Editing H. G. Wells (section)

==Life==
===Early life===
[[File:Young Bertie (H. G. Wells).jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Young Wells, "Bertie" as he was known, {{Circa|1870s|lk=no}}]]
Herbert George Wells was born at Atlas House, 162 High Street in [[Bromley]], [[Kent]],<ref name="wheen"/> on 21 September 1866.<ref name="ODNB"/> Called "Bertie" by his family, he was the fourth and last child of [[Joseph Wells (cricketer)|Joseph Wells]], a former domestic gardener, and at the time a shopkeeper and professional [[cricket]]er and Sarah Neal, a former [[domestic worker|domestic servant]]. An inheritance had allowed the family to acquire a shop in which they sold china and sporting goods, although it failed to prosper in part because the stock was old and worn out, and the location was poor. Joseph Wells managed to earn a meagre income, but little of it came from the shop and he received an unsteady amount of money from playing [[Amateur and professional cricketers|professional cricket]] for the [[Kent County Cricket Club|Kent county team]].<ref name="Smith">Smith, David C. (1986) ''H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Desperately mortal. A biography.'' Yale University Press, New Haven and London {{ISBN|0-300-03672-8}}</ref>

A defining incident of young Wells's life was an accident in 1874 that left him bedridden with a broken leg.<ref name="ODNB"/> To pass the time he began to read books from the local library, brought to him by his father. He soon became devoted to the other worlds and lives to which books gave him access; they also stimulated his desire to write. Later that year he entered Thomas Morley's Commercial Academy, a [[private school]] founded in 1849, following the bankruptcy of Morley's earlier school. The teaching was erratic, and the curriculum mostly focused, Wells later said, on producing [[Copperplate script|copperplate handwriting]] and doing the sort of sums useful to tradesmen. Wells continued at Morley's Academy until 1880. In 1877, his father, Joseph Wells, fractured his thigh. The accident effectively put an end to Joseph's career as a cricketer, and his subsequent earnings as a shopkeeper were not enough to compensate for the loss of the primary source of family income.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Sep. 21, 1866: Wells Springs Forth|url=https://www.wired.com/2010/09/0921hg-wells-birthday/|magazine=Wired|date=9 October 2017}}</ref>

[[File:Uppark-Sfront-01.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Wells spent the winter of 1887–88 convalescing at [[Uppark]] in Sussex, where his mother, Sarah, was the housekeeper.<ref name=Pevsner>{{cite book |last1=Nairn |first1=Ian |author-link=Ian Nairn |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author-link2=Nikolaus Pevsner |title=[[The Buildings of England]]: Sussex |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=[[Harmondsworth]] |date=1965 |isbn=0-14-071028-0 |pages=358–360}}</ref>]]
No longer able to support themselves financially, the family instead sought to place their sons as [[apprenticeship|apprentice]]s in various occupations.<ref>{{cite news|title=HG Wells: prophet of free love|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/mar/11/hg-wells-david-lodge|newspaper=The Guardian|date=11 October 2017}}</ref> From 1880 to 1883, Wells had an unhappy apprenticeship as a [[draper]] at Hyde's Drapery Emporium in [[Southsea]].<ref name="GHW1925"/> His experiences at Hyde's, where he worked a thirteen-hour day and slept in a dormitory with other apprentices,<ref name="wheen"/> later inspired his novels ''[[The Wheels of Chance]]'', ''[[The History of Mr Polly]]'', and ''[[Kipps]]'', which portray the life of a draper's apprentice as well as providing a critique of society's distribution of wealth.{{r|batchelor|p=2}}

Wells's parents had a turbulent marriage, owing primarily to his mother being a [[Protestantism|Protestant]] and his father being a [[Freethought|freethinker]]. When his mother returned to work as a lady's maid (at [[Uppark]], a [[English country house|country house]] in [[West Sussex]]), one of the conditions of work was that she would not be permitted to have living space for her husband and children. Thereafter, she and Joseph lived separate lives, though they remained faithful to each other and never divorced. As a consequence, Herbert's personal troubles increased as he subsequently failed as a draper and also, later, as a chemist's assistant. However, Uppark had a magnificent library in which he immersed himself, reading many classic works, including [[Plato]]'s ''[[Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'', [[Thomas More]]'s ''[[Utopia (More book)|Utopia]]'', and the works of [[Daniel Defoe]].<ref name="McFarland">{{cite book|last1=Pilkington|first1=Ace G.|title=Science Fiction and Futurism: Their Terms and Ideas|date=2017|publisher=McFarland|page=137}}</ref> When he became the first doyen of science fiction as a distinct genre of fiction, Wells referenced [[Mary Shelley]]'s ''[[Frankenstein]]'' in relation to his works, writing, "they belong to a class of writing which includes the story of ''Frankenstein''."<ref>{{cite web |first=Philip |last=Ball |author-link=Philip Ball |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/2018/07/war-of-the-worlds-2018-bbc-hg-wells |title=What the War of the Worlds means now |date=2018-07-18 |work=[[New Statesman]] |access-date=2022-08-07}}</ref>

===Teacher===
[[File:HG Wells 20181021 120408.jpg|thumb|240px|Commemorative plaque in [[Midhurst]], West Sussex, marking where Wells lodged while a teacher at [[Midhurst Grammar School]] between 1883 and 1884]]
In October 1879, Wells's mother arranged through a distant relative, Arthur Williams, for him to join the [[National school (England and Wales)|National School]] at [[Wookey]] in Somerset as a pupil–teacher, a senior pupil who acted as a teacher of younger children.<ref name="GHW1925">{{cite book |last=Wells |first=Geoffrey Henry |title=The Works of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[London]] |date=1925 |page=xvi |oclc=458934085 }}</ref> In December that year, however, Williams was dismissed for irregularities in his qualifications and Wells was returned to Uppark. After a short apprenticeship at a chemist in nearby [[Midhurst]] and an even shorter stay as a boarder at [[Midhurst Grammar School]], he signed his apprenticeship papers at Hyde's. In 1883, Wells persuaded his parents to release him from the apprenticeship, taking an opportunity offered by Midhurst Grammar School again to become a pupil–teacher; his proficiency in Latin and science during his earlier short stay had been remembered.<ref name=Smith/><ref name="GHW1925"/>

The years he spent in Southsea had been the most miserable of his life to that point, but his good fortune in securing a position at Midhurst Grammar School meant that Wells could continue his self-education in earnest.<ref name=Smith/> The following year, Wells won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science (later the [[Royal College of Science]] in [[South Kensington]], which became part of [[Imperial College London]]) in London, studying [[biology]] under [[Thomas Henry Huxley]].{{r|batchelor|p=164}} As an alumnus, he later helped to set up the Royal College of Science Association, of which he became the first president in 1909. Wells studied in his new school until 1887, with a weekly allowance of 21 [[shilling]]s (a [[guinea (British coin)|guinea]]) thanks to his scholarship. This ought to have been a comfortable sum of money (at the time many [[working class]] families had "round about a pound a week" as their entire household income),<ref>Reeves, M. S. ''Round About a Pound a Week''. New York: Garland Pub., 1980. {{ISBN|0-8240-0119-2}}. Some of the text is available online.</ref> yet in his ''Experiment in Autobiography'' Wells speaks of constantly being hungry, and indeed photographs of him at the time show a youth who is very thin and malnourished.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Brome|first1=Vincent|title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells|date=2008|publisher=House of Stratus|page=180}}</ref>

