When Wells was 13 he apprenticed as a draper's shop assistant in Windsor and was eventually fired because of his absent-mindedness. After young Wells was fired, a friend of his mothers took him in. "Uncle" Williams was an adventurous man with only one arm, he had owned a factory but it failed and he was forced to start teaching again. Wells lived with "Uncle" Williams for only a few months in Somerset after which he apprenticed with a chemist. His new apprenticeship did not last long because Sarah Wells was unable to pay for the training. However, before his apprenticeship was terminated Wells was able to take some Latin lessons at the local grammar school. Wells began to board with his Latin teacher and spent two months with him and even took an exam in physiology.

When H. G. Wells was 15 his mother sent him back to apprentice as a draper's shop assistant once again. After two years of working as a shop assistant Wells realized that he would never be a good one and contemplated suicide but later dismissed that idea as an easy way out. After his bout with suicide Wells wrote Horace Byatt, a headmaster at Midhurst, and got a job helping him. At Midhurst Wells taught grammar school in the day and at night he would take classes. In order to continue teaching at Midhurst the school made H. G. join the Church of England. Wells was awarded a scholarship to the London University's Normal School of Science because there was a teacher shortage at the time.

When Wells was 18, he moved to London to attend the Normal school of science with an allowance of 21 shillings a week. Wells lived in Westbourne Park in a small, dirty, noisy, and overcrowded house which brought him uncomfortably close to "corsets." While Wells was on school vacation he read Plato's Republic which lead him to make his first conclusions about life and became the keystone to his spiritual universe. At school Wells joined the Debating Society, when he was 19 he wrote a presentation on socialism and presented it, it was well received. Wells then became a member of the Fabian Society which helped him to develop his own ideas on socialism. At the age of 20 Wells completed his first plan for a new society which resembled a kind of world state.

In the school year of 1885 - 1886 Wells was forced to give up Zoology with T. H. Huxley and take physics. The next school year, after Wells passed his physics exam, he was forced to take geology. Wells and his friends began a magazine called The Science School Journal which they would use for literature and socialism purposes. Wells' geology teacher noticed that H. G. had begun to grow inattentive in class and ordered him to give up his editorial in the Science School Journal to another student.

H. G. Wells' father's cousins soon found out about his situation and took him in. Wells now lived in a tall, narrow building, on Euston Road with his aunt Mary and her sister. Shortly after moving in with his aunt, Wells began to hunger for love. On his first visit to his aunt's house he had met his cousin Isabel whom he became infatuated with.

In 1887 Wells failed his geology exam which ended his stay at The Normal School of Science and his allowance of 21 shillings a week. Fortunately for H. G. he had just sold a short story that he wrote to the London Weekly which sustained him for a while.

When Wells was 21, he went to Wales and in a small country town he found a job as an assistant school master. While teaching, Wells met a young and pretty school teacher that he began to like which made him mostly forget about Isabel. During this run of happiness Wells wrote a number of short stories and began a novel. Unfortunately Wells had an accident on the football field in which he shattered his kidney. Without proper medical attention Wells' health began to fade and to make matters worse he later burst a blood vessel in his lung. H. G.'s illness sent him back to his mother where he was lucky enough to be allowed to stay in Up Park. It took Wells four months at Up Park to recover from nearly dying. After his recovery Wells went to stay and help his friend William Burton who was a research chemist. Wells now began to write more, finishing a number of short stories and starting work on "The Time Machine."

When Wells was fully recovered, he found a job at Henley House School which was a private school and taught there. In the summer of 1889 Wells was able to get a diploma for intermediate science and get a raise at Henley House School. At that time Wells also wrote some theses for a contest that The College of Preceptors was holding. Wells won in three categories, practice of teaching, mathematics, and natural science, the prize money that he received totaled 20 pounds.

Isabel now believed that Wells had enough money for them to have a stable marriage and agreed to marry him. They rented a house in th suburbs of London and in October of 1891 they were married. After a while of marriage home life began to deteriorate. Wells now realized that his physical attraction to Isabel made him blind to their incompatibilities. One day when Wells was preforming a demonstration on biology for his students at the University Correspondence College he met a young woman by the name of Amy Catherine Robbins. He was immediately taken my Catherine and yearned for her to the point where he found life intolerable without her.

In May 1893 while coming home from a geology course that he was teaching Wells had a coughing fit and began to taste blood. Later that night he had a hemorrhage that nearly killed him. Wells recovered shortly and started writing book reviews for the Pall Mall Gazette. With his new source of income Wells and Isabel began to look for a house and found one in Sutton.

After a short stay with Catherine Robbins, Isabel began to realize what her and Wells shared and ended their marriage. Wells moved to London and began to live with Catherine whom he had a lifelong relationship with.

Wells was asked by William Ernest Henley to write for his paper so Wells wrote him "The Time Machine." Wells was payed 100 pounds for the publication rights to "The Time Machine" which brought him great success and thrust him out of poverty.

A walk home one night caused a minor hemorrhage which prompted Wells and Catherine to move to the country. Wells and Catherine bought a house in Woking next to the train station. After writing a few books, which made Wells a lot of money, he and Catherine bought a new house called Heatherlea in Worcester Park to accommodate Catherine's sick mother.

Wells and Catherine took a trip to Rome, Naples, and Paestum for a short break. When Wells returned from his vacation, he became ill once again and was instructed by a doctor to move to a drier climate and stop working. Wells could not find a suitable house to live in so he had one built.

