broken leg. To pass the time he began reading books. He soon became devoted to the other worlds and lives to which books gave him access; they also stimulated his desire to write. In 1891 Wells married his cousin Isabel Mary Wells, but left her in 1894 for one of his students, Amy Catherine Robbins, whom he married in 1895. He had two sons with Amy: George Philip (known as 'Gip') in 1901 and Frank Richard in 1903. During his marriage to Amy, Wells had liaisons with a number of women, including the American birth-control activist Margaret Sanger and novelist Elizabeth von Arnim. In 1909 he had a daughter, Anna-Jane, with the writer Amber Reeves, whose parents, William and Maud Pember Reeves, he had met through the Fabian Society; and in 1914, a son, Anthony West, by the novelist and feminist Rebecca West, twenty-six years his junior. In spite of Amy Catherine's knowledge of some of these affairs, she remained married to Wells until her death in 1927. Wells also had liaisons with Odette Keun and Moura Budberg. "I was never a great amorist," Wells wrote in Experiment in Autobiography (1934), "though I have loved several people very deeply." His first non-fiction bestseller was Anticipations followed by An Experiment in Prophecy, and this is considered his most explicityly futuristic work. He is most well known for The War of the Worlds and many of his books were inspirations for future television shows such as Star Trek. He spent his final years venting his frustration at various targets which included a neighbour who erected a large sign to a servicemen's club. As he devoted his final decades toward causes which were largely rejected by contemporaries, his literary reputation declined. One critic said, "Mr. Wells is a born storyteller who has sold his birthright for a pot of message." Wells was a diabetic and a co-founder in 1934 of what is now Diabetes UK, the leading charity for people living with diabetes in the UK. He died of unspecified causes on 13 August 1946 at his home at 13 Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, London. Some reports indicate the cause of death was diabetes or liver cancer. In his preface to the 1941 edition of The War in the Air, Wells had stated that his epitaph should be: "I told you so. You damned fools." but his wish was not granted as he was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 16 August 1946 and his ashes were later scattered at sea. A commemorative blue plaque in his honour was installed at his home in Regent's Park.