He soon entered the debating society of the school. These years mark the beginning of his interest in a possible reformation of society. At first approaching the subject through Plato's ''Republic'', he soon turned to contemporary ideas of socialism as expressed by the recently formed [[Fabian Society]] and free lectures delivered at [[Kelmscott House]], the home of [[William Morris]]. He was also among the founders of ''The Science School Journal'', a school magazine that allowed him to express his views on literature and society, as well as trying his hand at fiction; a precursor to his novel ''[[The Time Machine]]'' was published in the journal under the title "[[The Chronic Argonauts]]". The school year 1886–87 was the last year of his studies.{{r|batchelor|p=164}}

[[File:H. G. Wells, c.1890.jpg|thumb|left|Wells studying in London {{Circa}} 1890]]
During 1888, Wells stayed in [[Stoke-on-Trent]], living in [[Basford, Staffordshire|Basford]]. The unique environment of [[The Potteries]] was certainly an inspiration. He wrote in a letter to a friend from the area that "the district made an immense impression on me". The inspiration for some of his descriptions in ''The War of the Worlds'' is thought to have come from his short time spent here, seeing the iron foundry furnaces burn over the city, shooting huge red light into the skies. His stay in The Potteries also resulted in the macabre short story "[[The Cone]]" (1895, contemporaneous with his famous ''The Time Machine''), set in the north of the city.{{r|hammond|p=90}}

After teaching for some time—he was briefly on the staff of [[Holt, Wrexham County Borough|Holt]] Academy in Wales<ref>{{cite news|date=3 October 2016|title=Teaching spell near Wrexham inspired one of the nation's greatest science fiction writers|first=Jamie|last=Bowman|work=[[The Leader (Welsh newspaper)|The Leader]]|location=Wrexham|access-date=13 May 2018|url=http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/15956789.Teaching_spell_near_Wrexham_inspired_one_of_the_nation_s_greatest_science_fiction_writers/}}</ref>—Wells found it necessary to supplement his knowledge relating to educational principles and methodology and entered the College of Preceptors ([[College of Teachers]]). He later received his Licentiate and Fellowship [[College of Teachers|FCP]] diplomas from the college. It was not until 1890 that Wells earned a Bachelor of Science degree in [[zoology]] from the [[University of London External System|University of London External Programme]]. In 1889–90, he managed to find a post as a teacher at Henley House School in London, where he taught [[A. A. Milne]] (whose father ran the school).<ref>{{cite journal |url= http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22657 |date=1989 |title=Hampstead: Education |journal=A History of the County of Middlesex |volume=9 |pages=159–169 |access-date=2008-06-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/aamilne.htm|title=A. A. Milne|website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi)|first=Petri|last=Liukkonen|publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library|location=Finland|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222205524/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/aamilne.htm|archive-date=22 February 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> His first published work was a ''Text-Book of Biology'' in two volumes (1893).<ref>{{cite book|title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Under Revision: Proceedings of the International H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Symposium, London, July 1986|url=https://archive.org/details/hgwellsunderrevi00inte/page/123|url-access=registration|date=1990|publisher=Associated University Presse|page=123]|isbn=9780945636052}}</ref>

Upon leaving the [[Royal College of Science|Normal School of Science]], Wells was left without a source of income. His aunt Mary—his father's sister-in-law—invited him to stay with her for a while, which solved his immediate problem of accommodation. During his stay at his aunt's, he grew increasingly interested in her daughter, Isabel, whom he later courted and married. To earn money, he began writing short humorous articles for journals such as ''[[The Pall Mall Gazette]]'', later collecting these in ''[[Select Conversations with an Uncle]]'' (1895) and ''[[Certain Personal Matters]]'' (1897). So prolific did Wells become at this mode of journalism that many of his early pieces remain unidentified. According to David C. Smith, <blockquote>Most of Wells's occasional pieces have not been collected, and many have not even been identified as his. Wells did not automatically receive the byline his reputation demanded until after 1896 or so&nbsp;. ... As a result, many of his early pieces are unknown. It is obvious that many early Wells items have been lost.<ref>{{cite book |first=David C. |last=Smith |author-link=David C. Smith (historian) |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Desperately Mortal: A Biography |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |date=1986 |isbn=978-0-300-03672-5 |location=[[New Haven]] |page=35}}</ref></blockquote> His success with these shorter pieces encouraged him to write book-length work, and he published his first novel, ''[[The Time Machine]]'', in 1895.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hammond|first=John R. |date=2004 |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells's ''The Time Machine'': A Reference Guide |location=[[Westport, Conn.]] |publisher=[[Praeger Publishers|Praeger]] |page=50}}</ref>

===Personal life===
[[File:MayburyRoad h.g.wells house.jpg|thumb|upright|left|141 Maybury Rd, [[Woking]], where Wells lived from May 1895 until late 1896<ref name="celebWoking-HGW">{{cite web |url=http://www.celebratewoking.info/legacywellsinwoking/HG_WellsandWoking |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and Woking |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2016 |website=Celebrate Woking |publisher=Woking Borough Council |access-date=5 March 2017 |quote=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells arrived in Woking in May 1895. He lived at 'Lynton', Maybury Road, Woking, which is now numbered 141 Maybury Road. Today, there is an English Heritage blue plaque displayed on the front wall of the property, which marks his period of residence.}}</ref>]]

In 1891, Wells [[cousin marriage|married his cousin]] Isabel Mary Wells (1865–1931; from 1902 Isabel Mary Smith).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vintag.es/2017/05/they-did-what-15-famous-people-who.html |title=They Did What? 15 Famous People Who Actually Married Their Cousins |access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> The couple agreed to separate in 1894, when he had fallen in love with one of his students, [[Catherine Wells|Amy Catherine Robbins]] (1872–1927; later known as Jane), with whom he moved to [[Woking]], Surrey, in May 1895. They lived in a rented house, 'Lynton' (now No. 141), Maybury Road, in the town centre for just under 18 months and married at St Pancras register office in October 1895.<ref name="WIW-WBC">{{cite book |title=Wells In Woking: 150th Anniversary 1866–2016: Free Souvenir Programme |url=http://www.celebratewoking.info/legacywellsinwoking/programme.pdf |location=[[Woking, Surrey]] |publisher=[[Woking Borough Council]] |pages=4–5 |date=2016 |access-date=2017-03-05}}</ref>{{r|batchelor|p=165}} His short period in Woking was perhaps the most creative and productive of his whole writing career; while there, he planned and wrote ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' and ''[[The Time Machine]]'', completed ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]]'', wrote and published ''[[The Wonderful Visit]]'' and ''[[The Wheels of Chance]]'', and began writing two other early books, ''[[When the Sleeper Wakes]]'' and ''[[Love and Mr Lewisham]]''.<ref name="WIW-WBC"/><ref name="GoogleRiddle">Before the 143rd anniversary of Wells's birth, [[Google]] published a cartoon riddle series with the solution being the coordinates of Woking's nearby Horsell Common—the location of the Martian landings in ''The War Of The Worlds''—described in newspaper article by {{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2009/sep/21/google-hgwells-doodle-mystery |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells – Google reveals answer to teaser doodles |last=Schofield |first=Jack |date=21 September 2009 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=5 March 2017}}</ref>

