H. G. Wells

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a British novelist and author of works on politics, history and society. His first major novel was The Time Machine (1895), followed by other works of science fiction including The Island of Dr Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), When the Sleeper Wakes (1899), The First Men in the Moon (1901) and The War in the Air (1908). In addition to being a pioneer of science fiction, Wells wrote novels of contemporary British life, many of which drew heavily on his own background as a youth of the impoverished lower-middle class. These novels include Love and Mr Lewisham (1900), Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul (1905), Tono-Bungay (1909), Ann Veronica (1909), The History of Mr Polly (1910), and Mr Britling Sees It Through (1916).