Editing H. G. Wells

{{Short description|English writer (1866–1946)}}
{{other uses}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:H. G. Wells}}
{{use British English |date=June 2022}}
{{use dmy dates |date=February 2020}}
{{infobox writer
| image            = H.G. Wells by Beresford.jpg
| caption          = Photograph by [[George Charles Beresford]], 1920
| birth_name       = Herbert George Wells
| birth_date       = {{birth date |1866|9|21 |df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Bromley]], Kent, England
| death_date       = {{death date and age |1946|8|13 |1866|9|21 |df=y}}
| death_place      = London, England
| occupation       = {{cslist|Novelist|teacher|historian|journalist}}
| alma_mater       = [[Royal College of Science]]
| years_active     = 1895–1946
| genre            = Science fiction (notably [[social science fiction]])
| movement         = [[Social realism]]
| subject<!--nonfiction--> = {{cslist|World history|progress}}
| spouse           = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage |Isabel Mary Wells |1891 |1894 |end=divorced}}
* {{marriage | [[Catherine Wells|Amy Catherine Robbins]] |1895 |1927 |end=died}}
}}
| children         = 4, including [[G. P. Wells|G. P.]] and [[Anthony West (author)|Anthony]]
| relatives        = {{plainlist|
* [[Joseph Wells (cricketer)|Joseph Wells]] (father)
* {{#ifexist: Sarah Neal|[[Sarah Neal]] (mother)}}
* [[Simon Wells]] (great-grandson)
}}
| signature        = H.G. Wells signature at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.svg
| notableworks     = {{cslist
  | ''[[The World Set Free]]''
  | ''[[The Outline of History]]''
  | ''[[The Country of the Blind]]''
  | ''[[The Red Room (short story)|The Red Room]]''
  | ''[[The Time Machine]]''
  | ''[[The Invisible Man]]''
  | ''[[The War of the Worlds]]''
  | ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]]''
  | ''[[The First Men in the Moon]]''
  | ''[[The Shape of Things to Come]]''
  | ''[[Ann Veronica]]''
  | ''[[When the Sleeper Wakes]]''
  }}
| module           = {{infobox academic |embed=yes
  | discipline = [[Biology]]
  | academic_advisors = [[Thomas Henry Huxley]]
  | module = {{infobox officeholder |embed=yes
    | office = President of [[PEN International]]
    | termstart = October 1933
    | termend = October 1936
    | predecessor = [[John Galsworthy]]
    | successor = [[Jules Romains]]
    }}
  }}
}}
'''Herbert George Wells''' (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, history, popular science, satire, biography, and autobiography. Wells's [[science fiction]] novels are so well regarded that he has been called the "father of science fiction".<ref>{{cite book |last=Roberts|first=Adam |author-link=Adam Roberts (British writer) |title=Science Fiction |date=2000 |publisher=[[Psychology Press]] |isbn=978-0-415-19205-7 |ol=7485895M |lccn=99087223 |oclc=41338934}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells – father of science fiction with hopes and fears for how science will shape our future |url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/hg-wells-author-who-imaged-a-future-based-on-scientific-achie/13731742 |access-date=2022-08-12 |work=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]}}</ref>

In addition to his fame as a writer, he was prominent in his lifetime as a forward-looking, even prophetic [[social critic]] who devoted his literary talents to the development of a [[Progressivism|progressive]] vision on a global scale. As a [[futurist]], he wrote a number of [[utopia]]n works<ref name="Davis-2003">{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Kenneth C. |title=Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-06-008381-6 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=431–432 |author-link=Kenneth C. Davis}}</ref> and foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television and something resembling the [[World Wide Web]].<ref name="Handwerk-2016">{{Cite web |last=Handwerk |first=Brian |date=2016-09-21 |title=The Many Futuristic Predictions of H.G. Wells That Came True |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/many-futuristic-predictions-hg-wells-came-true-180960546/ |access-date=2023-10-31 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref><ref name="visionary">{{cite news |last=James |first=Simon John |date=9 October 2017 |title=HG Wells: A visionary who should be remembered for his social predictions, not just his scientific ones |newspaper=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/hg-wells-a-visionary-who-should-be-remembered-for-his-social-predictions-not-just-his-scientific-a7320486.html}}</ref> His science fiction imagined [[time travel]], [[alien invasion]], [[invisibility]] and [[Genetics in fiction#Genetics themes|biological engineering]] before these subjects were common in the genre.<ref name="Handwerk-2016" /> [[Brian Aldiss]] referred to Wells as the "[[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] of science fiction", while [[Charles Fort]] called him a "wild talent".{{r|wagar|p=7}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H. G.  |author-link=H. G. Wells |title=The Time Machine |publisher=[[Penguin UK]] |date=2007 |isbn=978-0-14-143997-6 |location=London |page=xiii}}</ref>

Wells rendered his works convincing by instilling commonplace detail alongside a single extraordinary assumption per work{{snd}}dubbed "Wells's law"{{snd}}leading [[Joseph Conrad]] to hail him in 1898 with "O Realist of the Fantastic!".<ref>{{cite news |title=How Hollywood fell for a British visionary |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3643882/How-Hollywood-fell-for-a-British-visionary.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3643882/How-Hollywood-fell-for-a-British-visionary.html |archive-date=2022-01-10 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=2019-03-14 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]}}</ref> His most notable science fiction works include ''[[The Time Machine]]'' (1895), which was his first novella, ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]]'' (1896), ''[[The Invisible Man]]'' (1897), ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' (1898), the military science fiction ''[[The War in the Air]]'' (1907), and the [[dystopia]]n ''[[When the Sleeper Wakes]]'' (1910). Novels of social realism such as ''[[Kipps]]'' (1905) and ''[[The History of Mr Polly]]'' (1910), which describe lower-middle-class English life, led to the suggestion that he was a worthy successor to [[Charles Dickens]],{{r|brome|p=99}} but Wells described a range of social strata and even attempted, in ''[[Tono-Bungay]]'' (1909), a diagnosis of [[English society]] as a whole. Wells was nominated for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] four times.<ref name="Nobel nominations" />

Wells's earliest specialised training was in [[biology]], and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a [[Darwinism|Darwinian]] context.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first1=Robert M. |editor-last1=Philmus |editor-first2=David Y. |editor-last2=Hughes |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Early Writings in Science and Science Fiction |location=[[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]], Los Angeles, and London |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |date=1975 |page=179}}</ref> He was also an outspoken [[socialist]] from a young age, often (but not always, as at the beginning of the [[First World War]]) sympathising with [[pacifist]] views.<ref>{{cite web |website=[[British Library]] |url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/h-g-wells-politics |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells' politics |access-date=2022-11-13 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307044409/https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/h-g-wells-politics |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hg-wells |access-date=2022-11-13 |website=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]}}</ref> In his later years, he wrote less fiction and more works expounding his political and social views, sometimes giving his profession as that of journalist.<ref name="brome" />  Wells was a [[diabetic]] and co-founded the charity The Diabetic Association ([[Diabetes UK]]) in 1934.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.diabetes.co.uk/celebrities/hg-wells.html|title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells – Author, Historian, Teacher with Type 2 Diabetes|website=www.diabetes.co.uk|access-date=18 February 2019|date=15 January 2019}}</ref>

==Life==
===Early life===
[[File:Young Bertie (H. G. Wells).jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Young Wells, "Bertie" as he was known, {{Circa|1870s|lk=no}}]]
Herbert George Wells was born at Atlas House, 162 High Street in [[Bromley]], [[Kent]],<ref name="wheen"/> on 21 September 1866.<ref name="ODNB"/> Called "Bertie" by his family, he was the fourth and last child of [[Joseph Wells (cricketer)|Joseph Wells]], a former domestic gardener, and at the time a shopkeeper and professional [[cricket]]er and Sarah Neal, a former [[domestic worker|domestic servant]]. An inheritance had allowed the family to acquire a shop in which they sold china and sporting goods, although it failed to prosper in part because the stock was old and worn out, and the location was poor. Joseph Wells managed to earn a meagre income, but little of it came from the shop and he received an unsteady amount of money from playing [[Amateur and professional cricketers|professional cricket]] for the [[Kent County Cricket Club|Kent county team]].<ref name="Smith">Smith, David C. (1986) ''H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Desperately mortal. A biography.'' Yale University Press, New Haven and London {{ISBN|0-300-03672-8}}</ref>

A defining incident of young Wells's life was an accident in 1874 that left him bedridden with a broken leg.<ref name="ODNB"/> To pass the time he began to read books from the local library, brought to him by his father. He soon became devoted to the other worlds and lives to which books gave him access; they also stimulated his desire to write. Later that year he entered Thomas Morley's Commercial Academy, a [[private school]] founded in 1849, following the bankruptcy of Morley's earlier school. The teaching was erratic, and the curriculum mostly focused, Wells later said, on producing [[Copperplate script|copperplate handwriting]] and doing the sort of sums useful to tradesmen. Wells continued at Morley's Academy until 1880. In 1877, his father, Joseph Wells, fractured his thigh. The accident effectively put an end to Joseph's career as a cricketer, and his subsequent earnings as a shopkeeper were not enough to compensate for the loss of the primary source of family income.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Sep. 21, 1866: Wells Springs Forth|url=https://www.wired.com/2010/09/0921hg-wells-birthday/|magazine=Wired|date=9 October 2017}}</ref>

[[File:Uppark-Sfront-01.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Wells spent the winter of 1887–88 convalescing at [[Uppark]] in Sussex, where his mother, Sarah, was the housekeeper.<ref name=Pevsner>{{cite book |last1=Nairn |first1=Ian |author-link=Ian Nairn |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author-link2=Nikolaus Pevsner |title=[[The Buildings of England]]: Sussex |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=[[Harmondsworth]] |date=1965 |isbn=0-14-071028-0 |pages=358–360}}</ref>]]
No longer able to support themselves financially, the family instead sought to place their sons as [[apprenticeship|apprentice]]s in various occupations.<ref>{{cite news|title=HG Wells: prophet of free love|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/11/hg-wells-david-lodge|newspaper=The Guardian|date=11 October 2017}}</ref> From 1880 to 1883, Wells had an unhappy apprenticeship as a [[draper]] at Hyde's Drapery Emporium in [[Southsea]].<ref name="GHW1925"/> His experiences at Hyde's, where he worked a thirteen-hour day and slept in a dormitory with other apprentices,<ref name="wheen"/> later inspired his novels ''[[The Wheels of Chance]]'', ''[[The History of Mr Polly]]'', and ''[[Kipps]]'', which portray the life of a draper's apprentice as well as providing a critique of society's distribution of wealth.{{r|batchelor|p=2}}

Wells's parents had a turbulent marriage, owing primarily to his mother being a [[Protestantism|Protestant]] and his father being a [[Freethought|freethinker]]. When his mother returned to work as a lady's maid (at [[Uppark]], a [[English country house|country house]] in [[West Sussex]]), one of the conditions of work was that she would not be permitted to have living space for her husband and children. Thereafter, she and Joseph lived separate lives, though they remained faithful to each other and never divorced. As a consequence, Herbert's personal troubles increased as he subsequently failed as a draper and also, later, as a chemist's assistant. However, Uppark had a magnificent library in which he immersed himself, reading many classic works, including [[Plato]]'s ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'', [[Thomas More]]'s ''[[Utopia (More book)|Utopia]]'', and the works of [[Daniel Defoe]].<ref name="McFarland">{{cite book|last1=Pilkington|first1=Ace G.|title=Science Fiction and Futurism: Their Terms and Ideas|date=2017|publisher=McFarland|page=137}}</ref> When he became the first doyen of science fiction as a distinct genre of fiction, Wells referenced [[Mary Shelley]]'s ''[[Frankenstein]]'' in relation to his works, writing, "they belong to a class of writing which includes the story of ''Frankenstein''."<ref>{{cite web |first=Philip |last=Ball |author-link=Philip Ball |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/2018/07/war-of-the-worlds-2018-bbc-hg-wells |title=What the War of the Worlds means now |date=2018-07-18 |work=[[New Statesman]] |access-date=2022-08-07}}</ref>

===Teacher===
[[File:HG Wells 20181021 120408.jpg|thumb|240px|Commemorative plaque in [[Midhurst]], West Sussex, marking where Wells lodged while a teacher at [[Midhurst Grammar School]] between 1883 and 1884]]
In October 1879, Wells's mother arranged through a distant relative, Arthur Williams, for him to join the [[National school (England and Wales)|National School]] at [[Wookey]] in Somerset as a pupil–teacher, a senior pupil who acted as a teacher of younger children.<ref name="GHW1925">{{cite book |last=Wells |first=Geoffrey Henry |title=The Works of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[London]] |date=1925 |page=xvi |oclc=458934085 }}</ref> In December that year, however, Williams was dismissed for irregularities in his qualifications and Wells was returned to Uppark. After a short apprenticeship at a chemist in nearby [[Midhurst]] and an even shorter stay as a boarder at [[Midhurst Grammar School]], he signed his apprenticeship papers at Hyde's. In 1883, Wells persuaded his parents to release him from the apprenticeship, taking an opportunity offered by Midhurst Grammar School again to become a pupil–teacher; his proficiency in Latin and science during his earlier short stay had been remembered.<ref name=Smith/><ref name="GHW1925"/>

The years he spent in Southsea had been the most miserable of his life to that point, but his good fortune in securing a position at Midhurst Grammar School meant that Wells could continue his self-education in earnest.<ref name=Smith/> The following year, Wells won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science (later the [[Royal College of Science]] in [[South Kensington]], which became part of [[Imperial College London]]) in London, studying [[biology]] under [[Thomas Henry Huxley]].{{r|batchelor|p=164}} As an alumnus, he later helped to set up the Royal College of Science Association, of which he became the first president in 1909. Wells studied in his new school until 1887, with a weekly allowance of 21 [[shilling]]s (a [[guinea (British coin)|guinea]]) thanks to his scholarship. This ought to have been a comfortable sum of money (at the time many [[working class]] families had "round about a pound a week" as their entire household income),<ref>Reeves, M. S. ''Round About a Pound a Week''. New York: Garland Pub., 1980. {{ISBN|0-8240-0119-2}}. Some of the text is available online.</ref> yet in his ''Experiment in Autobiography'' Wells speaks of constantly being hungry, and indeed photographs of him at the time show a youth who is very thin and malnourished.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Brome|first1=Vincent|title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells|date=2008|publisher=House of Stratus|page=180}}</ref>