[[File:The Works of H G Wells Volume 4 (page 10 crop).jpg|thumb|upright|Wells's second wife, Amy Catherine "Jane" Wells]]

In late summer 1896, Wells and Jane moved to a larger house in [[Worcester Park]], near [[Kingston upon Thames]], for two years; this lasted until his poor health took them to Sandgate, near [[Folkestone]], where he constructed a large family home, [[Spade House]], in 1901. He had two sons with Jane: [[G. P. Wells|George Philip]] (known as "Gip"; 1901–1985) and Frank Richard (1903–1982){{r|wagar|p=295}} (grandfather of film director [[Simon Wells]]). Jane died on 6 October 1927, in [[Great Dunmow|Dunmow]], at the age of 55, which left Wells devastated. She was cremated at [[Golders Green]], with friends of the couple present including [[George Bernard Shaw]].{{r|hammond|p=64}}

Wells had multiple love [[affair]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lynn|first=Andrea |title=Shadow Lovers: The Last Affairs of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |date=2001 |publisher=[[Westview Press|Westview]] |location=[[Boulder, CO]] |isbn=978-0-8133-3394-6 |pages=10; 14; 47 et sec |url=https://archive.org/details/shadowloverslast00lynn/page/10 |url-access=registration}}</ref> [[Dorothy Richardson]] was a friend with whom he had a brief affair which led to a pregnancy and miscarriage, in 1907. Wells's wife had been a schoolmate of Richardson.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fromm |first=Gloria G. |date=1977 |title=Dorothy Richardson: A Biography |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |location=[[Urbana, Illinois|Urbana]] |isbn=978-0-252006-31-9 |page=xxx}}</ref> In December 1909, he had a daughter, Anna-Jane, with the writer [[Amber Reeves]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/apr/02/featuresreviews.guardianreview33|title=A room of her own|author = Margaret Drabble|work= The Guardian|date=1 April 2005}}</ref> whose parents, [[William Pember Reeves|William]] and [[Maud Pember Reeves]], he had met through the [[Fabian Society]]. Amber had married the barrister [[G. R. Blanco White]] in July of that year, as co-arranged by Wells. After [[Beatrice Webb]] voiced disapproval of Wells's "sordid intrigue" with Amber,<!-- with the daughter of veteran Fabian [[Sydney Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier|Sydney Olivier]], I think she warned Olivier in a letter to not let his four daughters be exposed to Wells and that the affair was that with Amber Reeves; see https://spartacus-educational.com/TUoliver.htm and links there--> he responded by lampooning Beatrice Webb and her husband Sidney Webb in his 1911 novel ''The New Machiavelli'' as 'Altiora and Oscar Bailey', a pair of short-sighted, bourgeois manipulators.<!--not sure if there was a reference for this; nothing followed it directly.--> Between 1910 and 1913, novelist [[Elizabeth von Arnim]] was one of his mistresses.<ref>{{cite ODNB |title=Arnim, Mary Annette [May] von [née Mary Annette Beauchamp; known as Elizabeth von Arnim; other married name Mary Annette Russell, Countess Russell] (1866–1941), novelist |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-35883 |access-date=2022-12-29 |date=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/35883}}</ref> In 1914, he had a son, [[Anthony West (author)|Anthony West]] (1914–1987), by the novelist and [[feminism|feminist]] [[Rebecca West]], 26 years his junior.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hgwells.htm |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |first=Petri |last=Liukkonen |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221021820/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hgwells.htm |archive-date=21 February 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1920–21, and intermittently until his death, he had a love affair with  the American [[birth control]] activist [[Margaret Sanger]].<ref>[https://www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger/articles/passionate_friends.php "The Passionate Friends: H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and Margaret Sanger"], at the Margaret Sanger Paper Project.</ref>

Between 1924 and 1933, he partnered with the 22-year-younger Dutch adventurer and writer [[Odette Keun]], with whom he lived in ''Lou Pidou'', a house they built together in [[Grasse]], France. Wells dedicated his longest book to her (''[[The World of William Clissold]]'', 1926).<ref>{{cite web|last=Dixon|first=Kevin|date=2014-07-20|title=Odette Keun, H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and the Third Way |url=http://www.theprsd.co.uk/2014/07/20/odette-keun-hg-wells-third-way/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=People's Republic of South Devon}}</ref> When visiting [[Maxim Gorky]] in Russia 1920, he had slept with Gorky's mistress [[Moura Budberg]],<ref>{{cite news |last=Hill |first=Amelia |date=2001-01-07 |title=The secret loves of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells unmasked |work=[[The Observer]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jan/07/books.booksnews1 |access-date=2020-09-10 |issn=0029-7712}}</ref> then still Countess Benckendorf and 27 years his junior. In 1933, when she left Gorky and emigrated to London, their relationship renewed and she cared for him through his final illness. Wells repeatedly asked her to marry him, but Budberg strongly rejected his proposals.<!--probably could use a better source then the first of these two for the marriage proposals--><ref>{{cite web |last=Aron |first=Nina Renata |date=2017-05-18 |title=The impossibly glamorous life of this Russian baroness spy needs to be a movie |url=https://timeline.com/baroness-moura-budberg-spy-8cff5692c9c6 |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=[[Medium (website)|Medium]] |archive-date=16 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220516234100/https://timeline.com/baroness-moura-budberg-spy-8cff5692c9c6 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Dirda |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Dirda |date=2005-05-22 |title=Moura? Moura Budberg? Now whe{{nbsp}}... |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/2005/05/22/moura-moura-budberg-now-whe/c0e491b3-00fc-4e9e-9778-04641a72eab5/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

In ''Experiment in Autobiography'' (1934), Wells wrote: "I was never a great amorist, though I have loved several people very deeply".<ref>{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H.G. |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20100511 |title=H.G. Wells: Experiment in Autobiography |date=1934 |publisher=[[J. B. Lippincott & Co.]] |location=New York City |author-link=H. G. Wells}}</ref> [[David Lodge (author)|David Lodge]]'s novel ''A Man of Parts'' (2011){{snd}}a 'narrative based on factual sources' (author's note){{snd}}gives a convincing and generally sympathetic account of Wells's relations with the women mentioned above, and others.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lodge |first=David |author-link=David Lodge (author) |title=A Man of Parts |date=2011 |publisher=[[Random House]]}}</ref>

