Editing H. G. Wells (section)

===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>