He soon entered the debating society of the school. These years mark the beginning of his interest in a possible reformation of society. At first approaching the subject through Plato's ''Republic'', he soon turned to contemporary ideas of socialism as expressed by the recently formed [[Fabian Society]] and free lectures delivered at [[Kelmscott House]], the home of [[William Morris]]. He was also among the founders of ''The Science School Journal'', a school magazine that allowed him to express his views on literature and society, as well as trying his hand at fiction; a precursor to his novel ''[[The Time Machine]]'' was published in the journal under the title "[[The Chronic Argonauts]]". The school year 1886–87 was the last year of his studies.{{r|batchelor|p=164}}

[[File:H. G. Wells, c.1890.jpg|thumb|left|Wells studying in London {{Circa}} 1890]]
During 1888, Wells stayed in [[Stoke-on-Trent]], living in [[Basford, Staffordshire|Basford]]. The unique environment of [[The Potteries]] was certainly an inspiration. He wrote in a letter to a friend from the area that "the district made an immense impression on me". The inspiration for some of his descriptions in ''The War of the Worlds'' is thought to have come from his short time spent here, seeing the iron foundry furnaces burn over the city, shooting huge red light into the skies. His stay in The Potteries also resulted in the macabre short story "[[The Cone]]" (1895, contemporaneous with his famous ''The Time Machine''), set in the north of the city.{{r|hammond|p=90}}

After teaching for some time—he was briefly on the staff of [[Holt, Wrexham County Borough|Holt]] Academy in Wales<ref>{{cite news|date=3 October 2016|title=Teaching spell near Wrexham inspired one of the nation's greatest science fiction writers|first=Jamie|last=Bowman|work=[[The Leader (Welsh newspaper)|The Leader]]|location=Wrexham|access-date=13 May 2018|url=http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/15956789.Teaching_spell_near_Wrexham_inspired_one_of_the_nation_s_greatest_science_fiction_writers/}}</ref>—Wells found it necessary to supplement his knowledge relating to educational principles and methodology and entered the College of Preceptors ([[College of Teachers]]). He later received his Licentiate and Fellowship [[College of Teachers|FCP]] diplomas from the college. It was not until 1890 that Wells earned a Bachelor of Science degree in [[zoology]] from the [[University of London External System|University of London External Programme]]. In 1889–90, he managed to find a post as a teacher at Henley House School in London, where he taught [[A. A. Milne]] (whose father ran the school).<ref>{{cite journal |url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22657 |date=1989 |title=Hampstead: Education |journal=A History of the County of Middlesex |volume=9 |pages=159–169 |access-date=2008-06-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/aamilne.htm|title=A. A. Milne|website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi)|first=Petri|last=Liukkonen|publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library|location=Finland|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222205524/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/aamilne.htm|archive-date=22 February 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> His first published work was a ''Text-Book of Biology'' in two volumes (1893).<ref>{{cite book|title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Under Revision: Proceedings of the International H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Symposium, London, July 1986|url=https://archive.org/details/hgwellsunderrevi00inte/page/123|url-access=registration|date=1990|publisher=Associated University Presse|page=123]|isbn=9780945636052}}</ref>

Upon leaving the [[Royal College of Science|Normal School of Science]], Wells was left without a source of income. His aunt Mary—his father's sister-in-law—invited him to stay with her for a while, which solved his immediate problem of accommodation. During his stay at his aunt's, he grew increasingly interested in her daughter, Isabel, whom he later courted and married. To earn money, he began writing short humorous articles for journals such as ''[[The Pall Mall Gazette]]'', later collecting these in ''[[Select Conversations with an Uncle]]'' (1895) and ''[[Certain Personal Matters]]'' (1897). So prolific did Wells become at this mode of journalism that many of his early pieces remain unidentified. According to David C. Smith, <blockquote>Most of Wells's occasional pieces have not been collected, and many have not even been identified as his. Wells did not automatically receive the byline his reputation demanded until after 1896 or so&nbsp;. ... As a result, many of his early pieces are unknown. It is obvious that many early Wells items have been lost.<ref>{{cite book |first=David C. |last=Smith |author-link=David C. Smith (historian) |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Desperately Mortal: A Biography |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |date=1986 |isbn=978-0-300-03672-5 |location=[[New Haven]] |page=35}}</ref></blockquote> His success with these shorter pieces encouraged him to write book-length work, and he published his first novel, ''[[The Time Machine]]'', in 1895.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hammond|first=John R. |date=2004 |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells's ''The Time Machine'': A Reference Guide |location=[[Westport, Conn.]] |publisher=[[Praeger Publishers|Praeger]] |page=50}}</ref>

===Personal life===
[[File:MayburyRoad h.g.wells house.jpg|thumb|upright|left|141 Maybury Rd, [[Woking]], where Wells lived from May 1895 until late 1896<ref name="celebWoking-HGW">{{cite web |url=http://www.celebratewoking.info/legacywellsinwoking/HG_WellsandWoking |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and Woking |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2016 |website=Celebrate Woking |publisher=Woking Borough Council |access-date=5 March 2017 |quote=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells arrived in Woking in May 1895. He lived at 'Lynton', Maybury Road, Woking, which is now numbered 141 Maybury Road. Today, there is an English Heritage blue plaque displayed on the front wall of the property, which marks his period of residence.}}</ref>]]

In 1891, Wells [[cousin marriage|married his cousin]] Isabel Mary Wells (1865–1931; from 1902 Isabel Mary Smith).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vintag.es/2017/05/they-did-what-15-famous-people-who.html |title=They Did What? 15 Famous People Who Actually Married Their Cousins |access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> The couple agreed to separate in 1894, when he had fallen in love with one of his students, [[Catherine Wells|Amy Catherine Robbins]] (1872–1927; later known as Jane), with whom he moved to [[Woking]], Surrey, in May 1895. They lived in a rented house, 'Lynton' (now No. 141), Maybury Road, in the town centre for just under 18 months and married at St Pancras register office in October 1895.<ref name="WIW-WBC">{{cite book |title=Wells In Woking: 150th Anniversary 1866–2016: Free Souvenir Programme |url=http://www.celebratewoking.info/legacywellsinwoking/programme.pdf |location=[[Woking, Surrey]] |publisher=[[Woking Borough Council]] |pages=4–5 |date=2016 |access-date=2017-03-05}}</ref>{{r|batchelor|p=165}} His short period in Woking was perhaps the most creative and productive of his whole writing career; while there, he planned and wrote ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' and ''[[The Time Machine]]'', completed ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]]'', wrote and published ''[[The Wonderful Visit]]'' and ''[[The Wheels of Chance]]'', and began writing two other early books, ''[[When the Sleeper Wakes]]'' and ''[[Love and Mr Lewisham]]''.<ref name="WIW-WBC"/><ref name="GoogleRiddle">Before the 143rd anniversary of Wells's birth, [[Google]] published a cartoon riddle series with the solution being the coordinates of Woking's nearby Horsell Common—the location of the Martian landings in ''The War Of The Worlds''—described in newspaper article by {{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/sep/21/google-hgwells-doodle-mystery |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells – Google reveals answer to teaser doodles |last=Schofield |first=Jack |date=21 September 2009 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=5 March 2017}}</ref>

[[File:The Works of H G Wells Volume 4 (page 10 crop).jpg|thumb|upright|Wells's second wife, Amy Catherine "Jane" Wells]]

In late summer 1896, Wells and Jane moved to a larger house in [[Worcester Park]], near [[Kingston upon Thames]], for two years; this lasted until his poor health took them to Sandgate, near [[Folkestone]], where he constructed a large family home, [[Spade House]], in 1901. He had two sons with Jane: [[G. P. Wells|George Philip]] (known as "Gip"; 1901–1985) and Frank Richard (1903–1982){{r|wagar|p=295}} (grandfather of film director [[Simon Wells]]). Jane died on 6 October 1927, in [[Great Dunmow|Dunmow]], at the age of 55, which left Wells devastated. She was cremated at [[Golders Green]], with friends of the couple present including [[George Bernard Shaw]].{{r|hammond|p=64}}

Wells had multiple love [[affair]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lynn|first=Andrea |title=Shadow Lovers: The Last Affairs of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |date=2001 |publisher=[[Westview Press|Westview]] |location=[[Boulder, CO]] |isbn=978-0-8133-3394-6 |pages=10; 14; 47 et sec |url=https://archive.org/details/shadowloverslast00lynn/page/10 |url-access=registration}}</ref> [[Dorothy Richardson]] was a friend with whom he had a brief affair which led to a pregnancy and miscarriage, in 1907. Wells's wife had been a schoolmate of Richardson.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fromm |first=Gloria G. |date=1977 |title=Dorothy Richardson: A Biography |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |location=[[Urbana, Illinois|Urbana]] |isbn=978-0-252006-31-9 |page=xxx}}</ref> In December 1909, he had a daughter, Anna-Jane, with the writer [[Amber Reeves]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/apr/02/featuresreviews.guardianreview33|title=A room of her own|author = Margaret Drabble|work= The Guardian|date=1 April 2005}}</ref> whose parents, [[William Pember Reeves|William]] and [[Maud Pember Reeves]], he had met through the [[Fabian Society]]. Amber had married the barrister [[G. R. Blanco White]] in July of that year, as co-arranged by Wells. After [[Beatrice Webb]] voiced disapproval of Wells's "sordid intrigue" with Amber,<!-- with the daughter of veteran Fabian [[Sydney Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier|Sydney Olivier]], I think she warned Olivier in a letter to not let his four daughters be exposed to Wells and that the affair was that with Amber Reeves; see https://spartacus-educational.com/TUoliver.htm and links there--> he responded by lampooning Beatrice Webb and her husband Sidney Webb in his 1911 novel ''The New Machiavelli'' as 'Altiora and Oscar Bailey', a pair of short-sighted, bourgeois manipulators.<!--not sure if there was a reference for this; nothing followed it directly.--> Between 1910 and 1913, novelist [[Elizabeth von Arnim]] was one of his mistresses.<ref>{{cite ODNB |title=Arnim, Mary Annette [May] von [née Mary Annette Beauchamp; known as Elizabeth von Arnim; other married name Mary Annette Russell, Countess Russell] (1866–1941), novelist |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-35883 |access-date=2022-12-29 |date=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/35883}}</ref> In 1914, he had a son, [[Anthony West (author)|Anthony West]] (1914–1987), by the novelist and [[feminism|feminist]] [[Rebecca West]], 26 years his junior.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hgwells.htm |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221021820/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hgwells.htm |archive-date=21 February 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1920–21, and intermittently until his death, he had a love affair with  the American [[birth control]] activist [[Margaret Sanger]].<ref>[https://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/articles/passionate_friends.php "The Passionate Friends: H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and Margaret Sanger"], at the Margaret Sanger Paper Project.</ref>

Between 1924 and 1933, he partnered with the 22-year-younger Dutch adventurer and writer [[Odette Keun]], with whom he lived in ''Lou Pidou'', a house they built together in [[Grasse]], France. Wells dedicated his longest book to her (''[[The World of William Clissold]]'', 1926).<ref>{{cite web|last=Dixon|first=Kevin|date=2014-07-20|title=Odette Keun, H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and the Third Way |url=http://www.theprsd.co.uk/2014/07/20/odette-keun-hg-wells-third-way/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=People's Republic of South Devon}}</ref> When visiting [[Maxim Gorky]] in Russia 1920, he had slept with Gorky's mistress [[Moura Budberg]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Hill |first=Amelia |date=2001-01-07 |title=The secret loves of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells unmasked |work=[[The Observer]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jan/07/books.booksnews1 |access-date=2020-09-10 |issn=0029-7712}}</ref> then still Countess Benckendorf and 27 years his junior. In 1933, when she left Gorky and emigrated to London, their relationship renewed and she cared for him through his final illness. Wells repeatedly asked her to marry him, but Budberg strongly rejected his proposals.<!--probably could use a better source then the first of these two for the marriage proposals--><ref>{{cite web |last=Aron |first=Nina Renata |date=2017-05-18 |title=The impossibly glamorous life of this Russian baroness spy needs to be a movie |url=https://timeline.com/baroness-moura-budberg-spy-8cff5692c9c6 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=[[Medium (website)|Medium]] |archive-date=16 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516234100/https://timeline.com/baroness-moura-budberg-spy-8cff5692c9c6 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Dirda |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Dirda |date=2005-05-22 |title=Moura? Moura Budberg? Now whe{{nbsp}}... |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/2005/05/22/moura-moura-budberg-now-whe/c0e491b3-00fc-4e9e-9778-04641a72eab5/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

In ''Experiment in Autobiography'' (1934), Wells wrote: "I was never a great amorist, though I have loved several people very deeply".<ref>{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H.G. |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20100511 |title=H.G. Wells: Experiment in Autobiography |date=1934 |publisher=[[J. B. Lippincott & Co.]] |location=New York City |author-link=H. G. Wells}}</ref> [[David Lodge (author)|David Lodge]]'s novel ''A Man of Parts'' (2011){{snd}}a 'narrative based on factual sources' (author's note){{snd}}gives a convincing and generally sympathetic account of Wells's relations with the women mentioned above, and others.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lodge |first=David |author-link=David Lodge (author) |title=A Man of Parts |date=2011 |publisher=[[Random House]]}}</ref>

===Artist===
One of the ways that Wells expressed himself was through his drawings and sketches. One common location for these was the endpapers and title pages of his own diaries, and they covered a wide variety of topics, from political commentary to his feelings toward his literary contemporaries and his current romantic interests. During his marriage to Amy Catherine, whom he nicknamed Jane, he drew a considerable number of pictures, many of them being overt comments on their marriage. During this period, he called these pictures "picshuas".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.illinois.edu/news/06/0531wells.html |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells' cartoons, a window on his second marriage, focus of new book {{pipe}} Archives {{pipe}} News Bureau |publisher=University of Illinois|date=31 May 2006 |access-date=10 June 2012}}</ref> These picshuas have been the topic of study by Wells scholars for many years, and in 2006, a book was published on the subject.<ref>Rinkel, Gene and Margaret. ''The Picshuas of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: A burlesque diary''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-252-03045-1}} (cloth: acid-free paper).</ref>

===Writer===
[[File:Woking tripod.JPG|thumb|right|upright=1.15|Statue of a [[Tripod (The War of the Worlds)|tripod]] from ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' in [[Woking]], England. The book is a seminal depiction of a conflict between humankind and an [[Extraterrestrials in fiction|extraterrestrial]] race.]]

