Wells, H. G. (Herbert George), 1866-1946

Herbert George Wells was born on September 21, 1866, in Bromley, Kent, England.

He was an English novelist and social commentator. Wells had an unhappy apprenticeship as a draper at Hyde's Drapery Emporium in Southsea from 1880 to 1883, when he became a pupil-teacher at Midhurst grammar school. He won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science, where he learned about physics, chemistry, astronomy, and biology. He founded and edited the Science Schools Journal, in which he published his first efforts at scientific romance. In 1887, he took a teaching post at Holt Academy, Wales. In 1888, he returned to London to teach at Henley House School, Kilburn, while studying at London University (B.Sc., 1890). He wrote fiction and drama reviews for the Saturday Review and Pall Mall Gazette. His science fiction novella “The Time Machine” won instant acclaim in 1895, and he produced in quick succession “The Island of Doctor Moreau” (1896), “The Invisible Man” (1897), “The War of the Worlds” (1898), “The First Men in the Moon” (1901), and several volumes of short stories. His later works became increasingly political and didactic. He wrote three more encyclopedic works—"A Short History of the World” (1922), “The Science of Life” (with Julian Huxley and G. P. Wells,1930), and “The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind” (1931). He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times (1921, 1932, 1935, and 1946). As a diabetic, Wells co-founded the charity The Diabetic Association (known today as Diabetes UK) in 1934.

In 1891, he married Isabel Mary Wells (1865–1931). After their separation in 1894, he remarried Amy Catherine Robbins (1873–1927) in 1895. Wells had numerous affairs throughout his life. He died on August 13, 1946, in London, England.