===Artist===
One of the ways that Wells expressed himself was through his drawings and sketches. One common location for these was the endpapers and title pages of his own diaries, and they covered a wide variety of topics, from political commentary to his feelings toward his literary contemporaries and his current romantic interests. During his marriage to Amy Catherine, whom he nicknamed Jane, he drew a considerable number of pictures, many of them being overt comments on their marriage. During this period, he called these pictures "picshuas".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.illinois.edu/news/06/0531wells.html |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells' cartoons, a window on his second marriage, focus of new book {{pipe}} Archives {{pipe}} News Bureau |publisher=University of Illinois|date=31 May 2006 |access-date=10 June 2012}}</ref> These picshuas have been the topic of study by Wells scholars for many years, and in 2006, a book was published on the subject.<ref>Rinkel, Gene and Margaret. ''The Picshuas of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: A burlesque diary''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-252-03045-1}} (cloth: acid-free paper).</ref>

===Writer===
[[File:Woking tripod.JPG|thumb|right|upright=1.15|Statue of a [[Tripod (The War of the Worlds)|tripod]] from ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' in [[Woking]], England. The book is a seminal depiction of a conflict between humankind and an [[Extraterrestrials in fiction|extraterrestrial]] race.]]

Some of his early novels, called "[[scientific romance]]s", invented several themes now classic in science fiction in such works as ''[[The Time Machine]]'', ''[[The Island of Doctor Moreau]]'', ''[[The Invisible Man]]'', ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'', ''[[The Sleeper Awakes|When the Sleeper Wakes]]'', and ''[[The First Men in the Moon]]''. He also wrote realistic novels that received critical acclaim, including ''[[Kipps]]'' and a critique of English culture during the [[Edwardian period]], ''[[Tono-Bungay]]''. Wells also wrote dozens of short stories and novellas, including, "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid", which helped bring the full impact of [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s revolutionary botanical ideas to a wider public, and was followed by many later successes such as "[[The Country of the Blind]]" (1904).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Endersby |first=Jim |date=June 2016 |title=Deceived by orchids: sex, science, fiction and Darwin |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-for-the-history-of-science/article/abs/deceived-by-orchids-sex-science-fiction-and-darwin/6D94917E32C7787D11AC5949BAA0176C |journal=[[The British Journal for the History of Science]] |volume=49|issue=2 |pages=205–229 |doi=10.1017/S0007087416000352 |pmid=27278105 |s2cid=23027055 |issn=0007-0874}}</ref>

Writer [[James E. Gunn (writer)|James E. Gunn]] contended that one of Wells's major contributions to the science fiction genre was his approach, referring to it as his "new system of ideas".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/tomorrow.htm |title=The Man Who Invented Tomorrow |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120805171522/http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/tomorrow.htm |archive-date=2012-08-05 |quote=In 1902, when [[Arnold Bennett]] was writing a long article for ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'' about Wells as a serious writer, Wells expressed his hope that Bennett would stress his "new system of ideas". Wells developed a theory to justify the way he wrote (he was fond of theories), and these theories helped others write in similar ways.}}</ref> Gunn opined that an author should always strive to make the story as credible as possible, even if both the writer and the reader knew certain elements are impossible, allowing the reader to accept the ideas as something that could really happen, today referred to as "the plausible impossible" and "[[suspension of disbelief]]". While neither invisibility nor time travel was new in speculative fiction, Wells added a sense of realism to the concepts which the readers were not familiar with. He conceived the idea of using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposely and selectively forwards or backwards in time.<ref>{{cite news |title=A brief history of time travel |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/a-brief-history-of-time-travel-1566784.html |access-date=2 December 2020 |newspaper=The Independent|quote=Time travel began 100 years ago, with the publication of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells' The Time Machine in January 1895. The notion of moving freely backwards and forwards in time, in the same way that we can move about in space, that was something new.}}</ref> The term "[[time machine]]", coined by Wells, is almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle.<ref name="McFarland"/> He explained that while writing ''The Time Machine'', he realized that "the more impossible the story I had to tell, the more ordinary must be the setting, and the circumstances in which I now set the [[Time travel|Time Traveller]] were all that I could imagine of solid upper-class comforts."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.writework.com/book-guides/the-time-machine-h-g-wells/scientists-and-gentlemen|title=The Time Machine – Scientists and Gentlemen – WriteWork|website=www.writework.com}}</ref> In "Wells's Law", a science fiction story should contain only a single extraordinary assumption. Therefore, as justifications for the impossible, he employed scientific ideas and theories. Wells's best-known statement of the "law" appears in his introduction to a collection of his works published in 1934:

{{blockquote|As soon as the magic trick has been done the whole business of the fantasy writer is to keep everything else human and real. Touches of prosaic detail are imperative and a rigorous adherence to the hypothesis. Any extra fantasy outside the cardinal assumption immediately gives a touch of irresponsible silliness to the invention.<ref name="Bhelkar 2009 p. 19">{{cite book |last=Bhelkar |first=Ratnakar D. |title=Science Fiction: Fantasy and Reality |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors |date=2009 |isbn=978-81-269-1036-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bvt_NyXYGb0C&pg=PA19 |page=19}}</ref><ref name="Wells 1934 p. viii">{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H. G.  |author-link=H. G. Wells |title=Seven famous novels |publisher=[[Random House]] |date=1934 |oclc=948822249 |page=viii}}</ref>}}

[[Griffin (The Invisible Man)|Dr. Griffin / The Invisible Man]] is a brilliant research scientist who discovers a method of invisibility, but finds himself unable to reverse the process. An enthusiast of random and irresponsible violence, Griffin has become an iconic character in [[horror fiction]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Science of Fiction and the Fiction of Science: Collected Essays on SF Storytelling and the Gnostic Imagination|date=2009|publisher=McFarland|pages=41–42}}</ref> ''The Island of Doctor Moreau'' sees a shipwrecked man left on the island home of Doctor Moreau, a [[mad scientist]] who creates [[Human–animal hybrid|human-like hybrid beings]] from animals via vivisection.<ref>{{cite web|title=Novels: The Island of Doctor Moreau|url=http://academic.depauw.edu/aevans_web/HONR101-02/WebPages/Spring2006/Schmid(Todd)/wells.html|access-date=16 October 2017}}</ref> The earliest depiction of [[Uplift (science fiction)|uplift]], the novel deals with a number of philosophical themes, including pain and cruelty, moral responsibility, human identity, and [[Genetics in fiction#Genetics themes|human interference with nature]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-island-of-doctor-moreau-h-g-wells/1120353655?ean=9781499744446|title=The Island of Doctor Moreau: Original and Unabridged|author=Barnes & Noble|work=Barnes & Noble}}</ref> In ''The First Men in the Moon'' Wells used the idea of radio communication between [[astronomical object]]s, a plot point inspired by [[Nikola Tesla]]'s claim that he had received radio signals from Mars.<ref>{{cite web |last=Brewer |first=Nathan |date=2020-10-19 |title=Your Engineering Heritage: Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla as Science Fiction Characters |url=https://insight.ieeeusa.org/articles/thomas-edison-and-nikola-tesla-as-science-fiction-characters/ |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=IEEE-USA InSight}}</ref> In addition to science fiction, Wells produced work dealing with mythological beings like an angel in ''[[The Wonderful Visit]]'' (1895) and a mermaid in ''[[The Sea Lady]]'' (1902).<ref>{{cite book |last=Sherbourne |first=Michael |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Another Kind of Life |publisher=[[Peter Owen Publishers|Peter Owen]] |date=2010 |page=108}}</ref>