Some of his early novels, called "[[scientific romance]]s", invented several themes now classic in science fiction in such works as ''[[The Time Machine]]'', ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]]'', ''[[The Invisible Man]]'', ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'', ''[[The Sleeper Awakes|When the Sleeper Wakes]]'', and ''[[The First Men in the Moon]]''. He also wrote realistic novels that received critical acclaim, including ''[[Kipps]]'' and a critique of English culture during the [[Edwardian period]], ''[[Tono-Bungay]]''. Wells also wrote dozens of short stories and novellas, including, "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid", which helped bring the full impact of [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s revolutionary botanical ideas to a wider public, and was followed by many later successes such as "[[The Country of the Blind]]" (1904).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Endersby |first=Jim |date=June 2016 |title=Deceived by orchids: sex, science, fiction and Darwin |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-for-the-history-of-science/article/abs/deceived-by-orchids-sex-science-fiction-and-darwin/6D94917E32C7787D11AC5949BAA0176C |journal=[[The British Journal for the History of Science]] |volume=49|issue=2 |pages=205–229 |doi=10.1017/S0007087416000352 |pmid=27278105 |s2cid=23027055 |issn=0007-0874}}</ref>

Writer [[James E. Gunn (writer)|James E. Gunn]] contended that one of Wells's major contributions to the science fiction genre was his approach, referring to it as his "new system of ideas".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/tomorrow.htm |title=The Man Who Invented Tomorrow |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120805171522/http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/tomorrow.htm |archive-date=2012-08-05 |quote=In 1902, when [[Arnold Bennett]] was writing a long article for ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'' about Wells as a serious writer, Wells expressed his hope that Bennett would stress his "new system of ideas". Wells developed a theory to justify the way he wrote (he was fond of theories), and these theories helped others write in similar ways.}}</ref> Gunn opined that an author should always strive to make the story as credible as possible, even if both the writer and the reader knew certain elements are impossible, allowing the reader to accept the ideas as something that could really happen, today referred to as "the plausible impossible" and "[[suspension of disbelief]]". While neither invisibility nor time travel was new in speculative fiction, Wells added a sense of realism to the concepts which the readers were not familiar with. He conceived the idea of using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposely and selectively forwards or backwards in time.<ref>{{cite news |title=A brief history of time travel |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/a-brief-history-of-time-travel-1566784.html |access-date=2 December 2020 |newspaper=The Independent|quote=Time travel began 100 years ago, with the publication of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells' The Time Machine in January 1895. The notion of moving freely backwards and forwards in time, in the same way that we can move about in space, that was something new.}}</ref> The term "[[time machine]]", coined by Wells, is almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle.<ref name="McFarland"/> He explained that while writing ''The Time Machine'', he realized that "the more impossible the story I had to tell, the more ordinary must be the setting, and the circumstances in which I now set the [[Time travel|Time Traveller]] were all that I could imagine of solid upper-class comforts."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.writework.com/book-guides/the-time-machine-h-g-wells/scientists-and-gentlemen|title=The Time Machine – Scientists and Gentlemen – WriteWork|website=www.writework.com}}</ref> In "Wells's Law", a science fiction story should contain only a single extraordinary assumption. Therefore, as justifications for the impossible, he employed scientific ideas and theories. Wells's best-known statement of the "law" appears in his introduction to a collection of his works published in 1934:

{{blockquote|As soon as the magic trick has been done the whole business of the fantasy writer is to keep everything else human and real. Touches of prosaic detail are imperative and a rigorous adherence to the hypothesis. Any extra fantasy outside the cardinal assumption immediately gives a touch of irresponsible silliness to the invention.<ref name="Bhelkar 2009 p. 19">{{cite book |last=Bhelkar |first=Ratnakar D. |title=Science Fiction: Fantasy and Reality |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors |date=2009 |isbn=978-81-269-1036-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bvt_NyXYGb0C&pg=PA19 |page=19}}</ref><ref name="Wells 1934 p. viii">{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H. G.  |author-link=H. G. Wells |title=Seven famous novels |publisher=[[Random House]] |date=1934 |oclc=948822249 |page=viii}}</ref>}}

[[Griffin (The Invisible Man)|Dr. Griffin / The Invisible Man]] is a brilliant research scientist who discovers a method of invisibility, but finds himself unable to reverse the process. An enthusiast of random and irresponsible violence, Griffin has become an iconic character in [[horror fiction]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Science of Fiction and the Fiction of Science: Collected Essays on SF Storytelling and the Gnostic Imagination|date=2009|publisher=McFarland|pages=41–42}}</ref> ''The Island of Doctor Moreau'' sees a shipwrecked man left on the island home of Doctor Moreau, a [[mad scientist]] who creates [[Human–animal hybrid|human-like hybrid beings]] from animals via vivisection.<ref>{{cite web|title=Novels: The Island of Doctor Moreau|url=http://academic.depauw.edu/aevans_web/HONR101-02/WebPages/Spring2006/Schmid(Todd)/wells.html|access-date=16 October 2017}}</ref> The earliest depiction of [[Uplift (science fiction)|uplift]], the novel deals with a number of philosophical themes, including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and [[Genetics in fiction#Genetics themes|human interference with nature]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-island-of-doctor-moreau-h-g-wells/1120353655?ean=9781499744446|title=The Island of Doctor Moreau: Original and Unabridged|author=Barnes & Noble|work=Barnes & Noble}}</ref> In ''The First Men in the Moon'' Wells used the idea of radio communication between [[astronomical object]]s, a plot point inspired by [[Nikola Tesla]]'s claim that he had received radio signals from Mars.<ref>{{cite web |last=Brewer |first=Nathan |date=2020-10-19 |title=Your Engineering Heritage: Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla as Science Fiction Characters |url=https://insight.ieeeusa.org/articles/thomas-edison-and-nikola-tesla-as-science-fiction-characters/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=IEEE-USA InSight}}</ref> In addition to science fiction, Wells produced work dealing with mythological beings like an angel in ''[[The Wonderful Visit]]'' (1895) and a mermaid in ''[[The Sea Lady]]'' (1902).<ref>{{cite book |last=Sherbourne |first=Michael |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Another Kind of Life |publisher=[[Peter Owen Publishers|Peter Owen]] |date=2010 |page=108}}</ref>

Though ''Tono-Bungay'' is not a science-fiction novel, radioactive decay plays a small but consequential role in it. Radioactive decay plays a much larger role in ''[[The World Set Free]]'' (1914), a book dedicated to [[Frederick Soddy]] who would receive a Nobel for proving the existence of radioactive [[isotope]]s.<ref name="Chain reactor">{{cite news |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and the Scientific Imagination |url=https://www.vqronline.org/essay/hg-wells-and-scientific-imagination |access-date=6 August 2022 |work=The Virginia Quarterly Review.}}</ref> This book contains what is surely Wells's biggest prophetic "hit", with the first description of a [[nuclear weapon]] (which he termed "atomic bombs").<ref name="Chain reactor"/><ref name="Nuclear"/> Scientists of the day were well aware that the natural decay of [[radium]] releases energy at a slow rate over thousands of years. The ''rate'' of release is too slow to have practical utility, but the ''total amount'' released is huge. Wells's novel revolves around an (unspecified) invention that accelerates the process of radioactive decay, producing bombs that explode with no more than the force of ordinary high explosives—but which "continue to explode" for days on end. "Nothing could have been more obvious to the people of the earlier twentieth century, than the rapidity with which war was becoming impossible&nbsp;... [but] they did not see it until the atomic bombs burst in their fumbling hands".<ref name="Nuclear">{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H. G.  |author-link=H. G. Wells |url=https://archive.org/details/lastwarworldse00well |title=The Last War: A World Set Free |date=2001 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-9820-0 |page=XIX |url-access=registration}}</ref> In 1932, the physicist and conceiver of [[nuclear chain reaction]] [[Leó Szilárd]] read ''The World Set Free'' (the same year Sir [[James Chadwick]] discovered the [[neutron]]), a book which he wrote in his memoirs had made "a very great impression on me".<ref>{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Rhodes |author-link=Richard Rhodes |date=1986 |title=The Making of the Atomic Bomb |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofatomicbo00rhod/page/24 |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |page=24 |isbn=978-0-684-81378-3 |ol=7721091M |oclc=17454791}}</ref> In 1934, Szilárd took his ideas for a chain reaction to the [[British War Office]] and later the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]], assigning his patent to the Admiralty to keep the news from reaching the notice of the wider scientific community. He wrote, "Knowing what this [a chain reaction] would mean—and I knew it because I had read H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells—I did not want this patent to become public."<ref name="Chain reactor"/>

[[File:H G Wells crater 5163 med.jpg|thumb|left|The [[H. G. Wells (crater)|H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells crater]], located on the [[far side of the Moon]], was named after the author of ''[[The First Men in the Moon]]'' (1901) in 1970.]]
Wells also wrote non-fiction. His first non-fiction [[bestseller]] was ''[[Anticipations|Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought]]'' (1901). When originally serialised in a magazine it was subtitled "An Experiment in Prophecy", and is considered his most explicitly [[future|futuristic]] work. It offered the immediate political message of the privileged sections of society continuing to bar capable men from other classes from advancement until war would force a need to employ those most able, rather than the traditional upper classes, as leaders. Anticipating what the world would be like in the year 2000, the book is interesting both for its hits (trains and cars resulting in the dispersion of populations from cities to suburbs; moral restrictions declining as men and women seek greater sexual freedom; the defeat of German [[militarism]], and the existence of a European Union) and its misses (he did not expect successful [[aircraft]] before 1950, and averred that "my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocate its crew and founder at sea").<ref>{{cite web|url=http://humanityplus.org/learn/about-us/wells |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090520001844/http://humanityplus.org/learn/about-us/wells |archive-date=20 May 2009 |title=Annual H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Award for Outstanding Contributions to Transhumanism |date=20 May 2009 |access-date=10 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Turner |first=Frank Miller |title=Contesting Cultural Authority: Essays in Victorian Intellectual Life |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/contestingcultur00turn/page/n232 |chapter-url-access=limited |date=1993 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-37257-2 |pages=219–220|chapter=Public Science in Britain 1880–1919}}</ref>

His bestselling two-volume work, ''[[The Outline of History]]'' (1920), began a new era of popularised world history. It received a mixed critical response from professional historians.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~tdoyle/hgwells/outline_hist.shtml |title=The Outline of History—H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |date=2003-04-20 |access-date=2009-09-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430052722/http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~tdoyle/hgwells/outline_hist.shtml |archive-date=2009-04-30}}</ref> However, it was very popular amongst the general population and made Wells a rich man. Many other authors followed with "Outlines" of their own in other subjects. He reprised his ''Outline'' in 1922 with a much shorter popular work, ''[[A Short History of the World (H. G. Wells)|A Short History of the World]]'', a history book praised by [[Albert Einstein]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Einstein |first= Albert |date=1994 |contribution= Education and World Peace, A Message to the Progressive Education Association, 23 November 1934 |title=  Ideas and Opinions: With An Introduction by Alan Lightman, Based on Mein Weltbild, edited by Carl Seelig, and Other Sources, New Translations and Revisions by Sonja Bargmann |publisher=The Modern Library |place=New York |page=63}}</ref> and two long efforts, ''[[The Science of Life]]'' (1930)—written with his son [[G. P. Wells]] and evolutionary biologist  [[Julian Huxley]], and ''[[The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind]]'' (1931).<ref>H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, ''The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind'' (London: William Heinemann, 1932), p. 812.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bartleby.com/86/ |title=Wells, H. G. 1922. A Short History of the World |publisher=[[Bartleby.com]] |access-date=2009-09-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091019174104/http://www.bartleby.com/86/ |archive-date=2009-10-19}}</ref> The "Outlines" became sufficiently common for [[James Thurber]] to parody the trend in his humorous essay, "An Outline of Scientists"—indeed, Wells's ''Outline of History'' remains in print with a new 2005 edition, while ''A Short History of the World'' has been re-edited (2006).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wells|first1=H.{{nbsp}}G. |title=A Short History of the World|date=2006|publisher=Penguin UK}}</ref>

[[File:H. G. Wells Daily Mirror.jpg|thumb|upright|H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells {{Circa}} 1918|right]]
From quite early in Wells's career, he sought a better way to organise society and wrote a number of [[Utopia]]n novels.<ref name="Davis-2003" /> The first of these was ''[[A Modern Utopia]]'' (1905), which shows a worldwide utopia with "no imports but meteorites, and no exports at all";<ref>{{cite book |title=A Modern Utopia |last=Wells |first=H. G.  |author-link=H. G. Wells |date=1905 |ol=52256W |oclc=362828}}</ref> two travellers from our world fall into its [[alternate history]]. The others usually begin with the world rushing to catastrophe, until people realise a better way of living: whether by mysterious gases from a [[comet]] causing people to behave rationally and abandoning a European war (''[[In the Days of the Comet]]'' (1906)), or a world council of scientists taking over, as in ''[[The Shape of Things to Come]]'' (1933, which he later adapted for the 1936 [[Alexander Korda]] film, ''[[Things to Come]]''). This depicted, all too accurately, the impending [[World War II|World War]], with cities being destroyed by aerial bombs. He also portrayed the rise of [[fascism|fascist]] dictators in ''The Autocracy of Mr Parham'' (1930) and ''The Holy Terror'' (1939). ''[[Men Like Gods]]'' (1923) is also a utopian novel. Wells in this period was regarded as an enormously influential figure; the literary critic [[Malcolm Cowley]] stated: "by the time he was forty, his influence was wider than any other living English writer".<ref>Cowley, Malcolm. "Outline of Wells's History". ''[[The New Republic]]'' Vol. 81 Issue 1041, 14 November 1934 (pp. 22–23).</ref>

