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Herbert George Wells (1866-1946)
Herbert George Wells, the son of an unsuccessful tradesman, was born in
Bromley on 21st September, 1866. After a basic education at a local school,
Wells was apprenticed as a draper. Wells disliked the work and in 1883
became a pupil-teacher at Midhurst Grammar School. While at Midhurst Wells
won a scholarship to the School of Science where he was taught biology by
T. H. Huxley. Wells found Huxley an inspiring teacher and as a result
developed a strong interest in evolution. Wells founded and edited the
Science Schools Journal while at university. Wells was disappointing with
the teaching he received in the second year and so in 1887 he left without
obtaining a degree.
Wells spent the next few years teaching and writing and in 1891 his major
essay on science, The Rediscovery of the Unique, was published in The
Fortnightly Review. In 1895 Wells established himself as a novelist in 1895
with his science fiction story, The Time Machine. This was followed by two
more successful novels, The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896) and The War of the
Worlds (1898).
Wells also became very popular in the United States. The popular magazine
Cosmopolitan serialised two of his books, The War of the Worlds (1897) and
First Man in the Moon (1900). His work also appeared in Collier's Magazine,
the New Republic and the Saturday Evening Post.
Wells also began writing non-fiction books about politics, technology and
the future. This included Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and
Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought (1901), The Discovery of
the Future (1902) and Mankind in the Making (1903). These books impressed
the three leaders of the Fabian Society, George Bernard Shaw, Sidney Webb
and Beatrice Webb. Wells accepted their suggestion that he should join the
society.
Once a member of the Fabian Society, Wells tried to change it. Rather than
a small group of intellectuals discussing socialist reform, Wells thought
that it should be a large pressure group agitating for change. When the
existing leadership resisted these ideas, Wells attempted to gain control
of the organisation. Wells managed to gain election to the Fabian Society's
Executive Committee but gained little support for change from the rest of
the group.
Wells resigned from the Fabian Society in 1908 but continued to be active
in the campaign for socialism. His book A Modern Utopia expressed a desire
for a society that was run and organised by humanistic and well-educated
people. Wells, who was extremely critical of the role that privilege and
hereditary factors in capitalist society and in his utopia, people gain
power as a result of their intelligence and training.
In his early scientific writings Wells predicted the invention of modern
weapons such as the tank and the atom bomb. He was therefore horrified by
the outbreak of the First World War. Unlike many socialists, he supported
Britain's involvement in the war, however, he b |