Though ''Tono-Bungay'' is not a science-fiction novel, radioactive decay plays a small but consequential role in it. Radioactive decay plays a much larger role in ''[[The World Set Free]]'' (1914), a book dedicated to [[Frederick Soddy]] who would receive a Nobel for proving the existence of radioactive [[isotope]]s.<ref name="Chain reactor">{{cite news |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and the Scientific Imagination |url=https://www.vqronline.org/essay/hg-wells-and-scientific-imagination |access-date=6 August 2022 |work=The Virginia Quarterly Review.}}</ref> This book contains what is surely Wells's biggest prophetic "hit", with the first description of a [[nuclear weapon]] (which he termed "atomic bombs").<ref name="Chain reactor"/><ref name="Nuclear"/> Scientists of the day were well aware that the natural decay of [[radium]] releases energy at a slow rate over thousands of years. The ''rate'' of release is too slow to have practical utility, but the ''total amount'' released is huge. Wells's novel revolves around an (unspecified) invention that accelerates the process of radioactive decay, producing bombs that explode with no more than the force of ordinary high explosives—but which "continue to explode" for days on end. "Nothing could have been more obvious to the people of the earlier twentieth century, than the rapidity with which war was becoming impossible&nbsp;... [but] they did not see it until the atomic bombs burst in their fumbling hands".<ref name="Nuclear">{{cite book |last=Wells |first=H. G.  |author-link=H. G. Wells |url=https://archive.org/details/lastwarworldse00well |title=The Last War: A World Set Free |date=2001 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-9820-0 |page=XIX |url-access=registration}}</ref> In 1932, the physicist and conceiver of [[nuclear chain reaction]] [[Leó Szilárd]] read ''The World Set Free'' (the same year Sir [[James Chadwick]] discovered the [[neutron]]), a book which he wrote in his memoirs had made "a very great impression on me".<ref>{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Rhodes |author-link=Richard Rhodes |date=1986 |title=The Making of the Atomic Bomb |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofatomicbo00rhod/page/24 |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |page=24 |isbn=978-0-684-81378-3 |ol=7721091M |oclc=17454791}}</ref> In 1934, Szilárd took his ideas for a chain reaction to the [[British War Office]] and later the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]], assigning his patent to the Admiralty to keep the news from reaching the notice of the wider scientific community. He wrote, "Knowing what this [a chain reaction] would mean—and I knew it because I had read H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells—I did not want this patent to become public."<ref name="Chain reactor"/>

[[File:H G Wells crater 5163 med.jpg|thumb|left|The [[H. G. Wells (crater)|H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells crater]], located on the [[far side of the Moon]], was named after the author of ''[[The First Men in the Moon]]'' (1901) in 1970.]]
Wells also wrote non-fiction. His first non-fiction [[bestseller]] was ''[[Anticipations|Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought]]'' (1901). When originally serialised in a magazine it was subtitled "An Experiment in Prophecy", and is considered his most explicitly [[future|futuristic]] work. It offered the immediate political message of the privileged sections of society continuing to bar capable men from other classes from advancement until war would force a need to employ those most able, rather than the traditional upper classes, as leaders. Anticipating what the world would be like in the year 2000, the book is interesting both for its hits (trains and cars resulting in the dispersion of populations from cities to suburbs; moral restrictions declining as men and women seek greater sexual freedom; the defeat of German [[militarism]], and the existence of a European Union) and its misses (he did not expect successful [[aircraft]] before 1950, and averred that "my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocate its crew and founder at sea").<ref>{{cite web|url=http://humanityplus.org/learn/about-us/wells |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090520001844/http://humanityplus.org/learn/about-us/wells |archive-date=20 May 2009 |title=Annual H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Award for Outstanding Contributions to Transhumanism |date=20 May 2009 |access-date=10 June 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Turner |first=Frank Miller |title=Contesting Cultural Authority: Essays in Victorian Intellectual Life |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/contestingcultur00turn/page/n232 |chapter-url-access=limited |date=1993 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-37257-2 |pages=219–220|chapter=Public Science in Britain 1880–1919}}</ref>

His bestselling two-volume work, ''[[The Outline of History]]'' (1920), began a new era of popularised world history. It received a mixed critical response from professional historians.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~tdoyle/hgwells/outline_hist.shtml |title=The Outline of History—H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |date=2003-04-20 |access-date=2009-09-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090430052722/http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~tdoyle/hgwells/outline_hist.shtml |archive-date=2009-04-30}}</ref> However, it was very popular amongst the general population and made Wells a rich man. Many other authors followed with "Outlines" of their own in other subjects. He reprised his ''Outline'' in 1922 with a much shorter popular work, ''[[A Short History of the World (H. G. Wells)|A Short History of the World]]'', a history book praised by [[Albert Einstein]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Einstein |first= Albert |date=1994 |contribution= Education and World Peace, A Message to the Progressive Education Association, 23 November 1934 |title=  Ideas and Opinions: With An Introduction by Alan Lightman, Based on Mein Weltbild, edited by Carl Seelig, and Other Sources, New Translations and Revisions by Sonja Bargmann |publisher=The Modern Library |place=New York |page=63}}</ref> and two long efforts, ''[[The Science of Life]]'' (1930)—written with his son [[G. P. Wells]] and evolutionary biologist  [[Julian Huxley]], and ''[[The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind]]'' (1931).<ref>H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, ''The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind'' (London: William Heinemann, 1932), p. 812.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bartleby.com/86/ |title=Wells, H. G. 1922. A Short History of the World |publisher=[[Bartleby.com]] |access-date=2009-09-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091019174104/http://www.bartleby.com/86/ |archive-date=2009-10-19}}</ref> The "Outlines" became sufficiently common for [[James Thurber]] to parody the trend in his humorous essay, "An Outline of Scientists"—indeed, Wells's ''Outline of History'' remains in print with a new 2005 edition, while ''A Short History of the World'' has been re-edited (2006).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wells|first1=H.{{nbsp}}G. |title=A Short History of the World|date=2006|publisher=Penguin UK}}</ref>