Wells contemplates the ideas of [[nature and nurture]] and questions humanity in books such as ''The First Men in the Moon'', where nature is completely suppressed by nurture, and ''The Island of Doctor Moreau'', where the strong presence of nature represents a threat to a civilized society. Not all his scientific romances ended in a Utopia, and Wells also wrote a [[dystopia]]n novel, ''When the Sleeper Wakes'' (1899, rewritten as ''The Sleeper Awakes'', 1910), which pictures a future society where the classes have become more and more separated, leading to a revolt of the masses against the rulers.<ref>William Steinhoff, "Utopia Reconsidered: Comments on ''1984''" 153, in Eric S. Rabkin, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander, eds., ''No Place Else: Explorations in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction''.  {{ISBN|0-8093-1113-5}}.</ref> ''The Island of Doctor Moreau'' is even darker. The narrator, having been trapped on an island of animals vivisected (unsuccessfully) into human beings, eventually returns to England; like [[Gulliver's Travels|Gulliver]] on his return from the [[Houyhnhnm]]s, he finds himself unable to shake off the perceptions of his fellow humans as barely civilised beasts, slowly reverting to their animal natures.<ref name="Moreau">Wells, H. G. (2005). ''The Island of Dr Moreau''. "Fear and Trembling". Penguin UK.</ref>

Wells also wrote the preface for the first edition of [[W. N. P. Barbellion]]'s diaries, ''The Journal of a Disappointed Man'', published in 1919. Since "Barbellion" was the real author's [[pen name]], many reviewers believed Wells to have been the true author of the ''Journal''; Wells always denied this, despite being full of praise for the diaries.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Quotable Barbellion{{snd}}A Barbellion Chronology |url=https://sites.google.com/site/thequotablebarbellion/a-barbellion-chronology |access-date=2022-12-29}}</ref>

[[File:H. G. Wells-TIME-1926.jpg|thumb|left|upright|H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, one day before his 60th birthday, on the front cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine, 20 September 1926]]
In 1927, a Canadian teacher and writer [[Florence Deeks]] unsuccessfully sued Wells for infringement of copyright and breach of trust, claiming that much of ''The Outline of History'' had been plagiarised from her unpublished manuscript,<ref>At the time of the alleged infringement in 1919–20, unpublished works were protected in Canada under common law.{{cite journal |last=Magnusson |first=Denis N. |date=Spring 2004 |title=Hell Hath No Fury: Copyright Lawyers' Lessons from ''Deeks v. Wells'' |journal=Queen's Law Journal |volume=29 |page=692, note 39}}</ref> ''The Web of the World's Romance'', which had spent nearly nine months in the hands of Wells's Canadian publisher, Macmillan Canada.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Magnusson |first=Denis N. |date=Spring 2004 |title=Hell Hath No Fury: Copyright Lawyers' Lessons from ''Deeks v. Wells'' |journal=Queen's Law Journal |volume=29 |page=682}}</ref> However, it was sworn on oath at the trial that the manuscript remained in Toronto in the safekeeping of Macmillan, and that Wells did not even know it existed, let alone seen it.<ref>Clarke, Arthur C. (March 1978). "Professor Irwin and the Deeks Affair". p. 91. ''Science Fiction Studies''. SF-TH Inc. 5</ref> The court found no proof of copying, and decided the similarities were due to the fact that the books had similar nature and both writers had access to the same sources.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/1931/1931canlii157/1931canlii157.html |title=''Deeks v. Wells'', 1931 CanLII 157 (ONSC (HC Div); ONSC (AppDiv)) |date=26 August 1931 |publisher=[[CanLII]] |access-date=2022-12-20}}</ref>  The case went on appeal from the Canadian courts to the [[Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]], at that time the highest court of appeal for the [[British Empire]], which dismissed the appeal in [[Deeks v Wells]].<ref>[https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/ukjcpc/doc/1932/1932canlii315/1932canlii315.html Deeks v. Wells], 1932 CanLII 315 (UK JCPC).</ref> In 2000, [[A. B. McKillop]], a professor of history at Carleton University, produced a book on the case, ''The Spinster & The Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past''.<ref>McKillop, A. B. (2000) Macfarlane Walter & Ross, Toronto.</ref> According to McKillop, the lawsuit was unsuccessful due to the prejudice against a woman suing a well-known and famous male author, and he paints a detailed story based on the circumstantial evidence of the case.<ref>Deeks, Florence A. (1930s) "Plagiarism?" unpublished typescript, copy in Deeks Fonds, Baldwin Room, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto, Ontario.</ref> In 2004, Denis N. Magnusson, professor emeritus of the Faculty of Law, Queen's University, Ontario, published an article on ''Deeks v. Wells''. This re-examines the case in relation to McKillop's book. While having some sympathy for Deeks, he argues that she had a weak case that was not well presented, and though she may have met with [[sexism]] from her lawyers, she received a fair trial, adding that the law applied is essentially the same law that would be applied to a similar case today (i.e., 2004).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Magnusson |first=Denis N. |date=Spring 2004 |title=Hell Hath No Fury: Copyright Lawyers' Lessons from Deeks v. Wells |journal=Queen's Law Journal |volume=29 |pages=680, 684}}</ref>

[[File:H. G. Wells (5026568202).jpg|thumb|upright|[[H. G. Wells Society]]  plaque at [[Chiltern Court]], [[Baker Street]] in the [[City of Westminster]], London, where Wells lived between 1930 and 1936]]
In 1933, Wells predicted in ''The Shape of Things to Come'' that the world war he feared would begin in January 1940,<ref>{{cite book |title=The shape of things to come: the ultimate revolution |year= 2005 |orig-year= 1933 |isbn=978-0-14-144104-7 |page=208 |chapter=9. The Last War Cyclone, 1940–50 |last=Wells |first=H. G. |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |author-link=H. G. Wells}}</ref> a prediction which ultimately came true four months early, in September 1939, with the outbreak of [[World War II]].{{r|wagar|p=209}} In 1936, before the [[Royal Institution]], Wells called for the compilation of a constantly growing and changing World [[Encyclopaedia]], to be reviewed by outstanding authorities and made accessible to every human being. He also presented on his conception of a world encyclopedia at the [[World Congress of Universal Documentation]] in Paris in 1937.<ref>Rayward, W. Boyd. (1999). "H.G. Wells's Idea of a World Brain: A Critical Reassessment." ''Journal of the American Society for Information Science'' 50 (7): 557–73.</ref>

In 1938, he published a collection of essays on the future organisation of knowledge and education, ''[[World Brain]]'', including the essay "The Idea of a Permanent World Encyclopaedia".<ref>{{cite web |title=eBooks@Adelaide has now officially closed |url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/news/list/2020/01/07/ebooksadelaide-has-now-officially-closed |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=University Library {{pipe}} University of Adelaide |archive-date=4 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904005938/https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/news/list/2020/01/07/ebooksadelaide-has-now-officially-closed |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Prior to 1933, Wells's books were widely read in Germany and Austria, and most of his science fiction works had been translated shortly after publication.<ref name="Partington"/> By 1933, he had attracted the attention of German officials because of his criticism of the political situation in Germany, and on 10 May 1933, Wells's books were [[List of book-burning incidents#Jewish, anti-Nazi and "degenerate" books (by the Nazis)|burned by the Nazi youth]] in Berlin's [[Bebelplatz|Opernplatz]], and his works were banned from libraries and book stores.<ref name="Partington">Patrick Parrinder and John S. Partington (2005). ''The Reception of H. G. in Europe''. pp. 106–108. Bloomsbury Publishing.</ref> Wells, as president of [[PEN International]] (Poets, Essayists, Novelists), angered the [[Nazism|Nazis]] by overseeing the expulsion of the German PEN club from the international body in 1934 following the German PEN's refusal to admit non-[[Aryan race|Aryan]] writers to its membership. At a PEN conference in [[Dubrovnik|Ragusa]], Wells refused to yield to Nazi sympathisers who demanded that the exiled author [[Ernst Toller]] be prevented from speaking.<ref name="Partington"/> Near the end of World War II, [[Allies of World War II|Allied forces]] discovered that the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] had compiled lists of people slated for immediate arrest during the invasion of Britain in the abandoned [[Operation Sea Lion]], with Wells included in the alphabetical list of "[[The Black Book (list)|The Black Book]]".<ref>Wells, Frank. ''H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells—A Pictorial Biography''. London: Jupiter Books, 1977, p. 91.</ref>

====Wartime works====
[[File:The War That Will End War - Wells.djvu|thumb|upright|left|Title page of Wells's ''The War That Will End War'' (1914)|page=7]]
Seeking a more structured way to play war games, Wells wrote ''[[Floor Games]]'' (1911) followed by ''[[Little Wars]]'' (1913), which set out rules for fighting battles with [[toy soldier]]s (miniatures).<ref name="toy soldiers">{{cite news|last1=Rundle|first1=Michael|title=How H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Invented Modern War Games 100 Years Ago|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/09/hg-wells-little-wars-how-_n_3044934.html|work=The Huffington Post|date=9 April 2013}}</ref> A [[pacificism|pacifist]] prior to the [[First World War]], Wells stated "how much better is this amiable miniature [war] than the real thing".<ref name="toy soldiers"/> According to Wells, the idea of the game developed from a visit by his friend [[Jerome K. Jerome]]. After dinner, Jerome began shooting down toy soldiers with a toy cannon and Wells joined in to compete.<ref name="toy soldiers"/>

During August 1914, immediately after the outbreak of the First World War, Wells published a number of articles in London newspapers that subsequently appeared as a book entitled ''The War That Will End War''.{{r|wagar|p=147}}<ref>{{cite news |title=A War to End All War |url=https://www.vision.org/history-the-great-war-can-a-war-end-all-war-33 |access-date=27 February 2020 |agency=Vision.org|quote=Wells wrote: "This is now a war for peace. It aims straight at disarmament. It aims at a settlement that shall stop this sort of thing for ever. Every soldier who fights against Germany now is a crusader against war. This, the greatest of all wars, is not just another war—it is the last war!"}}</ref> He coined the expression with the idealistic belief that the result of the war would make a future conflict impossible.<ref>{{cite news |title=Armistice Day: WWI was meant to be the war that ended all wars. It wasn't. |url=https://www.euronews.com/2020/11/11/armistice-day-wwi-was-meant-to-be-the-war-that-ended-all-wars-it-wasn-t |access-date=13 September 2021 |agency=[[Euronews]]}}</ref> Wells blamed the [[Central Powers]] for the coming of the war and argued that only the defeat of German [[militarism]] could bring about an end to war.<ref name="Russell">{{cite book |title=The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell |editor-last=Rempel |editor-first=Richard A. |date=2003 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-10463-0 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h9vF8W1dW48C&pg=PA10 |access-date=2010-08-24}}</ref> Wells used the shorter form of the phrase, "[[the war to end war]]", in ''In the Fourth Year'' (1918), in which he noted that the phrase "got into circulation" in the second half of 1914.<ref>{{cite book |title=Short Works of Herbert George Wells |last=Wells |first=H. G.  |author-link=H. G. Wells |date=2008 |publisher=[[BiblioBazaar, LLC]] |isbn=978-1-4375-2652-3 |pages=13–14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MkguSdsC3xYC&pg=PA13 |access-date=2010-08-24}}</ref> In fact, it had become one of the most common [[catchphrase]]s of the war.<ref name="Russell"/>

In 1918, Wells worked for the British [[War Propaganda Bureau]], also called Wellington House.<ref name="Wartime"/> Wells was also one of fifty-three leading British authors — a number that included [[Rudyard Kipling]], [[Thomas Hardy]] and Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] — who signed their names to the "Authors' Declaration." This manifesto declared that the German invasion of Belgium had been a brutal crime, and that Britain "could not without dishonour have refused to take part in the present war".<ref name="Wartime">{{cite news |title=1914 Authors' Manifesto Defending Britain's Involvement in WWI, Signed by H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/10/british-authors-and-wwi-propaganda-manifesto-signed-by-h-g-wells-arthur-conan-doyle-rudyard-kipling.html |access-date=27 February 2020 |work=Slate}}</ref>

===Travels to Russia and the Soviet Union===
[[File:СССР. Павлов И.П., Г. Уэллс и внучка Павлова Милочка. 1924г. (pavlovs museum).jpg|thumb|Wells (left) pictured with Soviet physiologist [[Ivan Pavlov]]]]
Wells visited Russia three times: 1914, 1920 and 1934. After his visits to [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]] and [[Moscow]], in January 1914, he came back to England, "a staunch Russophile". His views were recorded in a newspaper article, "Russia and England: A Study on Contrasts", published in ''[[The Daily News (UK)|The Daily News]]'' on 1 February 1941, and in his novel ''[[Joan and Peter]]'' (1918).<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv346p26.9 |chapter=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells : Interpreting the 'Writing on the Eastern Wall of Europe' |last1=Soboleva |first1=Olga |last2=Wrenn |first2=Angus |date=2017 |title=From Orientalism to Cultural Capital |pages=101–142 |publisher=Peter Lang AG |jstor=j.ctv346p26.9 |isbn=9783034322034}}</ref>  During his second visit, he saw his old friend [[Maxim Gorky]] and with Gorky's help, met [[Vladimir Lenin]]. In his book ''[[Russia in the Shadows]]'', Wells portrayed Russia as recovering from a total social collapse, "the completest that has ever happened to any modern social organisation".<ref>H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, ''Russia in the Shadows'' (New York: George H. Doran, 1921), p. 21.</ref> On 23 July 1934, after visiting U.S. President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Wells went to the Soviet Union and interviewed [[Joseph Stalin]] for three hours for the ''[[New Statesman]]'' magazine, which was extremely rare at that time. He told Stalin how he had seen 'the happy faces of healthy people' in contrast with his previous visit to Moscow in 1920.<ref>{{cite web |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Interviews Joseph Stalin in 1934; Declares "I Am More to The Left Than You, Mr. Stalin" |url=http://www.openculture.com/2014/04/h-g-wells-interviews-joseph-stalin-in-1934.html |website=Open Culture |access-date=3 June 2018}}</ref> However, he also criticised the lawlessness, class discrimination, state violence, and absence of [[Freedom of speech|free expression]]. Stalin enjoyed the conversation and replied accordingly. As the chairman of the London-based [[PEN International]], which protected the rights of authors to write without being intimidated, Wells hoped by his trip to USSR, he could win Stalin over by force of argument. Before he left, he realised that no reform was to happen in the near future.<ref>{{cite book |last=Service |first=Robert |title=Comrades |date=2007 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |location=[[London]] |page=205}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=MARXISM VERSUS LIBERALISM |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1934/07/23.htm |publisher=Red Star Press Ltd. |access-date=2018-06-03}}</ref>

