Okay.  Sometimes you just find someone interesting.  As it is, I think H.G. Wells is pretty fascinating.  Of course, he wrote about a few of the subjects which intrigue me.  The greatest of those were his more notable works… such as The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).

Today, is his birthday.  He was born Herbert George Wells in 1866.  And he stuck around on this planet until the 13th of August in 1946.  He wrote prolifically in many genres…. including the novel, history, and politics.

In 1920, H.G. Wells published The Outline of History.  Most of us today do not realize that this was perhaps his best selling work during his lifetime. It was three volumes.  It began with prehistory and followed the world’s events up through World War I.

Wells believed there would be another major war to follow, and included his ideas for the future. Lobbying for a type of global socialism, he suggested the creation of a single government for the entire world.  In his day… he was the dude.

But he was a bit of a chappy I’ll tell you.  He was a pretty dang good cricket player when he was young.  But then, he broke his leg in 1874.  So he started reading while he was in bed… on the mend.  He soon became devoted to the other worlds and lives to which books gave him access; they also stimulated his desire to write.   And that, is what got the ball rolling.

Amidst all the other things about him … Wells was a bit of a player.  In 1891, he married his cousin Isabel Mary Wells.  But, but, but…the couple agreed to separate in 1894 when he fell in love with one of his students, Amy Catherine Robbins.

He married Amy Catherine (later known as Jane).  He has two sons with her, but they both died fairly young.

With his wife Jane’s consent, Wells had affairs with a number of women, including the American birth control activist Margaret Sanger, adventurer and writer Odette Keun, and novelist Elizabeth von Arnim. In 1909 he had a daughter, Anna-Jane, with the writer Amber Reeves.  He also had a son, Anthony West (1914–1987), by the novelist and feminist Rebecca West, 26 years his junior.

I’m telling you.  Old H.G. did some Time Traveling of his own.

There are many more interesting and wild things about this guy.  I think he knew more about his fiction… which may not have been so fictitious at all.

Wells died of unspecified causes in 1946 at his home  in London.  Once, he had stated that his epitaph should be: “I told you so. You damned fools.”

I don’t know why I write about him tonight, other than his birthday.  Maybe it is because I believe that Time Travel could be possible… and I think he thought so too.

Or it could be that I just couldn’t think of one other thing to write tonight… and time was running out.

Oh Wells….

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.
—  H. G. Wells

Our true nationality is mankind.
—  H. G. Wells

If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.
—  H. G. Wells

Beauty is in the heart of the beholder.
—  H. G. Wells