H. G. Wells, the father of science fiction, born in 1866

 

Although Wells, born today in 1866 in Kent, England, was a prolific writer in many genres, he is mostly remembered for his works in science-fiction: The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau.  Wells liked to include scientific and social forces in his writing.

His first novel, The Time Machine, written in 1895, was an instant best-seller.  I enjoyed reading this story.  I’ve seen the Rod Taylor production as well as the Guy Pearce/Orlando Jones production.  To little surprise, they don’t tend to follow the novel too closely, but they did have some interesting interpretations.  I found it amazing and incredible that the time traveler in the story is never named.  In fact, he has several guests at a party and they are all known by their vocation or social standing.  He had an incredibly vivid imagination to have created the future worlds seen as the traveler moves hundreds of thousands of years ahead, to when the sun has become a red giant and almost all life on Earth has been exterminated.  Almost, but not quite.  The traveler has to make a hasty escape.

 

Probably one of the most famous (or infamous) events during Well’s life was Orson Welles reading The War of the Worlds on the radio Halloween night, 1938.  A panic incurred when much of the public tuned in late and thought aliens had actually landed in New Jersey.