===Final years===
[[File:Herbert George Wells in 1943.jpg|right|thumb|upright|H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells in 1943]]
Wells's greatest literary output occurred before the First World War, which was lamented by younger authors whom he had influenced. In this connection, [[George Orwell]] described Wells as "too sane to understand the modern world", and "since 1920 he has squandered his talents in slaying [[Paper tiger|paper dragons]]."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Orwell |first=George |title=Wells, Hitler and the World State |journal=Horizon |date=August 1941 |url=http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/wells/english/e_whws |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118081350/http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/wells/english/e_whws |archive-date=2016-01-18}}</ref> [[G. K. Chesterton]] quipped: "Mr Wells is a born storyteller who has sold his birthright for a pot of message".<ref>{{cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/hgwellsunderrevi00inte |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells under revision : proceedings of the International H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Symposium, London, July 1986 |last1=Parrinder |first1=Patrick |last2=Rolfe |first2=Christopher |date=1990 |location=Selinsgrove, Pa. / London|publisher= Susquehanna University Press / Associated University Presses |isbn=978-0-945636-05-2}}</ref>

Wells had [[diabetes mellitus|diabetes]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/Who_we_are/History/HG-Wells/ |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells—Diabetes UK |date=2008-04-14 |access-date=2012-06-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110106003137/http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/Who_we_are/History/HG-Wells/ |archive-date=2011-01-06}}</ref> and was a co-founder in 1934 of The Diabetic Association (now [[Diabetes UK]], the leading charity for people with diabetes in the UK).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/Who_we_are/History/ |title=Diabetes UK: Our History |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108072908/https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about_us/who_we_are/history |archive-date=2017-11-08 |access-date=2015-12-10}}</ref>

On 28 October 1940, on the radio station [[KTSA]] in [[San Antonio]], [[Texas]], Wells took part in a radio interview with [[Orson Welles]], who two years previously had performed a famous [[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|radio adaptation of ''The War of the Worlds'']]. During the interview, by Charles C Shaw, a KTSA radio host, Wells admitted his surprise at the sensation that resulted from the broadcast but acknowledged his debt to Welles for increasing sales of one of his "more obscure" titles.<ref>{{cite book |last=Flynn |first=John L. |title=War of the Worlds: from Wells to Spielberg by |publisher=Galactic |isbn=978-0-9769400-0-5 |location=Owens Mills, MD |page=45 |chapter=The legacy of Orson Welles and the Radio Broadcast |date=June 2005}}</ref>

===Death===
[[File:H.G. WELLS 1866-1946 WRITER lived and died here.jpg|thumb|upright|Commemorative [[blue plaque]] at Wells's final home in [[Regent's Park]], London]]
Wells died on 13 August 1946, aged 79, at his home at 13 [[Hanover Terrace]], overlooking [[Regent's Park]], London.<ref>{{cite newspaper The Times |last=Bradberry |first=Grace |date=1996-08-23 |title=The secret life of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |issue=65666 |page=18}}</ref><ref name="ODNB"/> 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."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/W/WellsHerbertGeorge/prose/warintheair/warinairpref1941.html |title=Preface to the 1941 edition of ''The War in the Air'' |access-date=2008-02-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222210642/http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/W/WellsHerbertGeorge/prose/warintheair/warinairpref1941.html |archive-date=2008-12-22}}</ref> Wells's body was cremated at [[Golders Green Crematorium]] on 16 August 1946; his ashes were subsequently scattered into the [[English Channel]] at [[Old Harry Rocks]], the most eastern point of the [[Jurassic Coast]] and about 3.5 miles (5.6&nbsp;km) from [[Swanage]] in [[Dorset]].<ref>West, Anthony. ''H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Aspects of a Life'', p. 153. London: Hutchinson & Co, 1984. {{ISBN|0-09-134540-5}}.</ref>

A commemorative [[blue plaque]] in his honour was installed by the [[Greater London Council]] at his home in Regent's Park in 1966.<ref>{{cite web|title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells (1866–1946)|url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/h-g-wells/|website=Blue Plaques|publisher=English Heritage}}</ref>

==Futurist==
[[File:H G Wells.jpg|thumb|left|150px|"Novelist and thinker". Statue of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells by Wesley Harland in [[Woking]]]]
A [[futurist]] and "visionary", Wells foresaw the advent of [[aircraft]], [[tank]]s, [[Spaceflight|space travel]], [[nuclear weapon]]s, [[satellite television]], and something resembling the [[World Wide Web]].<ref name="visionary"/> Asserting that "Wells's visions of the future remain unsurpassed", [[John Higgs]], author of ''Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense of the Twentieth Century'', states that in the late 19th century Wells "saw the coming century clearer than anyone else. He anticipated wars in the air, the sexual revolution, motorised transport causing the growth of suburbs and a proto-Wikipedia he called the "[[World Brain|world brain]]". In his novel ''The World Set Free'', he imagined an "atomic bomb" of terrifying power that would be dropped from aeroplanes. This was an extraordinary insight for an author writing in 1913, and it made a deep impression on Winston Churchill."<ref name="Higgs"/>

{{blockquote|Many readers have hailed H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and George Orwell as special kinds of writers, ones endowed with remarkable prescriptive and prophetic powers. Wells was the twentieth-century prototype of this literary vatic figure: he invented the role, explored its possibilities, especially through new forms of prose and new ways to publish, and defined its boundaries. His impact on his culture was profound; as George Orwell wrote, "The minds of all of us, and therefore the physical world, would be perceptibly different if Wells had never existed."|''The Author as Cultural Hero: H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and George Orwell''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Sperber |first=Murray A. |author-link=Murray Sperber |title=The Author as Cultural Hero: H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and George Orwell |publisher=[[University of Manitoba]] |date=1981 |jstor=24780682 |journal=Mosaic}}</ref>}}

In 2011, Wells was among a group of science fiction writers featured in the ''[[Prophets of Science Fiction]]'' series, a show produced and hosted by film director Sir [[Ridley Scott]], which depicts how predictions influenced the development of scientific advancements by inspiring many readers to assist in transforming those futuristic visions into everyday reality.<ref>{{cite news|last=Teague|first=Jason Cranford|title=The Prophets of Science Fiction Explores Sci-Fi's Best Writers|url=https://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/11/ridley-scott-brings-us-the-prophets-of-science-fiction/|access-date=4 August 2020|newspaper=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]|date=9 November 2011}}</ref> In a 2013 review of ''The Time Machine'' for the ''New Yorker'' magazine, [[Brad Leithauser]] writes, "At the base of Wells's great visionary exploit is this rational, ultimately scientific attempt to tease out the potential future consequences of present conditions—not as they might arise in a few years, or even decades, but millennia hence, epochs hence. He is world literature's Great Extrapolator. Like no other fiction writer before him, he embraced "[[deep time]]".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Leithauser |first1=Brad |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells' ghost|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/h-g-wellss-ghost |date=20 October 2013|access-date=18 March 2019 |work=New Yorker}}</ref>

==Political views==
{{Main|Political views of H. G. Wells}}
[[File:Churchill V sign HU 55521.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] avidly read Wells. An October 1906 Churchill speech was partly inspired by Wells's ideas of a supportive state as a "Utopia".  Two days earlier, Churchill had written to Wells: "I owe you a great debt."<ref name="Churchill">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/churchill-borrowed-famous-lines-from-books-by-hg-wells-6229767.html|title=Churchill 'borrowed' famous lines from books by H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells|newspaper=The Independent|date=22 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2006-11-27 |title=Churchill borrowed some of his biggest ideas from H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/churchill-borrowed-some-of-his-biggest-ideas-from-hg-wells |access-date=2020-07-03 |website=[[University of Cambridge]]}}</ref>]]

Wells was a [[socialist]] and a member of the [[Fabian Society]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Cole |first=Margaret |author-link=Margaret Cole |editor-last=Morris |editor-first=Andrew James Anthony |editor-link=A. J. A. Morris |title=Edwardian radicalism, 1900–1914: some aspects of British radicalism |date=1974 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[London]] |isbn=0-7100-7866-8 |pages=97–114 |chapter=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and the Fabian Society |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/edwardianradical0000unse/page/97}}</ref> He stood as a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] candidate for [[London University (UK Parliament constituency)|London University]] in the [[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922]] and [[1923 United Kingdom general election|1923 general elections]].<ref>Foot, Michael. H. G.: History of Mr. Wells. Doubleday, 1985 (ISBN 978-1-887178-04-4), Black Swan, New edition, Oct 1996 (paperback, ISBN 0-552-99530-4) p. 194.</ref>

[[Winston Churchill]] was an avid reader of Wells's books; after they first met in 1902, they kept in touch until Wells died in 1946.<ref name="Churchill"/> As a junior minister, Churchill borrowed lines from Wells for one of his most famous early landmark speeches in 1906; as Prime Minister, the phrase "[[The Second World War (book series)|the gathering storm]]"—used by Churchill to describe the rise of Nazi Germany—had been written by Wells in ''The War of the Worlds'', which depicts an attack on Britain by Martians.<ref name="Churchill"/> Wells's extensive writings on equality and human rights, most notably his most influential work, ''The Rights of Man'' (1940), laid the groundwork for the 1948 [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]], which was adopted by the United Nations shortly after his death.<ref>{{cite book |last=Partington |first=John S. |date=2007 |title=Cosmopolitics and the Emergence of a Future |chapter=Human Rights and Public Accountability in H. G. Wells' Functional World State |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/400254 |pages=163–190 |publisher= Springer Link |location=London |doi=10.1057/9780230210684_9 |isbn=978-1-349-27995-1}}</ref>

His efforts regarding the [[League of Nations]], on which he collaborated on the project with [[Leonard Woolf]] with the booklets ''The Idea of a League of Nations'', ''Prolegomena to the Study of World Organization'', and ''The Way of the League of Nations'',  became a disappointment as the organization turned out to be a weak one unable to prevent the Second World War, which itself occurred towards the very end of his life and only increased the pessimistic side of his nature.<ref>Herbert Wells, ''[[The Fate of Homo Sapiens]]'', (London: Secker & Warburg, 1939), p 89-90.</ref> In his last book ''[[Mind at the End of Its Tether]]'' (1945), he considered the idea that humanity being replaced by another species might not be a bad idea. He referred to the era between the two World Wars as "The Age of Frustration".<ref>Herbert George Wells Newsletter, Volume 2. p. 10. H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Society, 1981</ref>

Wells was initially an opponent of [[Anti-Zionism|Zionism]]. In ''[[In the Days of the Comet]]'', Jews are described as parasites on European society. However, Wells later became a strong supporter of the establishment of a Jewish state in response to the [[Holocaust]].<ref>{{cite news |title=H.G. Wells vs. the Jews |url=https://www.jta.org/jewniverse/2012/h-g-wells-vs-the-jews |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=24 October 2023}}</ref>

He was a member of [[The Other Club]], a London dining club.

==Religious views==
Wells's views on God and religion changed over his lifetime. Early in his life, he distanced himself from Christianity, and later from [[theism]]; finally, late in life, he was essentially atheistic. [[Martin Gardner]] summarises this progression:{{blockquote|[The younger Wells]&nbsp;... did not object to using the word "God" provided it did not imply anything resembling human personality. In his middle years Wells went through a phase of defending the concept of a "finite God," similar to the god of such [[process theologian]]s as [[Samuel Alexander]], [[Edgar Brightman]], and [[Charles Hartshorne]]. (He even wrote a book about it called ''[[God the Invisible King]]''.) Later Wells decided he was really an atheist.<ref>Gardner, Martin (1995), Introduction to H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, ''The Conquest of Time'' [1941]; New York: Dover Books. This introduction was also published in Gardner's book ''From the Wandering Jew to William F. Buckley, Jr: On Science, Literature and Religion'' (2000), Amherst, New York: [[Prometheus Books]], pp 235–238.</ref>}}

In ''God the Invisible King'' (1917), Wells wrote that his idea of God did not draw upon the traditional religions of the world: {{blockquote|This book sets out as forcibly and exactly as possible the religious belief of the writer. [Which] is a profound belief in a personal and intimate God.&nbsp;... Putting the leading idea of this book very roughly, these two antagonistic typical conceptions of God may be best contrasted by speaking of one of them as God-as-Nature or the Creator, and of the other as God-as-Christ or the Redeemer. One is the great Outward God; the other is the Inmost God. The first idea was perhaps developed most highly and completely in the God of Spinoza. It is a conception of God tending to pantheism, to an idea of a comprehensive God as ruling with justice rather than affection, to a conception of aloofness and awestriking worshipfulness. The second idea, which is contradictory to this idea of an absolute God, is the God of the human heart. The writer suggested that the great outline of the theological struggles of that phase of civilisation and world unity which produced Christianity, was a persistent but unsuccessful attempt to get these two different ideas of God into one focus.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H. G. |author-link=H. G. Wells |title=God the Invisible King |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.37681 |publisher=[[Cassell (publisher)|Cassell]] |location=[[London]] |date=1917 |chapter=Preface |oclc=261326125 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1046/1046-h/1046-h.htm}}</ref>}} Later in the work, he aligns himself with a "renascent or modern religion&nbsp;... neither atheist nor Buddhist nor Mohammedan nor Christian&nbsp;... [that] he has found growing up in himself".<ref>{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H. G. |author-link=H. G. Wells |date=1917 |title=God the Invisible King |chapter= The cosmogony of modern religion |oclc=261326125 |url= https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1046/1046-h/1046-h.htm }}</ref>