[[File:H. G. Wells Daily Mirror.jpg|thumb|upright|H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells {{Circa}} 1918|right]]
From quite early in Wells's career, he sought a better way to organise society and wrote a number of [[Utopia]]n novels.<ref name="Davis-2003" /> The first of these was ''[[A Modern Utopia]]'' (1905), which shows a worldwide utopia with "no imports but meteorites, and no exports at all";<ref>{{cite book |title=A Modern Utopia |last=Wells |first=H. G.  |author-link=H. G. Wells |date=1905 |ol=52256W |oclc=362828}}</ref> two travellers from our world fall into its [[alternate history]]. The others usually begin with the world rushing to catastrophe, until people realise a better way of living: whether by mysterious gases from a [[comet]] causing people to behave rationally and abandoning a European war (''[[In the Days of the Comet]]'' (1906)), or a world council of scientists taking over, as in ''[[The Shape of Things to Come]]'' (1933, which he later adapted for the 1936 [[Alexander Korda]] film, ''[[Things to Come]]''). This depicted, all too accurately, the impending [[World War II|World War]], with cities being destroyed by aerial bombs. He also portrayed the rise of [[fascism|fascist]] dictators in ''The Autocracy of Mr Parham'' (1930) and ''The Holy Terror'' (1939). ''[[Men Like Gods]]'' (1923) is also a utopian novel. Wells in this period was regarded as an enormously influential figure; the literary critic [[Malcolm Cowley]] stated: "by the time he was forty, his influence was wider than any other living English writer".<ref>Cowley, Malcolm. "Outline of Wells's History". ''[[The New Republic]]'' Vol. 81 Issue 1041, 14 November 1934 (pp. 22–23).</ref>

Wells contemplates the ideas of [[nature and nurture]] and questions humanity in books such as ''The First Men in the Moon'', where nature is completely suppressed by nurture, and ''The Island of Doctor Moreau'', where the strong presence of nature represents a threat to a civilized society. Not all his scientific romances ended in a Utopia, and Wells also wrote a [[dystopia]]n novel, ''When the Sleeper Wakes'' (1899, rewritten as ''The Sleeper Awakes'', 1910), which pictures a future society where the classes have become more and more separated, leading to a revolt of the masses against the rulers.<ref>William Steinhoff, "Utopia Reconsidered: Comments on ''1984''" 153, in Eric S. Rabkin, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander, eds., ''No Place Else: Explorations in Utopian and Dystopian Fiction''.  {{ISBN|0-8093-1113-5}}.</ref> ''The Island of Doctor Moreau'' is even darker. The narrator, having been trapped on an island of animals vivisected (unsuccessfully) into human beings, eventually returns to England; like [[Gulliver's Travels|Gulliver]] on his return from the [[Houyhnhnm]]s, he finds himself unable to shake off the perceptions of his fellow humans as barely civilised beasts, slowly reverting to their animal natures.<ref name="Moreau">Wells, H. G. (2005). ''The Island of Dr Moreau''. "Fear and Trembling". Penguin UK.</ref>

Wells also wrote the preface for the first edition of [[W. N. P. Barbellion]]'s diaries, ''The Journal of a Disappointed Man'', published in 1919. Since "Barbellion" was the real author's [[pen name]], many reviewers believed Wells to have been the true author of the ''Journal''; Wells always denied this, despite being full of praise for the diaries.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Quotable Barbellion{{snd}}A Barbellion Chronology |url=https://sites.google.com/site/thequotablebarbellion/a-barbellion-chronology |access-date=2022-12-29}}</ref>

[[File:H. G. Wells-TIME-1926.jpg|thumb|left|upright|H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, one day before his 60th birthday, on the front cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine, 20 September 1926]]
In 1927, a Canadian teacher and writer [[Florence Deeks]] unsuccessfully sued Wells for infringement of copyright and breach of trust, claiming that much of ''The Outline of History'' had been plagiarised from her unpublished manuscript,<ref>At the time of the alleged infringement in 1919–20, unpublished works were protected in Canada under common law.{{cite journal |last=Magnusson |first=Denis N. |date=Spring 2004 |title=Hell Hath No Fury: Copyright Lawyers' Lessons from ''Deeks v. Wells'' |journal=Queen's Law Journal |volume=29 |page=692, note 39}}</ref> ''The Web of the World's Romance'', which had spent nearly nine months in the hands of Wells's Canadian publisher, Macmillan Canada.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Magnusson |first=Denis N. |date=Spring 2004 |title=Hell Hath No Fury: Copyright Lawyers' Lessons from ''Deeks v. Wells'' |journal=Queen's Law Journal |volume=29 |page=682}}</ref> However, it was sworn on oath at the trial that the manuscript remained in Toronto in the safekeeping of Macmillan, and that Wells did not even know it existed, let alone seen it.<ref>Clarke, Arthur C. (March 1978). "Professor Irwin and the Deeks Affair". p. 91. ''Science Fiction Studies''. SF-TH Inc. 5</ref> The court found no proof of copying, and decided the similarities were due to the fact that the books had similar nature and both writers had access to the same sources.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/1931/1931canlii157/1931canlii157.html |title=''Deeks v. Wells'', 1931 CanLII 157 (ONSC (HC Div); ONSC (AppDiv)) |date=26 August 1931 |publisher=[[CanLII]] |access-date=2022-12-20}}</ref>  The case went on appeal from the Canadian courts to the [[Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]], at that time the highest court of appeal for the [[British Empire]], which dismissed the appeal in [[Deeks v Wells]].<ref>[https://www.canlii.org/en/ca/ukjcpc/doc/1932/1932canlii315/1932canlii315.html Deeks v. Wells], 1932 CanLII 315 (UK JCPC).</ref> In 2000, [[A. B. McKillop]], a professor of history at Carleton University, produced a book on the case, ''The Spinster & The Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, and the Mystery of the Purloined Past''.<ref>McKillop, A. B. (2000) Macfarlane Walter & Ross, Toronto.</ref> According to McKillop, the lawsuit was unsuccessful due to the prejudice against a woman suing a well-known and famous male author, and he paints a detailed story based on the circumstantial evidence of the case.<ref>Deeks, Florence A. (1930s) "Plagiarism?" unpublished typescript, copy in Deeks Fonds, Baldwin Room, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto, Ontario.</ref> In 2004, Denis N. Magnusson, professor emeritus of the Faculty of Law, Queen's University, Ontario, published an article on ''Deeks v. Wells''. This re-examines the case in relation to McKillop's book. While having some sympathy for Deeks, he argues that she had a weak case that was not well presented, and though she may have met with [[sexism]] from her lawyers, she received a fair trial, adding that the law applied is essentially the same law that would be applied to a similar case today (i.e., 2004).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Magnusson |first=Denis N. |date=Spring 2004 |title=Hell Hath No Fury: Copyright Lawyers' Lessons from Deeks v. Wells |journal=Queen's Law Journal |volume=29 |pages=680, 684}}</ref>

