H.G. WELLS Biography - Writers

 
 

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H.G. WELLS

Name: Herbert George Wells                                                           
Born: 21 September 1866 Bromley, Kent, England                                       
Died: 13 August 1946 London, England                                                 
                                                                                     
Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 - August 13, 1946), better known as         
H. G. Wells, was an English writer most famous today for his science fiction         
novels The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The First Men     
in the Moon and The Island of Dr Moreau. He was a prolific writer of both             
fiction and non-fiction, and produced works in many genres, including                 
contemporary novels, history, and social commentary. He was an outspoken             
socialist, his later works becoming increasingly political and didactic. Only         
his early science fiction novels are widely read today. Wells and Jules Verne         
are each sometimes referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction".                   
                                                                                     
Herbert George Wells, the fourth and last child of Joseph Wells (a former             
domestic gardener, and at the time shopkeeper and cricketer) and his wife Sarah       
Neal (a former domestic servant), was born at Atlas House, 47 High Street,           
Bromley, in the county of Kent. The family was of the impoverished lower-middle-class.
An inheritance had allowed them to purchase a china shop, though they quickly         
realised it would never be a prosperous concern: the stock was old and worn out,     
and the location was poor. They managed to earn a meagre income, but little of       
it came from the shop. Joseph sold cricket bats and balls and other equipment at     
the matches he played at, and received an unsteady amount of money from the           
matches, since at that time there were no professional cricketers, and payment       
for skilled bowlers and batters came from voluntary donations afterwards, or         
from small payments from the clubs where matches were played.