Of [[Christianity]], he said: "it is not now true for me.&nbsp;... Every believing Christian is, I am sure, my spiritual brother&nbsp;... but if systemically I called myself a Christian I feel that to most men I should imply too much and so tell a lie". Of other world religions, he writes: "All these religions are true for me as [[Canterbury Cathedral]] is a true thing and as a Swiss chalet is a true thing. There they are, and they have served a purpose, they have worked. Only they are not true for me to live in them.&nbsp;... They do not work for me".<ref>{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H. G. |author-link=H. G. Wells |title=First & last things; a confession of faith and rules of life |url=https://archive.org/details/firstlastthings0000well/page/77 |date=1908 |publisher=[[Putnam (publisher)|Putnam]] |pages=77–80 |oclc=68958585}}</ref> In ''[[The Fate of Homo Sapiens]]'' (1939), Wells criticised almost all world religions and philosophies, stating "there is no creed, no way of living left in the world at all, that really meets the needs of the time{{nbsp}}.... When we come to look at them coolly and dispassionately, all the main religions, patriotic, moral and customary systems in which human beings are sheltering today, appear to be in a state of jostling and mutually destructive movement, like the houses and palaces and other buildings of some vast, sprawling city overtaken by a landslide."<ref>''[[The Fate of Homo Sapiens]]'', p 291.</ref>

Wells's opposition to organised religion reached a fever pitch in 1943 with publication of his book ''[[Crux Ansata]]'', subtitled "An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church" in which he attacked [[Catholicism]], [[Pope Pius XII]] and called for the bombing of the city of [[Rome]].<ref>{{cite book |title=H. G. Wells a comprehensive bibliography |date=1972 |publisher=[[H. G. Wells Society]] |isbn=0-902291-65-3 |location=Great Britain |page=44}}</ref>

==Literary influence and legacy==
[[File:H G Wells SWS 2906.jpg|right|thumb|upright|H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells as depicted in Gernsback's ''[[Science Wonder Stories]]'' in 1929]]
The science fiction historian [[John Clute]] describes Wells as "the most important writer the genre has yet seen", and notes his work has been central to both British and American science fiction.<ref name="jc">John Clute, ''Science Fiction :The Illustrated Encyclopedia''. Dorling Kindersley London, {{ISBN|0-7513-0202-3}} (p. 114–115).</ref> Science fiction author and critic [[Algis Budrys]] said Wells "remains the outstanding expositor of both the hope, and the despair, which are embodied in the technology and which are the major facts of life in our world".<ref name="budrys196809">{{cite magazine |last=Budrys |first=Algis |author-link=Algis Budrys |date=September 1968 |title=Galaxy Bookshelf |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v27n02_1968-09#page/n185/mode/2up |magazine=[[Galaxy Science Fiction]] |pages=187–193}}</ref> He was nominated for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1921, 1932, 1935, and 1946.<ref name="Nobel nominations"/> Wells so influenced real exploration of space that impact craters on Mars [[H. G. Wells (crater)|and the Moon]] were named after him:<ref name="Sagan">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/28/archives/growing-up-with.html |title=Growing up with Science Fiction |last=Sagan |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Sagan |date=1978-05-28 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=2018-12-12 |page=SM7 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Wells's genius was his ability to create a stream of brand new, wholly original stories out of thin air. Originality was Wells's calling card. In a six-year stretch from 1895 to 1901, he produced a stream of what he called "scientific romance" novels, which included ''[[The Time Machine]]'', ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]]'', ''[[The Invisible Man]]'', ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' and ''[[The First Men in the Moon]]''. This was a dazzling display of new thought, endlessly copied since. A book like ''The War of the Worlds'' inspired every one of the thousands of alien invasion stories that followed. It burned its way into the psyche of mankind and changed us all forever.|source=Cultural historian [[John Higgs]], ''The Guardian''.<ref name="Higgs">{{cite news |last=Higgs |first=John |author-link=John Higgs |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells's prescient visions of the future remain unsurpassed |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/13/hg-wells-visions-of-the-future-remain-unsurpassed |access-date=2019-03-19 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=2016-08-13}}</ref>}}

[[File:Amazing stories quarterly 1928win.jpg|thumb|upright|Magazine reprint of Wells's 1910 [[dystopian]] science fiction ''[[When the Sleeper Wakes]]'']]
In the United Kingdom, Wells's work was a key model for the British "scientific romance", and other writers in that mode, such as [[Olaf Stapledon]],<ref>Andy Sawyer, "[William] Olaf Stapledon (1886–1950)", in ''Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction''. New York: Routledge, 2010. {{ISBN|0-203-87470-6}} (pp. 205–210).</ref> [[J. D. Beresford]],<ref name="rb">[[Richard Bleiler]], "John Davis Beresford (1873–1947)" in Darren Harris-Fain, ed. ''British Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Before World War I''. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1997. pp. 27–34. {{ISBN|0-8103-9941-5}}.</ref> [[S. Fowler Wright]],<ref>Brian Stableford, "Against the New Gods: The Speculative Fiction of S. Fowler Wright". in Against the New Gods and Other Essays on Writers of Imaginative Fiction Wildside Press LLC, 2009 {{ISBN|1-4344-5743-5}} (pp. 9–90).</ref> and [[Naomi Mitchison]],<ref>"Mitchison, Naomi", in ''Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: A Checklist, 1700–1974: With Contemporary Science Fiction Authors II''. Robert Reginald, Douglas Menville, Mary A. Burgess. Detroit—Gale Research Company. {{ISBN|0-8103-1051-1}} p. 1002.</ref> all drew on Wells's example. Wells was also an important influence on British science fiction of the period after the Second World War, with [[Arthur C. Clarke]]<ref>Michael D. Sharp, ''Popular Contemporary Writers'', Marshall Cavendish, 2005 {{ISBN|0-7614-7601-6}} p. 422.</ref> and [[Brian Aldiss]]<ref>Michael R. Collings, ''Brian Aldiss''. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1986. {{ISBN|0-916732-74-6}} p. 60.</ref> expressing strong admiration for Wells's work. A self-declared fan of Wells, [[John Wyndham]], author of ''[[The Day of the Triffids]]'' and ''[[The Midwich Cuckoos]]'', echoes Wells's obsession with catastrophe and its aftermath.<ref>{{cite news |title=John Wyndham (1903-1969)|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/10/johnwyndham |access-date=29 October 2022 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> His early work (pre 1920) made Wells the literary hero of [[dystopian]] novelist [[George Orwell]].<ref>{{cite news |title=The George Orwell and H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells row: Gain and Loss in the Utopian and Dystopian Feud |url=https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/30172/ |access-date=29 October 2022 |publisher=[[Goldsmiths, University of London]]}}</ref> Among contemporary British science fiction writers, [[Stephen Baxter (author)|Stephen Baxter]], [[Christopher Priest (novelist)|Christopher Priest]] and [[Adam Roberts (British writer)|Adam Roberts]] have all acknowledged Wells's influence on their writing; all three are vice-presidents of the [[H. G. Wells Society]]. He also had a strong influence on British scientist [[J. B. S. Haldane]], who wrote ''[[Daedalus; or, Science and the Future]]'' (1924), "The Last Judgement" and "On Being the Right Size" from the essay collection ''Possible Worlds'' (1927), and ''Biological Possibilities for the Human Species in the Next Ten Thousand Years'' (1963), which are speculations about the future of human evolution and life on other planets. Haldane gave several lectures about these topics which in turn influenced other science fiction writers.<ref>{{cite journal |pmc=3327541 |pmid=18578028 |doi=10.1038/embor.2008.68 |volume=9 |title=Back to the future. Contemporary biopolitics in 1920s' British futurism |journal=EMBO Rep |pages=S59–S63 |last=Hughes |first=J. J. |date=2008 |issue=Suppl 1 | issn = 1469-221X}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/rightsize.pdf |title=On Being the Right Size |last=Haldane |first=J. B. S. |author-link=J. B. S. Haldane}}</ref>

[[File:Two complete science adventure books 1951win n4.jpg|thumb|upright|Wells's works were reprinted in American science fiction magazines as late as the 1950s.|left]]
In the United States, [[Hugo Gernsback]] reprinted most of Wells's work in the pulp magazine ''[[Amazing Stories]]'', regarding Wells's work as "texts of central importance to the self-conscious new genre".<ref name="jc"/> Later American writers such as [[Ray Bradbury]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.strandmag.com/the-magazine/interviews/ray-bradbury/ |title=Ray Bradbury |work=[[Strand Mag]] |date=2015-06-04}}</ref> [[Isaac Asimov]],<ref>{{cite book |title=In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov 1920–1954. |location=[[Garden City, NY]] |publisher=[[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] |date=1979 |page=167}}</ref> [[Frank Herbert]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://members.multimania.co.uk/Fenrir/ctdinterviews.htm |title=Vertex Magazine Interview |access-date=2012-10-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021031705/http://members.multimania.co.uk/Fenrir/ctdinterviews.htm |archive-date=2012-10-21}} with Frank Herbert, by Paul Turner, October 1973, Volume 1, Issue 4.</ref> [[Carl Sagan]],<ref name="Sagan"/> and [[Ursula K. Le Guin]]<ref name="jh2">John Huntington, "Utopian and Anti-Utopian Logic: H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and his Successors". ''Science Fiction Studies'', July 1982.</ref> all recalled being influenced by Wells.

[[Sinclair Lewis's]] early novels were strongly influenced by Wells's realistic social novels, such as ''[[The History of Mr Polly]]''; Lewis also named his first son Wells after the author.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Romance of Sinclair Lewis|url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1992/10/08/the-romance-of-sinclair-lewis/|date=22 September 2017|magazine=The New York Review of Books}}</ref> Lewis nominated H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.<ref name="Nobel nominations"/>

In an interview with ''[[The Paris Review]]'', [[Vladimir Nabokov]] described Wells as his favourite writer when he was a boy and "a great artist".<ref name="Nabokov">{{cite news |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4310/vladimir-nabokov-the-art-of-fiction-no-40-vladimir-nabokov |title=Vladimir Nabokov, The Art of Fiction No. 40 |last=Gold |first=Herbert |newspaper=[[The Paris Review]] |access-date=2017-02-09}}</ref> He went on to cite ''The Passionate Friends'', ''[[Ann Veronica]]'', ''The Time Machine'', and ''[[The Country of the Blind]]'' as superior to anything else written by Wells's British contemporaries. Nabokov said: "His sociological cogitations can be safely ignored, of course, but his romances and fantasies are superb."<ref name="Nabokov"/>
[[File:Herbert George Wells Postal stationery envelope Russia 2016 No 286.jpg|thumb|2016 illustrated postal envelope with an image from ''The War of the Worlds'', [[Russian Post]], commemorating the 150th anniversary of the author's birth]]
[[Jorge Luis Borges]] wrote many short pieces on Wells in which he demonstrates a deep familiarity with much of Wells's work.<ref>Borges, Jorge Luis. ''The Total Library''. Edited by Eliot Weinberger. London: Penguin Books, 1999. Pp. 150.</ref> While Borges wrote several critical reviews, including a mostly negative review of Wells's film ''Things to Come'',<ref>Borges, Jorge Luis. "Wells the Visionary" in ''The Total Library''. Edited by Eliot Weinberger. London: Penguin Books, 1999. Pp. 150.</ref> he regularly treated Wells as a canonical figure of fantastic literature. Late in his life, Borges included ''The Invisible Man'' and ''The Time Machine'' in his ''Prologue to a Personal Library'',<ref>{{cite web |title=Jorge Luis Borges Selects 74 Books for Your Personal Library {{pipe}} Open Culture |url=https://www.openculture.com/2015/03/jorge-luis-borges-personal-library.html |access-date=2022-12-29}}</ref> a curated list of 100 great works of literature that he undertook at the behest of the Argentine publishing house [[Emecé Editores|Emecé]]. Wells also inspired writers of continental European speculative fiction such as [[Karel Čapek]],<ref name="jh2"/> [[Mikhail Bulgakov]]<ref>Antoinette M. Bassett. ''H.G. Wells and Mikhail Bulgakov: A Study of Influence and Intertextuality''. University of Alaska Anchorage, 1996.</ref> and [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]].<ref name="jh2"/>

In 2021, Wells was one of six British writers commemorated on a [[Great Britain commemorative stamps 2020–2029#2021|series of UK postage stamps]] issued by [[Royal Mail]] to celebrate British science fiction.<ref name="Commemorate"/> Six classic science fiction novels were depicted, one from each author, with ''The Time Machine'' chosen to represent Wells.<ref name="Commemorate">{{cite news |title=Stamps to feature original artworks celebrating classic science fiction novels |url=https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/stamps-feature-original-artworks-celebrating-230100551.html |access-date=20 September 2022 |work=Yahoo|quote=Royal Mail has released images of original artworks being issued on a new set of stamps to celebrate six classic science fiction novels by British writers.}}</ref>