In 1901, H. G.'s first son was born and two years later his second son was born. Wells then became interested in the future and wrote a book called "Anticipation" which outlined the reactions that society would have due to mechanical and scientific progress. "Anticipation" was Wells' best-selling novel to date. This surprised Wells. Making his view known to the world Wells recommended to the Labor Party that all the children of the country should be educated on the idea of a world organization in order for one to ever work.

Wells once again hit it big when he published "Kipps" which sold more copies in England than even "Anticipations." On the heels of "Kipps" success Wells took a trip to the United States. A good example of Wells' power of writing is the book "A Modern Utopia" which was about a new government and the order of the Samurai which protected the government. The book which was read in many university circles inspired many love affairs in the name of the New Republic. Wells began to have roving sexual impulses which lead him to have a brief affair with a girl named Ann Veronica. While the relationship did end, he wrote about it in the book called "Ann Veronica" but in this version gave it a happy ending. "Ann Veronica" when published sparked the greatest literary battle in the period. People called "Ann Veronica" spiritual poison and said that it would corrupt young minds. As a result, Wells was boycotted and he was banished from society. The boycotting was a blessing in disguise for Wells and his career because to the younger generation he was regarded as a symbol of revolt against all that was strict, dull, pompous, and hateful. When Wells finished writing "Tono-Bungay" he thought that it would be a success but unfortunately it did not sell well.

In 1910 Wells sold the house that he had built because he felt that it would become the final setting of his life. In 1911 Wells and his family moved to France and live in Port de l'Arche. In 1912 Wells and the family moved back to Britain, buying Easton Park Rectory and renaming it Easton Glebe. Wells and the family stayed at Easton Glebe for eight years before moving again.

Wells did some writing for the Daily Mail, using it to inform people of what path he thought the world should take. Among other things Wells called for a planned economy and for the British government to revise their military methods, particularly the navy's. In 1913 Wells felt that he should inform his readers of the dread of disaster that he felt was to come and ended up writing "The World Set Free." "The World Set Free" was published in the beginning of 1914 just about six months before the first world war started. Some aspects of the great war were the same as in Wells' book, like soldiers fighting in the same places that he described. The big difference is that in "The World Set Free" Wells predicted that the war would start in 1956. After going to a lecture on the energy in atoms Wells also predicted the atomic bomb.

Wells called world war one "the war that would end all war," a statement that he would often regret saying as soon a world war two rolled around. Wells felt responsible for the creation of the tank because in 1903 he wrote "The Iron Guard of the Country" which describe tanks. During the war Winston Churchill gave Wells access to army technicians that he would use to build another of his creation called a teleferic. Unfortunately the weapon was introduced to the war too late and there were not enough of them to make a big difference. To help French war victims Wells compiled a volume of essays that he published in 1915 called "The Book of France." After the war Wells was summoned by Northcliffe, the newly appointed minister of propaganda, and was asked to write some anti-German material. After Wells was asked to write anti-German propaganda, he wrote "In the Fourth Year" which was an attack on national sovereignty.

Wells wrote a book on the history of man titled "The Outline of History" even though he believed that it would not sell well. "The Outline of History" turned out to be Wells' biggest success yet. It was a world wide best seller and in the United states it sold more copies than any other book other than the bible. To follow up Wells wrote "The Science of Life" which was an outline of biology and "The Work, Wealth, and Happiness of Mankind" which was an outline of sociology. Both of the books failed.

In 1914 Wells visited Russia for the first time and came back with the impression that it was corrupt, oppressive system. Wells held a bitter hatred for the monarchist system, particularly the British system. In 1917 Wells persuaded Northcliffe to print "The Times" which appeal to the republican feeling throughout the world. In 1920 Wells went back to Russia to collect stories of the Russian break down and talk to Lenin for about half of an hour. The articles that Wells wrote on his trip to Russia where compiled in the book "Russia in the Shadows."

In 1922 and 1923 Wells entered the political race under the Labour Party banner. Wells stood as a socialist candidate for London University. H. G. used his writing abilities to publish pamphlets, such as "The Educational Aims of the Socialist Party," to help his campaign. There was continual friction between Wells and the Labour Party leaders because he was only interested in promoting general ideas.

Wells began to have confrontation in his personal life and as a result began to wander at random driven by a need of complete change. After wandering for some time he settled near Grasse where he was undisturbed. Wells stayed in Grasse for a year, captivated by its beautiful, fertile, and soothingly gentle scenery.

Wells had a fight with Labour Party politicians and then considered that socialism was no longer a creative movement. Wells also declared that communism would no longer work. So ended Wells' faith in the socialism of his day.

After a conference in Paris, Catherine was found to have cancer and died of it a few months later. After Catherine's death Wells randomly traveled and eventually ended up in Geneva. Then he moved to Côte d'Azur and soon after sold Easton Glebe.

In 1934 H. G. Wells had a personal interview with President Roosevelt and his wife. In the same year Wells also interviewed Stalin for more than three hours. When Wells finished interviewing Stalin, he found him to be an honest and just man.

H. G. Wells became an angry old man throughout World War Two. In his death he regretted nothing but did realize that he was a much different man in his old age than in his youth. Herbert George Wells was 79 years old when he died on August 13, 1946.

Back to Top