The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Wells, Herbert George

WELLS, Herbert George, English author: b. Bromley, Kent, 21 Sept. 1866. He was educated at the Royal College of Science (South Kensington, London), published a “Text-Book on Biology” (1892-3), and followed this by a series of works of fiction in which science and mechanics are employed for the accomplishment of various wonders narrated in the circumstantial and plausible manner of Verne. In his later years he was more versatile, and displayed a tendency to discuss mystic and social subjects in the form of fiction. He has made a place for himself in the very front rank of modern writers. Among them are “The Time Machine” (1895); “Select Conversations with an Uncle” (1895); “The Wonderful Visit” (1895); “The Island of Dr. Moreau” (1896); “The Wheels of Chance” (1896); “Thirty Strange Stories” (1897); “The Invisible Man” (1897); “The War of the Worlds” (1898); “Tales of Space and Time” (1899); “When the Sleeper Wakes” (1899); “Love and Mr. Lewisham” (1900); “Anticipations” (1901); “The First Men in the Moon” (1901); “Mankind in the Making” (1903); “Twelve Stories and a Dream” (1903); “The Food of the Gods” (1904); “A Modern Utopia” (1905); “Kipps” (1905); “In the Days of the Comet” (1906); “The Future in America” (1906); “This Misery of Boots,” a tract in favor of Socialism (1907); “New Worlds for Old,” an account of Socialism (1908); “First and Last Things,” a confession of faith (1908); “The War in the Air” (1908); “Tone Bungay,” a novel of contemporary life (1909); “Ann Veronica” (1909); “The History of Mr. Polly” (1910); “The New Machiavelli” (1911); “Floor Games for Children” (1911); “Marriage” (1912); “Little Wars,” a floor game book (1913); “The Passionate Friends” (1913); “The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman” (1914); “An Englishman looks at the World” (1914); “The World Set Free” (1914); “The War that will end War” (1914); and “The Peace of the World” (1915), war pamphlets; “Boon,” under the pseudonym Reginald Bliss (1915); “Bealby” (1915); “The Research Magnificent” (1915); “What is Coming?” (1916); “Mr. Britling Sees it Through” (1916); “The Elements of Reconstruction,” under the pseudonym D. P. (1916); “War and the Future”; “God, the Invisible King”; “The Soul of a Bishop” (1917); “The Idea of a League of Nations” (1919). His short stories were reprinted in a definitive collection under the title of “The Country of the Blind” (1911), and many of his works have been translated into other languages.