H.G. Wells’ 75th Anniversary

If you’ve ever travelled on an airplane, watched satellite television, worried about an alien invasion or browsed the internet, you have Herbert George Wells (1866–1946) to thank for dreaming up these concepts. A prolific writer of many genres, H.G. Wells wasn’t just a science fiction pioneer, but a futurist whose visions for our future have had a great impact on our modern world.

Born to shopkeepers in Kent, England, Wells first trained in biology, piquing his interest in scientific ethics. He began his writing career with short humour articles before publishing his first novel, The Time Machine, in 1895. The book was instantly a massive success and defined his place as a leading science fiction writer of his day. Today, the novel remains widely read and is credited with popularizing the concept of time travel and coining the “time machine” term.

After The Time Machine, Wells quickly turned out other classics of the genre, including The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897) and The War of the Worlds (1898). He took on a more political and didactic bent with his later writing, publishing The Outline of History – his social views on human history – in 1920. True to his futurist self, he also explored new media for his storytelling, including Hollywood films and the famous Orson Welles radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds that was just a little too realistic for listeners.

Throughout his full and influential life, H.G. Wells was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. One of the great “fathers of science fiction,” Wells’ influence on speculative fiction and futurist thinking is undeniable. His work stands out for always placing visionary ideas firmly in the realm of the possible, focusing on a “single extraordinary assumption” and never straying into magic and fantasy.

As a celebration of his life and legacy, on the 75th anniversary of his death, we are honoured to bring H.G. Wells’ handwritten manuscript of The Time Machine to our Paperblanks collection.