Herbert George Wells was an English author best known as the father of science fiction. He wrote over a hundred books in various genres including novels, short stories, and works of social commentary. Some of his most famous works include The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Island of Doctor Moreau. Wells was also influential in advocating for scientific and political ideas including Darwinism, socialism, and world government. He had a long career spanning over 60 years and influenced many other prominent authors even after his death in 1946.

1. H.G.Wells
Godoy Natalia
Wang Wan Shu

2. Biography
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NAME: H.G. Wells
FULL NAME: Herbert George Wells
OCCUPATION: Author
BIRTH DATE: September 21, 1866
DEATH DATE: August 13, 1946
EDUCATION: Midhurst Grammar School, Normal
School of Science, Royal College of Science, London
University
• PLACE OF BIRTH: Bromley, England, United
Kingdom
• PLACE OF DEATH: London, England, United
Kingdom

3. Biography
• English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and
historian.
• Wells wrote over a hundred of
books, about fifty of them are novels.
• Wells was a very accomplished fiction and
non-fiction writer. He wrote for more than
sixty years and his early science fiction
novels earned him the title of “The Father
of Science Fiction.”

4. Life
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Father: Joseph Wells.
Mother: Sarah Neal.
Fourth and last child.
First, he started reading books from the local library and
then from his mother’s work place.
• In his early teens, Wells also went to work as a draper's
assistant.
• He won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science
where he learned about physics, chemistry, astronomy
and biology, among other subjects.
• In 1883, Wells became a teacher/pupil at Midhurst
Grammar School.

6. Life
• Wells also devoted much of his time
to becoming a writer. During
college, he published a short story
about time travel called "The Chronic
Argonauts," which foreshadowed his
future literary success.

7. Marriage
• In 1891, Wells married his cousin, Isabel Mary Wells, but the
union didn't last.
• Wells married with Amy Catherine "Jane" in 1895 after he
officially divorced Isabel.
• He and Jane had two children together, sons George Phillip
and Frank.
• A free thinker about sex and sexuality, Wells did not let
marriage stop him from having other relationships.
Amber Reeves
Anna-Jane
Blanco-White
Rebecca West
Anthony West
Lovers
• (Video min6)

9. Beliefs.
• He joined in 1903 the socialist Fabian Society.
• Wells soon quarreled with the society's
leaders, among them George Bernard Shaw.
• He used to believe that war was a lesson for the
world.
• Wells believed in the theory of eugenics. In 1904 he
discussed a survey paper by Francis Galton, cofounder of eugenics, saying "I believe .. It is in the
sterilisation of failure, and not in the selection of
successes for breeding, that the possibility of an
improvement of the human stock lies.“(Video min12)

11. • The war itself increased the
pessimistic side of his nature. He
also came to call the era "The
age of frustration”.
• Some critics speculated that
Wells's declining health shaped
this prediction of a future without
hope.

12. Works
•His science fiction stories have been filmed
many times.
•From 1893 Wells devoted himself entirely to
writing. Lung problems and a prognosis that
he would die, added an extra urgency to a
tremendous four-year burst of
creativity, during which he produced his
famous "scientific romances"

13. War of the worlds
• “No one would have believed in the last
years of the nineteenth century that this
world was being watched keenly and
closely by intelligences greater than man's
and yet as mortal as his own; that as men
busied themselves about their various
concerns they were scrutinised and
studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a
man with a microscope might scrutinise
the transient creatures that swarm and
multiply in a drop of water”. (Video)

14. In 1938 Orson Wells
broadcasted The
War of the Worlds on
radio claiming aliens
landed in New
Jersey and caused a
massive panic
because the format
was that of news
bulletins.

15. Authors…
• He was influenced by…
• H.T. Huxley, Plato, Jonathan Swift, Jules
Verne, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles
Dickens, Victor Hugo, and Rudyard
• He influenced…
• Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Aldous
Huxley, C. S. Lewis, Alan Moore, George
Orwell, Frank R. Paul, etc.

16. Interesting facts I
• His second wife was his student.
• His lover Rebecca West was a feminist.
• Science fiction was the least of his writings, yet
is what he is best known for.
• After settling in Sandgate on the Kent
coast, Wells slowly gained his physical
health, and acquired a lifelong passion for
cycling.
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no
longer despair for the future of the human race,"
he said.

17. Interesting Facts II
• West and Wells called themselves "panther" and
"jaguar". Their son Anthony West later wrote
about his parent’s difficult relationship in Aspects
of a Life (1984).
• In his novels Wells used his two wives, Amber
Reeves, Rebecca West, Odette Keun and all the
passing mistresses as models for his characters.
• 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.

18. Death
• He died of unspecified causes on 13 August 1946 at his
home at 13 Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, London. 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.
• Many of his predictions for the future came true: "the
Father of Futurism” but today is best known as "the
Father of Science Fiction."

19. Thank You!!

20. Sources
• http://www.omg-facts.com/History/H-G-Wells-The-FamousScience-Fiction-Wri/53489#OkJwy3zVycJf1o3o.99
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh_np0tzbkI
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=9kEpCqvhk4E&feat
ure=endscreen
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKHfuMH4Yxo
• http://www.biography.com/people/hg-wells-39224
• http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hgwells.htm
• http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/warworlds/b1c1.html
• http://www.greatvalueonlinebooks.com/HGWellsPoliticsandRe
ligion.html