[[File:H. G. Wells (5026568202).jpg|thumb|upright|[[H. G. Wells Society]]  plaque at [[Chiltern Court]], [[Baker Street]] in the [[City of Westminster]], London, where Wells lived between 1930 and 1936]]
In 1933, Wells predicted in ''The Shape of Things to Come'' that the world war he feared would begin in January 1940,<ref>{{cite book |title=The shape of things to come: the ultimate revolution |year= 2005 |orig-year= 1933 |isbn=978-0-14-144104-7 |page=208 |chapter=9. The Last War Cyclone, 1940–50 |last=Wells |first=H. G. |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |author-link=H. G. Wells}}</ref> a prediction which ultimately came true four months early, in September 1939, with the outbreak of [[World War II]].{{r|wagar|p=209}} In 1936, before the [[Royal Institution]], Wells called for the compilation of a constantly growing and changing World [[Encyclopaedia]], to be reviewed by outstanding authorities and made accessible to every human being. He also presented on his conception of a world encyclopedia at the [[World Congress of Universal Documentation]] in Paris in 1937.<ref>Rayward, W. Boyd. (1999). "H.G. Wells's Idea of a World Brain: A Critical Reassessment." ''Journal of the American Society for Information Science'' 50 (7): 557–73.</ref>

In 1938, he published a collection of essays on the future organisation of knowledge and education, ''[[World Brain]]'', including the essay "The Idea of a Permanent World Encyclopaedia".<ref>{{cite web |title=eBooks@Adelaide has now officially closed |url=https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/news/list/2020/01/07/ebooksadelaide-has-now-officially-closed |access-date=2022-12-29 |website=University Library {{pipe}} University of Adelaide |archive-date=4 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904005938/https://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/news/list/2020/01/07/ebooksadelaide-has-now-officially-closed |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Prior to 1933, Wells's books were widely read in Germany and Austria, and most of his science fiction works had been translated shortly after publication.<ref name="Partington"/> By 1933, he had attracted the attention of German officials because of his criticism of the political situation in Germany, and on 10 May 1933, Wells's books were [[List of book-burning incidents#Jewish, anti-Nazi and "degenerate" books (by the Nazis)|burned by the Nazi youth]] in Berlin's [[Bebelplatz|Opernplatz]], and his works were banned from libraries and book stores.<ref name="Partington">Patrick Parrinder and John S. Partington (2005). ''The Reception of H. G. in Europe''. pp. 106–108. Bloomsbury Publishing.</ref> Wells, as president of [[PEN International]] (Poets, Essayists, Novelists), angered the [[Nazism|Nazis]] by overseeing the expulsion of the German PEN club from the international body in 1934 following the German PEN's refusal to admit non-[[Aryan race|Aryan]] writers to its membership. At a PEN conference in [[Dubrovnik|Ragusa]], Wells refused to yield to Nazi sympathisers who demanded that the exiled author [[Ernst Toller]] be prevented from speaking.<ref name="Partington"/> Near the end of World War II, [[Allies of World War II|Allied forces]] discovered that the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] had compiled lists of people slated for immediate arrest during the invasion of Britain in the abandoned [[Operation Sea Lion]], with Wells included in the alphabetical list of "[[The Black Book (list)|The Black Book]]".<ref>Wells, Frank. ''H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells—A Pictorial Biography''. London: Jupiter Books, 1977, p. 91.</ref>

====Wartime works====
[[File:The War That Will End War - Wells.djvu|thumb|upright|left|Title page of Wells's ''The War That Will End War'' (1914)|page=7]]
Seeking a more structured way to play war games, Wells wrote ''[[Floor Games]]'' (1911) followed by ''[[Little Wars]]'' (1913), which set out rules for fighting battles with [[toy soldier]]s (miniatures).<ref name="toy soldiers">{{cite news|last1=Rundle|first1=Michael|title=How H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Invented Modern War Games 100 Years Ago|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/04/09/hg-wells-little-wars-how-_n_3044934.html|work=The Huffington Post|date=9 April 2013}}</ref> A [[pacificism|pacifist]] prior to the [[First World War]], Wells stated "how much better is this amiable miniature [war] than the real thing".<ref name="toy soldiers"/> According to Wells, the idea of the game developed from a visit by his friend [[Jerome K. Jerome]]. After dinner, Jerome began shooting down toy soldiers with a toy cannon and Wells joined in to compete.<ref name="toy soldiers"/>

During August 1914, immediately after the outbreak of the First World War, Wells published a number of articles in London newspapers that subsequently appeared as a book entitled ''The War That Will End War''.{{r|wagar|p=147}}<ref>{{cite news |title=A War to End All War |url=https://www.vision.org/history-the-great-war-can-a-war-end-all-war-33 |access-date=27 February 2020 |agency=Vision.org|quote=Wells wrote: "This is now a war for peace. It aims straight at disarmament. It aims at a settlement that shall stop this sort of thing for ever. Every soldier who fights against Germany now is a crusader against war. This, the greatest of all wars, is not just another war—it is the last war!"}}</ref> He coined the expression with the idealistic belief that the result of the war would make a future conflict impossible.<ref>{{cite news |title=Armistice Day: WWI was meant to be the war that ended all wars. It wasn't. |url=https://www.euronews.com/2020/11/11/armistice-day-wwi-was-meant-to-be-the-war-that-ended-all-wars-it-wasn-t |access-date=13 September 2021 |agency=[[Euronews]]}}</ref> Wells blamed the [[Central Powers]] for the coming of the war and argued that only the defeat of German [[militarism]] could bring about an end to war.<ref name="Russell">{{cite book |title=The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell |editor-last=Rempel |editor-first=Richard A. |date=2003 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-415-10463-0 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h9vF8W1dW48C&pg=PA10 |access-date=2010-08-24}}</ref> Wells used the shorter form of the phrase, "[[the war to end war]]", in ''In the Fourth Year'' (1918), in which he noted that the phrase "got into circulation" in the second half of 1914.<ref>{{cite book |title=Short Works of Herbert George Wells |last=Wells |first=H. G.  |author-link=H. G. Wells |date=2008 |publisher=[[BiblioBazaar, LLC]] |isbn=978-1-4375-2652-3 |pages=13–14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MkguSdsC3xYC&pg=PA13 |access-date=2010-08-24}}</ref> In fact, it had become one of the most common [[catchphrase]]s of the war.<ref name="Russell"/>

In 1918, Wells worked for the British [[War Propaganda Bureau]], also called Wellington House.<ref name="Wartime"/> Wells was also one of fifty-three leading British authors — a number that included [[Rudyard Kipling]], [[Thomas Hardy]] and Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] — who signed their names to the "Authors' Declaration." This manifesto declared that the German invasion of Belgium had been a brutal crime, and that Britain "could not without dishonour have refused to take part in the present war".<ref name="Wartime">{{cite news |title=1914 Authors' Manifesto Defending Britain's Involvement in WWI, Signed by H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/10/british-authors-and-wwi-propaganda-manifesto-signed-by-h-g-wells-arthur-conan-doyle-rudyard-kipling.html |access-date=27 February 2020 |work=Slate}}</ref>