==Representations==
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===Literary===
* The superhuman protagonist of [[J. D. Beresford]]'s 1911 novel, ''[[The Hampdenshire Wonder]]'', Victor Stott, was based on Wells.<ref name="rb"/>
* In [[M. P. Shiel]]'s short story "The Primate of the Rose" (1928), there is an unpleasant womaniser named E.{{nbsp}}P. Crooks, who was written as a parody of Wells.<ref name="arm">George Hay, "Shiel Versus the Renegade Romantic", in [[A. Reynolds Morse]], ''Shiel in Diverse Hands: A Collection of Essays''. Cleveland, OH: Reynolds Morse Foundation, 1983. pp. 109–113.</ref> Wells had attacked Shiel's ''Prince Zaleski'' when it was published in 1895, and this was Shiel's response.<ref name="arm"/> Wells praised Shiel's ''[[The Purple Cloud]]'' (1901); in turn Shiel expressed admiration for Wells, referring to him at a speech to the [[Horsham]] [[Rotary Club]] in 1933 as "my friend Mr. Wells".<ref name="arm"/>
* In [[C. S. Lewis]]'s novel ''[[That Hideous Strength]]'' (1945), the character Jules is a caricature of Wells,<ref>Rolfe; Parrinder (1990: 226)</ref> and much of Lewis's science fiction was written both under the influence of Wells and as an antithesis to his work (or, as he put it, an "exorcism"<ref>Lewis, C. S., ''Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life''. New York & London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1955. p. 36.</ref> of the influence it had on him).
* In [[Brian Aldiss]]'s novella ''The Saliva Tree'' (1966), Wells has a small off-screen guest role.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jTSsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA175 |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: First Citizen of the Future |date=2014-03-24 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-1-59077-357-4 |page=173}}</ref>
* In [[Saul Bellow]]'s novel ''[[Mr. Sammler's Planet]]'' (1970), Wells is one of several historical figures the protagonist met when he was a young man.<ref>R.{{nbsp}}A. York, ''The Extension of Life: Fiction and History in the American Novel''. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-8386-3989-5}}. p. 40.</ref>
* In ''[[The Dancers at the End of Time]]'' by Michael Moorcock (1976) Wells has an important part.
* In ''[[The Map of Time]]'' (2008) by Spanish author [[Félix J. Palma]]; Wells is one of several historical characters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/interviews/article/46727-victorian-time-travel-pw-talks-with-felix-j-palma.html |title=Victorian Time Travel: PW Talks with Felix J. Palma |author=Lenny Picker|publisher=Publishersweekly.com |date=4 April 2011 |access-date=17 January 2012}}</ref>
* Wells is one of the two Georges in [[Paul Levinson]]'s 2013 time-travel novelette, "Ian, George, and George", published in ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact|Analog]]'' magazine.<ref>Paul Levinson, "Ian, George, and George", ''Analog'', December 2013.</ref>
* [[David Lodge (author)|David Lodge]]'s novel ''A Man of Parts'' (2011) is a literary retelling of the life of Wells.
* H. G. Wells is a member of a fellowship of vampire hunters set in the year 1888 in the novel ''Modern Marvels– Viktoriana'' (2013) written by [[Wayne Reinagel]]. The fellowship includes [[Mary Shelley]], [[Edgar Allan Poe]], [[Jules Verne]], [[Bram Stoker]], [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], [[Nikola Tesla]], [[Harry Houdini]] and [[H. Rider Haggard]].

===Dramatic===
* [[Rod Taylor]] portrays Wells<ref>{{cite book |title=Alternate Americas: Science Fiction Film and American Culture |date=2006 |first=M. Keith |last=Booker |page=199 |publisher=[[Praeger Publishing]] |location=[[Westport, Connecticut|Westport]] |isbn=978-0-275-98395-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/alternateamerica00book_0/page/199}}</ref><ref name="palumbo">{{cite book |title=The Monomyth in American Science Fiction Films |first=Donald E. |last=Palumbo |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |location=[[Jefferson, North Carolina|Jefferson]] |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-786-47911-5 |pages=33–38}}</ref> in the 1960 [[science fiction film]] ''[[The Time Machine (1960 film)|The Time Machine]]'' (based on the novel of the same name), in which Wells uses his time machine to try to find his Utopian society.<ref name=palumbo/>
* [[Malcolm McDowell]] portrays Wells in the 1979 science fiction film ''[[Time After Time (1979 film)|Time After Time]]'', in which Wells uses a time machine to pursue [[Jack the Ripper]] to the present day.<ref name=palumbo/> In the film, Wells meets "Amy" in the future who then returns to 1893 to become his second wife Amy Catherine Robbins.
* Wells is portrayed in the 1985 story ''[[Timelash]]'' from the [[Doctor Who (season 22)|22nd season]] of the [[BBC]] science-fiction television series ''[[Doctor Who]]''. In this story, Herbert, an enthusiastic temporary companion to the Doctor, is revealed to be a young H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells. The plot is loosely based upon the themes and characters of ''[[The Time Machine]]'' with references to ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'', ''[[The Invisible Man]]'' and ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]]''. The story jokingly suggests that Wells's inspiration for his later novels came from his adventure with the [[Sixth Doctor]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/timelash/detail.shtml |title=Timelash |publisher=[[BBC]] |access-date=2017-04-15}}</ref>
* In the [[BBC2]] anthology series ''Encounters'' about imagined meetings between historical figures, ''Beautiful Lies'', by Paul Pender (15 August 1992) centred on an acrimonious dinner party attended by Wells ([[Richard Todd]]), [[George Orwell]] ([[Jon Finch]]), and [[William Empson]] ([[Patrick Ryecart]]).
* The character of Wells also appeared in several episodes of ''[[Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman]]'' (1993–1997), usually pitted against the time-travelling villain known as Tempus ([[Lane Davies]]). Wells's younger self was played by [[Terry Kiser]], and the older Wells was played by [[Hamilton Camp]].
* In the British TV miniseries ''[[The Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells|The Infinite Worlds of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells]]'' (2001), several of Wells's short stories are dramatised but are adapted using Wells himself (Tom Ward) as the main protagonist in each story.
* In the Disney Channel Original Series ''[[Phil of the Future]]'', which centres on time-travel, the present-day high school that the main characters attend is named "H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells".<ref>{{cite web |title='Phil Of The Future' Arch-Enemies Pim And Candida Are Now BFFs |url=https://www.mtv.com/news/57vb5t/phil-of-the-future-pim-diffy-candida-bffs-instagram |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926164515/https://www.mtv.com/news/57vb5t/phil-of-the-future-pim-diffy-candida-bffs-instagram |url-status=dead |archive-date=26 September 2022 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=[[MTV]]}}</ref>
* In the 2006 television docudrama ''[[H. G. Wells: War with the World|H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: War with the World]]'', Wells is played by [[Michael Sheen]].<ref>{{cite news|title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: War With The World|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074t1l|publisher=BBC|date=22 October 2017}}</ref>
* Television episode "World's End" of Cold Case (2007) is about how the discovery of human remains in the bottom of a well leads to the reinvestigation of the case of a housewife who went missing during Orson Welles' radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds".<ref>{{Citation|title=World's End|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104256/|access-date=8 October 2019}}</ref>
* On the science fiction television series ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' (2009–2014), there is a female version Helena G. Wells. When she appeared, she explained that her brother was her front for her writing because a female science fiction author would not be accepted.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.syfy.com/warehouse13/#/about |title=''Warehouse 13'': About the Series |publisher=[[Syfy]] |access-date=2017-04-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006224046/http://www.syfy.com/warehouse13#/about |archive-date=2016-10-06}}</ref>
* Comedian [[Paul F. Tompkins]] portrays a fictional Wells as the host of ''[[The Dead Authors Podcast]]'', wherein Wells uses his time machine to bring dead authors (played by other comedians) to the present and interview them.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://community.ew.com/2015/04/21/best-podcasts-of-the-week-5/ |title=Best Podcasts of the Week |date=21 April 2015 |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |last=Hardwick |first=Robin |access-date=15 April 2017 |archive-date=1 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150601010627/http://community.ew.com/2015/04/21/best-podcasts-of-the-week-5/ |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/battlefield-earth-is-no-longer-the-funniest-thing-to-result-from-scientology |title='Battlefield Earth' is no longer the funniest thing to result from Scientology |date=19 July 2015 |work=[[Hitfix]] |last=McWeeny |first=Drew}}</ref>
* H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells as a young boy appears in the ''[[Legends of Tomorrow]]'' episode "The Magnificent Eight". In this story, the boy Wells is dying of [[tuberculosis|consumption]] but is cured by a time-travelling [[Firestorm (character)|Martin Stein]].
* In the four-part series ''[[The Nightmare Worlds of H. G. Wells|The Nightmare Worlds of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells]]'' (2016), Wells is played by [[Ray Winstone]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Ray Winstone stars as H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/ray-winstone-stars-as-hg-wells-a6823286.html|newspaper=The Independent|date=22 October 2017}}</ref>
* In the 2017 television series version of ''[[Time After Time (American TV series)|Time After Time]]'', based on [[Time After Time (1979 film)|the 1979 film]], H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells is portrayed by [[Freddie Stroma]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Elizabeth|last=Wagmeister |url=https://variety.com/2016/tv/news/time-after-time-abc-pilot-freddie-stroma-josh-bowman-cast-1201709012/ |title=ABC's 'Time After Time' Pilot Casts Josh Bowman, Freddie Stroma as Jack the Ripper & H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=17 February 2016  |access-date=9 March 2017}}</ref>
* In the 2019 television adaptation of ''[[The War of the Worlds (British TV series)|The War of the Worlds]]'', the character of 'George', played by [[Rafe Spall]], demonstrates a number of elements of Wells's own life, including his estrangement from his wife and unmarried co-habitation with the character of 'Amy'.<ref>{{cite web |title=Filming begins on BBC One drama The War of the Worlds |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/war-of-the-worlds |publisher=BBC |date=6 April 2018|access-date=6 September 2020}}</ref>
* Peter Mikhail portrays Wells twice in the [[CBC Television|Canadian television]] period [[Detective fiction|detective series]] [[Murdoch Mysteries]], in episode 8 of season 3 "[[List of Murdoch Mysteries episodes#Season 3 (2010)|Future Imperfect]]" (April 6, 2010) and in episode 11 of season 13 "[[List of Murdoch Mysteries episodes#Season 13 (2019–2020)|Staring Blindly into the Future]]" (January 13, 2020).
* Wells is played by [[Nick Cave]] in the 2021 film ''[[The Electrical Life of Louis Wain]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Taika Waititi, Nick Cave And Olivia Colman Cameos Revealed For The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain – Exclusive |url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/taika-waititi-nick-cave-olivia-colman-cameos-electrical-life-louis-wain-exclusive/ |access-date=2022-03-02 |website=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]|date=28 August 2021 }}</ref>

==Film adaptations==
The novels and short stories of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells have been adapted for cinema. These include ''[[Island of Lost Souls (1932 film)|Island of Lost Souls]]'' (1932), ''[[The Invisible Man (1933 film)|The Invisible Man]]'' (1933), ''[[Things to Come]]'' (1936), ''[[The Man Who Could Work Miracles]]'' (1937), ''[[The War of the Worlds (1953 film)|The War of the Worlds]]'' (1953), ''[[The Time Machine (1960 film)|The Time Machine]]'' (1960), ''[[First Men in the Moon (1964 film)|First Men in the Moon]]'' (1964), ''[[The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977 film)|The Island of Dr. Moreau]]'' (1977), '' [[Time After Time (1979 film)|Time After Time]] '' (1979), ''[[The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996 film)|The Island of Dr. Moreau]]'' (1996), ''[[The Time Machine (2002 film)|The Time Machine]]'' (2002) and ''[[War of the Worlds (2005 film)|War of the Worlds]]'' (2005).<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[Greeley Daily Tribune]] |location=[[Greeley, Colorado]] |date=1933-10-31 |title="Invisible Man" To Be at the Kiva as Hallowee'en Picture |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72019434/invisible-man-premiere-in-greeley/ |access-date=2022-08-15 |page=2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53322#3 |title=The Time Machine{{snd}}Details |website=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]] |access-date=2022-08-15 |archive-date=2018-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180523101202/https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53322#3 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.empireonline.com/interviews/interview.asp?IID=239|title=Steven Spielberg Goes To War|work=Empire|access-date=15 August 2022|archive-date=6 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006000539/http://www.empireonline.com/interviews/interview.asp?IID=239|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Weldon |first1=Michael |last2=Beesley |first2=Charles |last3=Martin |first3=Bob |author-link3=Robert "Bob" Martin |last4=Fitton |first4=Akira |title=[[The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film]] |publication-place=[[New York City|New York]] |date=1983 |isbn=978-0-345-30381-3 |oclc=10200446}}</ref>

==Literary papers==
In 1954, the [[University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign]] purchased the H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells literary papers and correspondence collection.<ref name="library.illinois.edu">{{cite web|title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells papers, 1845–1946 {{pipe}} Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |url=https://archon.library.illinois.edu/rbml/?p=collections/findingaid&id=10&q=&rootcontentid=63270 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=Rare Book & Manuscript Library Manuscript Collections Database}}</ref> The university's [[The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)|Rare Book & Manuscript Library]] holds the largest collection of Wells manuscripts, correspondence, first editions and publications in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois |url=https://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/Wellsdesc.html |access-date=2022-12-29}}</ref> Among these is unpublished material and the manuscripts of such works as ''The War of the Worlds'' and ''The Time Machine''. The collection includes first editions, revisions and translations. The letters contain general family correspondence, communications from publishers, material regarding the Fabian Society, and letters from politicians and public figures, most notably [[George Bernard Shaw]] and [[Joseph Conrad]].<ref name="library.illinois.edu"/>

==Bibliography==
{{Main|H. G. Wells bibliography}}

==See also==
* '''''<small>{{portal-inline|Science fiction}}</small>'''''
* [[Scientific Marvelous]]

