H.G. Wells: First Citizen of the Future

by Keith Ferrell

Overview

He was born in the year dynamite was invented (1866) and died a year after the first explosion of the atomic bomb (1946). Herbert George (H. G.) Wells was a man whose life dominated the century and whose ideas both predicted and shaped the future.

One of the most influential men of his time, a leading science-fiction writer, novelist, philosopher, reformer and fighter for civilization, Wells exercised his imagination and expounded his revolutionary ideas in over one hundred books in the course of his long life.

As a young man Wells struggled against repeated failure as a draper’s assistant, science student and teacher before finding his vocation as a writer. He wrote the pioneering—and immediately popular—novel The Time Machine. In this and other classic science fiction such as The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds, Wells combined serious and often remarkably accurate speculation about the future with high adventure.

But Wells was not content just to write fiction. He was also an advocate for change in social customs and a man deeply concerned with the future of humanity. A firm believer that the twentieth century would be the turning point for civilization, Wells anticipated many of the changes in his writings on space travel, politics, marriage and the technologies of war.

This is a dramatic account of Well’s life and his fight for causes and concerns that are still relevant today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590773567
Publisher:	M. Evans & Company
Publication date:	03/24/2014
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Keith Ferrell is the author of Ernest Hemingway: The Search for Courage and George Orwell: The Political Pen. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina with his wife and son.

Table of Contents

1 The Proper Order of Society 9

2 Draper 20

3 The World of Education 31

4 The World of Science 38

5 The Dream of Science Fades 47

6 A New Career Calls 53

7 A Fumbling Start 60

8 A Writer of Promise 67

9 The Time Machine 72

10 Scientific Romances 79

11 Novelist 90

12 Anticipator 96

13 Fighting Fabian 108

14 The Vision Darkens 121

15 The War That Will End War 130

16 Education or Catastrophe? 144

17 Things to Come 158

18 End of the Tether 166

Epilogue: H. G. Wells Today 173

Acknowledgments and References 179

The Works of H. C. Wells 181

Index 189

Editorial Reviews

Sketching the life, ideas, and times of H.G. Wells, Ferrell provides enough detail to give a vivid sense of the man, his writings, and his effect on Western civilization. A treat for Well’s fans and good biographical material for students.

Booklist

This solid biography of Wells—the first ever written for young adults—seems more likely to inspire and motivate the young than some trendy…epic about divorce and dope.

New York Daily News

This solid biography of Wells—the first ever written for young adults—seems more likely to inspire and motivate the young than some trendy…epic about divorce and dope.

New York Daily News

Sketching the life, ideas, and times of H.G. Wells, Ferrell provides enough detail to give a vivid sense of the man, his writings, and his effect on Western civilization. A treat for Well’s fans and good biographical material for students.

Booklist