H. G. Wells
English writer whose science fiction, beginning with The Time Machine, imagined time travel and alien invasion Show bio
Bio
H. G. Wells broke his leg as a boy and began reading library books in bed. He later spent three unhappy years as a draper's apprentice, working thirteen-hour days.
Wells won a scholarship to study biology in London under the scientist Thomas Henry Huxley. He sketched an early version of The Time Machine in a student magazine he helped found. Wells made his books convincing by pairing everyday detail with a single extraordinary idea.
He went on to foresee aircraft, tanks, space travel and nuclear weapons. Wells turned his draper's apprenticeship into novels like Kipps, which questioned how society shared its wealth.