== References ==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/36831 |title=Wells, Herbert George |orig-date=2004-09-23 |date=2023-01-12 |last=Parrinder |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Parrinder |freearticle=y}}</ref>
<ref name="brome">{{cite book |first=Vincent |last=Brome |author-link=Vincent Brome |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: A Biography |location=[[London]], [[New York City|New York]], and [[Toronto]] |publisher=[[Longmans, Green]] |date=1951 |page=99}}</ref>
<ref name="wagar">{{cite book |last=Wagar |first=W. Warren |author-link=W. Warren Wagar |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Traversing Time |date=2004 |publisher=[[Wesleyan University Press]] |location=[[Middletown, Conn.]] |isbn=978-0-8195-6725-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HExGaHDhVbUC |access-date=2010-08-24}}</ref>
<ref name="Nobel nominations">{{cite web |date=2020-04-01 |title=Nomination archive |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=10075 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=[[Nobel Foundation]]}}</ref>
<ref name="wheen">{{cite book |last=Wheen |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Wheen |editor-last1=Claeys |editor-first1=Gregory |editor-link1=Gregory Claeys |editor-last2=Parrinder |editor-first2=Patrick |editor-link2=Patrick Parrinder |title=A Modern Utopia |url=https://archive.org/details/modernutopia00well |url-access=registration|chapter=Biographical Note |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/modernutopia00well/page/n8 |chapter-url-access=registration |publisher=[[Penguin Classics]] |date=2005 |orig-date=1905 |isbn=978-0-14-144112-2 |oclc=57380478 |ol=7359945M}}</ref>
<ref name="batchelor">{{cite book |last=Batchelor |first=John |author-link=John Batchelor |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |date=1985 |url=https://archive.org/details/hgwells0000batc |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=[[Cambridge, England]] |isbn=978-0-521-27804-1 |ol=2854973M |lccn=84017440 |oclc=11045254}}</ref>
<ref name="hammond">{{cite book |last=Hammond |first=John R. |title=A Preface to H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |date=2001 |publisher=Longman |isbn=978-0-582-40472-4 |ol=3770014M |lccn=2003501399 |oclc=45437595}}</ref>
}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Bergonzi |first=Bernard |year= 1969 |orig-year=1961 |title=The Early H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: A Study of the Scientific Romances |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-0126-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Cole |first=Sarah |date=2021 |title=Inventing Tomorrow: H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and the Twentieth Century |publisher=Columbia University Press}}
* [[Lovat Dickson|Dickson, Lovat]]. ''H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: His Turbulent Life & Times''. 1969.
* {{cite book |last=Elber-Aviram |first=Hadas |date=2021 |title=Fairy Tales of London: British Urban Fantasy, 1840 to the Present |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |pages=61–94 |chapter=Chapter 2: The Martian on Primrose Hill: Wells's scientific romances |isbn=978-1-350-11069-4}}
* Gilmour, David. ''The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002 (paperback, {{ISBN|0-374-18702-9}}); 2003 (paperback, {{ISBN|0-374-52896-9}}).
* {{cite book |editor-last=Godfrey |editor-first=Emelyne |date=2016 |title=Utopias and Dystopias in the Fiction of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and William Morris: Landscape and Space |publisher=Palgrave |isbn=978-1-137-52340-2}}
* [[A. W. Gomme|Gomme, A. W.]], ''Mr. Wells as Historian''. Glasgow: MacLehose, Jackson, and Co., 1921.
* Gosling, John. ''Waging the War of the Worlds''. Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland, 2009 (paperback, {{ISBN|0-7864-4105-4}}).
* {{cite book |last=James |first=Simon J. |date=2012 |title=Maps of Utopia: H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, Modernity, and the End of Culture |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-960659-7}}
* [[Maya Jasanoff|Jasanoff, Maya]], "The Future Was His" (review of Sarah Cole, ''Inventing Tomorrow: H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and the Twentieth Century'', Columbia University Press, 374 pp.), ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', vol. LXVII, no. 12 (23 July 2020), pp.&nbsp;50–51. Writes Jasanoff (p.&nbsp;51): "Although [Wells] was prophetically right, and right-minded, about some things{{nbsp}}... [n]owhere was he more disturbingly wrong than in his loathsome affinity for [[eugenics]]{{nbsp}}...."
* Lynn, Andrea ''The secret love life of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells''
* Mackenzie, Norman and Jean, ''The Time Traveller: the Life of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells'', London: Weidenfeld,  1973, {{ISBN|0-2977-6531-0}}
* Mauthner, Martin. ''German Writers in French Exile, 1933–1940'', London: Vallentine and Mitchell, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-85303-540-4}}.
* {{cite book |last1=McConnell |first1=Frank |title=The Science Fiction of H.G. Wells |date=1981 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=9780195028119}}
* McLean, Steven. 'The Early Fiction of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Fantasies of Science'. Palgrave, 2009, {{ISBN|978-0-230-53562-6}}.
* {{cite book |last=Page |first=Michael R. |date=2012 |title=The Literary Imagination from Erasmus Darwin to H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Science, Evolution, and Ecology |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-1-4094-3869-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Parrinder |first=Patrick |date=1995 |title=Shadows of the Future: H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, Science Fiction and Prophecy |publisher=Syracuse University Press |isbn=978-0-8156-0332-0}}
* Partington, John S. ''Building Cosmopolis: The Political Thought of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells''. Ashgate, 2003, {{ISBN|978-0-7546-3383-9}}.
* Roberts, Adam. ''H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells A Literary Life.'' Springer International Publishing, 2019, ISBN 978-3-03-026421-5.
* Roukema, Aren. 2021. "The Esoteric Roots of Science Fiction: Edward Bulwer-Lytton, H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, and the Occlusion of Magic." ''Science Fiction Studies'' 48 (2): 218–42.
* Shadurski, Maxim. ''The Nationality of Utopia: H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, England, and the World State''. London: Routledge, 2020, {{ISBN|978-0-36733-049-1}}.
* [[Claire Tomalin|Tomalin, Claire]]. ''The Young H. G. Wells: Changing the World''. London: Viking, 2021, {{ISBN|978-0-24123-997-1}}.

==External links==
{{Wikisource author|works=by|wslink=H. G. Wells|title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
{{Wikiquote|2=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
{{Commons and category|linktext=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooks=yes|label=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
* {{IMDb name|id=0920229|name=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
* {{ISFDB name|id=65|name=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
* {{IBList|type=author|id=165|name=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
* {{discogs artist|name=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
* {{LCAuth|id=n79063613|name=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells|count=772|cs=ue}}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07w13lz ''Future Tense – The Story of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells''] at [[BBC One]] – 150th anniversary documentary (2016)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080517081302/http://www.newstatesman.com/200010090006 "In the footsteps of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells"] at ''[[New Statesman]]'' – "The great author called for a Human Rights Act; 60 years later, we have it" (2000)

===Sources—collections===
* {{StandardEbooks |url=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/h-g-wells |name=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=30 |name=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Wells, H. G. (Herbert George) |name=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Herbert George Wells |dname=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
* {{Librivox author |id=146 |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}
* [http://www.ebooktakeaway.com/ebta/people/h_g_wells Free H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells downloads for iPhone, iPad, Nook, Android, and Kindle in PDF and all popular eBook reader formats (AZW3, EPUB, MOBI)] at ebooktakeaway.com
* [http://www.bl.uk/people/h-g-wells H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210912191326/http://www.bl.uk/people/h-g-wells |date=12 September 2021 }} at the British Library
* [http://hdl.handle.net/10111/MSS00071#letterH H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells papers] at [[University of Illinois]]
* [https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/h-g-wells-books.html Ebooks by H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells] at Global Grey Ebooks
* {{PM20 |FID=pe/018417 |NAME=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}

===Sources—letters, essays and interviews===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110613080855/http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/hg_wells/ Archive of Wells's BBC broadcasts]
* [http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=52254 Film interview with H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820031143/http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=52254 |date=2010-08-20}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131103051737/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w&act=text&offset=719129302&textreg=3&query=h.%2Bg.%2Bwells&id=WelCran "Stephen Crane. From an English Standpoint"], by Wells, 1900.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20000309232944/http://www.schoolofwisdom.com/tagore-wells.html Rabindranath Tagore: In conversation with H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells]. [[Rabindranath Tagore]] and Wells conversing in Geneva in 1930.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060924212919/http://www.pseudopodium.org/barbellionblog/wells-intro.php "Introduction"], to W.{{nbsp}}N.{{nbsp}}P. Barbellion's ''The Journal of a Disappointed Man'', by Wells, 1919.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060813133418/http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/documents/wells2.htm "Woman and Primitive Culture"], by Wells, 1895.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718140117/http://alangullette.com/lit/shiel/letters/mps_wells.htm Letter], to [[M. P. Shiel]], by Wells, 1937.

===Biography===
* {{cite EB1911 |short=x |wstitle=Wells, Herbert George}}
* [https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9076509/H-G-Wells "H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells"]. In ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' Online. <!-- Click "next page" for full article -->
* {{cite ODNB |id=36831 |title=Wells, Herbert George |orig-date=2004 |date=2011 |last=Parrinder |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Parrinder}}
* {{sfhof |id=962 |name=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells}}

===Critical essays===
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140827214832/http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/an-introduction-to-the-war-of-the-worlds An introduction to ''The War of the Worlds'' by Iain Sinclair] on the British Library's Discovering Literature website.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030118202554/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=AusWell.sgm&images=images%2Fmodeng&data=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fparsed&tag=public&part=all "An Appreciation of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells"], by [[Mary Hunter Austin|Mary Austin]], 1911.
* "Socialism and the Family" (1906) by [[Ernest Belfort Bax|Belfort Bax]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20060513234448/http://www.marxists.org/archive/bax/1906/11/family.htm Part 1], [http://www.marxists.org/archive/bax/1907/01/soc-family-26-1.htm Part 2].
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070309070751/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fopinion%2F2005%2F07%2F24%2Fdo2402.xml&sSheet=%2Fopinion%2F2005%2F07%2F24%2Fixop.html "H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells warned us how it would feel to fight a ''War of the Worlds''"], by [[Niall Ferguson]], in ''[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]'', 24 June 2005.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060716093153/http://people.lis.uiuc.edu/~wrayward/Wellss_Idea_of_World_Brain.htm "H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells's Idea of a World Brain: A Critical Re-assessment"], by W. Boyd Rayward, in ''Journal of the American Society for Information Science'' 50 (15 May 1999): 557–579
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070302064008/http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/books/heretics/ch5.html "Mr H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and the Giants"], by G.{{nbsp}}K. Chesterton, from his book ''Heretics'' (1908).
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060418125058/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_1_23/ai_53569321 "The Internet: a world brain?"], by [[Martin Gardner]], in ''[[Skeptical Inquirer]]'', Jan–Feb 1999.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060823022804/http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=9391 "Science Fiction: The Shape of Things to Come"], by Mark Bould, in ''The Socialist Review'', May 2005.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060926220743/http://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/74_2.pdf "Who needs Utopia? A dialogue with my utopian self (with apologies, and thanks, to H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells)"], by [[Gregory Claeys]] in ''Spaces of Utopia: An Electronic Journal'', no 1, Spring 2006.
* [http://www.thenation.com/article/when-hg-wells-split-atom "When H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Split the Atom: A 1914 Preview of 1945"], by [[Freda Kirchwey]], in ''[[The Nation]]'', posted 4 September 2003 (original 18 August 1945 issue).
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060906215445/http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110006849 "War of the Worldviews"], by [[John J. Miller (journalist)|John J. Miller]], in ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' Opinion Journal, 21 June 2005.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051126081316/http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/ni/vol02/no02/hart.htm "Wells's Autobiography"], by [[John Hart (author)|John Hart]], from ''New International'', Vol.2 No. 2, Mar 1935, pp.&nbsp;75–76.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061123032053/http://revel.unice.fr/cycnos/document.html?id=615 "History in the Science Fiction of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells"], by [[Patrick Parrinder]], ''Cycnos'', 22.2 (2006).
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928035957/http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=45&EventId=486 "From the World Brain to the Worldwide Web"], by [[Martin Campbell-Kelly]], Gresham College Lecture, 9 November 2006.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070219163539/http://bostonreview.net/BR32.1/gornick.html "The Beginning of Wisdom: On Reading H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells"], by [[Vivian Gornick]], ''[[Boston Review]]'', 31.1 (2007).
* [https://archive.today/20010222215740/http://www.hycyber.com/SF/complete_wells.html John Hammond, The Complete List of Short Stories of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090924232911/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090921%2Dhg%2Dwells%2Dhgwells.html "H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Predictions Ring True, 143 Years Later"] at [[National Geographic Society|''National Geographic'']]
* [http://www.newstatesman.com/archive/2013/12/h-g-wells-man-i-knew "H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, the man I knew"] Obituary of Wells by [[George Bernard Shaw]], at the ''[[New Statesman]]''
* {{cite journal |last=Elber-Aviram |first=Hadas |title="My own particular city": H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells's Fantastical London |journal=The Wellsian |issue=38 |date=2015 |pages=97–117}}
* {{cite journal  |last=Hughes |first=David Y. |title=A Queer Notion of Grant Allen's |journal=[[Science Fiction Studies]] |volume=25 |issue=2 |date=1998 |pages=271–284 |url=https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/abstracts/a75.htm#E75 |jstor=4240701}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Partington |editor-first=John S. |title=The Wellsian: Selected Essays on H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |publisher=Equilibris |publication-place=[[Oss, Netherlands]] |date=2003 |isbn=978-90-5976-001-1 |oclc=54814627 |chapter=A Tale of Two Cities: H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells's The Door in the Wall |first=Laura |last=Scuriatti |others=Illustrated by Alvin Landon Coburn |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/696075}}

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{{s-bef|before=[[John Galsworthy]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=International President of [[PEN International]]|years=1933–1936}}
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{{H. G. Wells|state=autocollapse}}
{{London School of Economics|state=autocollapse}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Associated subjects
|list1=
{{The War of the Worlds|state=autocollapse}}
{{The Time Machine|state=autocollapse}}
{{The Invisible Man|state=autocollapse}}
{{The Island of Dr. Moreau|state=autocollapse}}
{{The First Men in the Moon|state=autocollapse}}
{{Kipps|state=autocollapse}}
}}

{{Speculative evolution}}
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[[Category:Philosophers of social science]]
[[Category:Philosophers of technology]]
[[Category:Philosophers of war]]
[[Category:Plagiarism controversies]]
[[Category:Presidents of the English Centre of PEN]]
[[Category:Progressivism in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Science activists]]
[[Category:Science fiction critics]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:Surrealist writers]]
[[Category:Theorists on Western civilization]]
[[Category:Victorian novelists]]
[[Category:Wells family|H. G.]]
[[Category:Writers about activism and social change]]
[[Category:Writers about communism]]
[[Category:Writers about globalization]]
[[Category:Writers about religion and science]]
[[Category:Writers about the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Writers from the London Borough of Bromley]]
[[Category:Writers of fiction set in prehistoric times]]
[[Category:Writers of Gothic fiction]]
[[Category:Writers of time travel romance]]
[[Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing]]