===Travels to Russia and the Soviet Union===
[[File:СССР. Павлов И.П., Г. Уэллс и внучка Павлова Милочка. 1924г. (pavlovs museum).jpg|thumb|Wells (left) pictured with Soviet physiologist [[Ivan Pavlov]]]]
Wells visited Russia three times: 1914, 1920 and 1934. After his visits to [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]] and [[Moscow]], in January 1914, he came back to England, "a staunch Russophile". His views were recorded in a newspaper article, "Russia and England: A Study on Contrasts", published in ''[[The Daily News (UK)|The Daily News]]'' on 1 February 1941, and in his novel ''[[Joan and Peter]]'' (1918).<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv346p26.9 |chapter=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells : Interpreting the 'Writing on the Eastern Wall of Europe' |last1=Soboleva |first1=Olga |last2=Wrenn |first2=Angus |date=2017 |title=From Orientalism to Cultural Capital |pages=101–142 |publisher=Peter Lang AG |jstor=j.ctv346p26.9 |isbn=9783034322034}}</ref>  During his second visit, he saw his old friend [[Maxim Gorky]] and with Gorky's help, met [[Vladimir Lenin]]. In his book ''[[Russia in the Shadows]]'', Wells portrayed Russia as recovering from a total social collapse, "the completest that has ever happened to any modern social organisation".<ref>H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells, ''Russia in the Shadows'' (New York: George H. Doran, 1921), p. 21.</ref> On 23 July 1934, after visiting U.S. President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], Wells went to the Soviet Union and interviewed [[Joseph Stalin]] for three hours for the ''[[New Statesman]]'' magazine, which was extremely rare at that time. He told Stalin how he had seen 'the happy faces of healthy people' in contrast with his previous visit to Moscow in 1920.<ref>{{cite web |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Interviews Joseph Stalin in 1934; Declares "I Am More to The Left Than You, Mr. Stalin" |url=http://www.openculture.com/2014/04/h-g-wells-interviews-joseph-stalin-in-1934.html |website=Open Culture |access-date=3 June 2018}}</ref> However, he also criticised the lawlessness, class discrimination, state violence, and absence of [[Freedom of speech|free expression]]. Stalin enjoyed the conversation and replied accordingly. As the chairman of the London-based [[PEN International]], which protected the rights of authors to write without being intimidated, Wells hoped by his trip to USSR, he could win Stalin over by force of argument. Before he left, he realised that no reform was to happen in the near future.<ref>{{cite book |last=Service |first=Robert |title=Comrades |date=2007 |publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan]] |location=[[London]] |page=205}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=MARXISM VERSUS LIBERALISM |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1934/07/23.htm |publisher=Red Star Press Ltd. |access-date=2018-06-03}}</ref>

===Final years===
[[File:Herbert George Wells in 1943.jpg|right|thumb|upright|H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells in 1943]]
Wells's greatest literary output occurred before the First World War, which was lamented by younger authors whom he had influenced. In this connection, [[George Orwell]] described Wells as "too sane to understand the modern world", and "since 1920 he has squandered his talents in slaying [[Paper tiger|paper dragons]]."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Orwell |first=George |title=Wells, Hitler and the World State |journal=Horizon |date=August 1941 |url=http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/wells/english/e_whws |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118081350/http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/wells/english/e_whws |archive-date=2016-01-18}}</ref> [[G. K. Chesterton]] quipped: "Mr Wells is a born storyteller who has sold his birthright for a pot of message".<ref>{{cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/hgwellsunderrevi00inte |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells under revision : proceedings of the International H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells Symposium, London, July 1986 |last1=Parrinder |first1=Patrick |last2=Rolfe |first2=Christopher |date=1990 |location=Selinsgrove, Pa. / London|publisher= Susquehanna University Press / Associated University Presses |isbn=978-0-945636-05-2}}</ref>

Wells had [[diabetes mellitus|diabetes]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/Who_we_are/History/HG-Wells/ |title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells—Diabetes UK |date=2008-04-14 |access-date=2012-06-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110106003137/http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/Who_we_are/History/HG-Wells/ |archive-date=2011-01-06}}</ref> and was a co-founder in 1934 of The Diabetic Association (now [[Diabetes UK]], the leading charity for people with diabetes in the UK).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/Who_we_are/History/ |title=Diabetes UK: Our History |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108072908/https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about_us/who_we_are/history |archive-date=2017-11-08 |access-date=2015-12-10}}</ref>

On 28 October 1940, on the radio station [[KTSA]] in [[San Antonio]], [[Texas]], Wells took part in a radio interview with [[Orson Welles]], who two years previously had performed a famous [[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|radio adaptation of ''The War of the Worlds'']]. During the interview, by Charles C Shaw, a KTSA radio host, Wells admitted his surprise at the sensation that resulted from the broadcast but acknowledged his debt to Welles for increasing sales of one of his "more obscure" titles.<ref>{{cite book |last=Flynn |first=John L. |title=War of the Worlds: from Wells to Spielberg by |publisher=Galactic |isbn=978-0-9769400-0-5 |location=Owens Mills, MD |page=45 |chapter=The legacy of Orson Welles and the Radio Broadcast |date=June 2005}}</ref>

===Death===
[[File:H.G. WELLS 1866-1946 WRITER lived and died here.jpg|thumb|upright|Commemorative [[blue plaque]] at Wells's final home in [[Regent's Park]], London]]
Wells died on 13 August 1946, aged 79, at his home at 13 [[Hanover Terrace]], overlooking [[Regent's Park]], London.<ref>{{cite newspaper The Times |last=Bradberry |first=Grace |date=1996-08-23 |title=The secret life of H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells |issue=65666 |page=18}}</ref><ref name="ODNB"/> In his preface to the 1941 edition of ''[[The War in the Air]]'', Wells had stated that his [[epitaph]] should be: "I told you so. You ''damned'' fools."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/W/WellsHerbertGeorge/prose/warintheair/warinairpref1941.html |title=Preface to the 1941 edition of ''The War in the Air'' |access-date=2008-02-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222210642/http://ghostwolf.dyndns.org/words/authors/W/WellsHerbertGeorge/prose/warintheair/warinairpref1941.html |archive-date=2008-12-22}}</ref> Wells's body was cremated at [[Golders Green Crematorium]] on 16 August 1946; his ashes were subsequently scattered into the [[English Channel]] at [[Old Harry Rocks]], the most eastern point of the [[Jurassic Coast]] and about 3.5 miles (5.6&nbsp;km) from [[Swanage]] in [[Dorset]].<ref>West, Anthony. ''H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells: Aspects of a Life'', p. 153. London: Hutchinson & Co, 1984. {{ISBN|0-09-134540-5}}.</ref>

A commemorative [[blue plaque]] in his honour was installed by the [[Greater London Council]] at his home in Regent's Park in 1966.<ref>{{cite web|title=H.{{nbsp}}G. Wells (1866–1946)|url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/h-g-wells/|website=Blue Plaques|publisher=English Heritage}}</ref>