Herbert Wells - biography, information, personal life. Herbert Wells short biography Herbert Wells years of life

Big Soviet encyclopedia: Wells Herbert George (21/9/1866, Bromley - 13/8/1946, London), English writer. Came from a petty-bourgeois environment. Graduated from the University of London (1888). By 1891 he received two academic titles in biology, and from 1942, Doctor of Biology. In 1893 he published textbooks on biology and physiography, and in 1930 he published the popular book “The Science of Life” (vols. 1-3, together with J. Huxley). The novel “The Time Machine” opened the history of science fiction of the 20th century, relying on natural science concepts. Literary sources for W. served the works of J. Swift, Voltaire, Amer. and German romantics. Polemicizing with positivists, U. proves that the development of society within the framework of the bourgeois system will end in the degeneration and destruction of humanity. The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) allegorizes the history of civilization - a necessary but monstrously cruel process. The novel “The Invisible Man” (1897) is directed both against the inertia of the bourgeoisie and against the Nietzschean “superman”. The War of the Worlds (1898) tells the story of an invasion from Mars that makes people question the perfection of their public organization. Scenes of the popular revolution that shook capitalist society in the 21st century. depicted in the novel “When the Sleeper Awakens” (1899). The early cycle ends with the novels “The First Men on the Moon” (1901) and “Food of the Gods” (1904). “Wheels of Fortune” (1896) opens W.’s list of domestic novels: “Love and Mr. Lewisham” (1900), “Kipps” (1905), “The Story of Mr. Polchy” (1910), “Bilby” (1915). The novel “Anna Veronica” (1909), dedicated to the issue of women’s emancipation, caused a sensation. The most significant of U.'s non-fiction novels, Tono-Bengue (1909), was an attempt, in the tradition of O. Balzac, to give a “cross-section” of English. society. The style of the science fiction writer also undergoes changes: “In the Days of the Comet” (1906) - an everyday novel interspersed with a fantastic element; the novel “War in the Air” (1908) is written in the spirit of “technical” fiction by Jules Verne; the novel “The Liberated World” (1914) is devoid of a fantastic element, dedicated to the military and peaceful use of atomic energy.
Since 1900, U. has published prognostic and utopian works: the treatise “Foresight” (1901), a number of articles. The novel-treatise “Modern Utopia” (1905) put forward a project for reorganizing the world on the basis of state socialism with a broad allowance for private enterprise. The basis of U.’s ideology is enlightenment (see Enlightenment), interpreted in relation to the 20th century. and acquired the character of bourgeois reformism, sometimes of a very radical kind (treatise “New Worlds Instead of Old”, 1908). However, in the novel-treatise “The World of William Clissold” (1926) and the treatise “Legal Conspiracy” (1928), W. sharply contrasts his theories with Marxism. In 1903-09, U. was a member of the “Fabian Society” and, although he was highly critical of the political opportunism of the Fabians, his own worldview was only one of the forms of Fabianism.
During the First World War of 1914-18, U. was an active participant in military propaganda (the book “The War That Will End Wars,” 1914). In 1916 he published the anti-war novel “Mr. Britling Drinks the Cup to the Bottom,” but did not officially change his position. The god-building theories outlined here were developed by U. in the stories “God is the Invisible King” (1917), “The Soul of a Bishop” (1917), and others. “Essay on History” (1920), “ Brief essay history" (1922) and other works on history and pedagogy. In 1923, W. published the educational utopian novel “People Like Gods.” Starting with the novel “On the Eve” (1927), he took an active anti-fascist position (the novel “The Autocracy of Mr. Parham”, 1930; the story “The Croquet Player”, 1936). W.'s extraordinary satirical skill was revealed in the novels “Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island” (1928), “Balington of Blep” (1932) and “Caution is Required” (1941). In 1933 he was elected president of the Pen Club.
U. visited Russia three times (in 1914, 1920 and 1934). His conversation with V.I. Lenin (October 6, 1920) became widely known thanks to the book “Russia in the Darkness” (1920). Despite the fact that W. did not believe in the ability Soviet Russia to restore and develop the national economy without the help of the West, “Russia in the Dark” played a large role in spreading the truth about Soviet Russia and the Communist Party. During World War II, U. supported the Soviets. Union. The founder of science fiction literature of the 20th century, W. is the greatest master critical realism, who made a significant contribution to the general literary process.

English writer and publicist Herbert George Wells was born on September 21, 1866, died on August 13, 1946. Known not only for books written in the fantasy genre, but also for works about ordinary people and their problems. Wrote 40 novels great amount stories occupying several volumes, philosophical works, books for children.

Parents

Father and mother worked as servants on a rich estate. Later they purchased a small porcelain store that was not generating any income. The family largely lived off the money Wells Sr. earned as a professional croquet player.

Early years

Since childhood I loved to read. This was facilitated by a broken leg, which he was “lucky” to receive at the age of 8 years. In 1874 he entered the Commercial Academy. His father dreamed of his son becoming a businessman. However, the young man was not able to complete the course. .

The head of the family broke a rib and had to part with the game of croquet, and with it his education. At the age of thirteen, Herbert earned his own living as a delivery boy in a pharmacy. Only the desire to work as a teacher forced him to continue his studies and he busily began preparing for college exams.

At London College, Herbert became interested in biology, anatomy and physiology. In 1891, he already had several degrees in biology. In 1893 he became professional journalist. Then he wrote his first books.

Personal life

Wells was married twice. His first wife was Isabella, with whom he lived for four years, after which they divorced. His second wife, Amy Catherine, with whom he lived for more than 30 years, died of cancer. His third and last love was Maria Zakrevskaya-Budberg, an emigrant from Russia. He lived with Maria in a civil marriage until his death.

Death

While still a student at London College, Wells suffered from tuberculosis. Against this background, he had health problems. The writer had a stroke several times. Died from improper metabolism. His sons, in accordance with their father's will, cremated the remains and scattered the ashes over the English Channel.

Some advances in science that Wells predicted in his works

  • Radioactive substances . This topic was first discussed in the book.
  • Bacteriological weapons . In the novel, the aliens died from simple bacteria. Indeed, scientists and military personnel have worked on developments in this area.
  • Gas attacks and heat (laser) beams . They are written about in.
  • Invention of the atomic bomb . In the work, the author suggested that scientists could split the atom, which, unfortunately, happened.

Herbert George Wells. Born September 21, 1866 in Bromley, UK - died August 13, 1946 in London, UK. English writer and publicist. Author of famous science fiction novels “The Time Machine”, “The Invisible Man”, “War of the Worlds”, etc. Representative of critical realism. Supporter of Fabian socialism.

He visited Russia three times, where he met with and.

His father, Joseph Wells, and mother, Sarah Neal, formerly worked as a gardener and maid on a wealthy estate, and later became the owners of a small china shop. However, the trade brought in almost no income, and basically the family lived on the money that the father, being a professional cricketer, earned from playing. When the boy was eight years old, he was “lucky,” as he himself put it, to break his leg. It was then that he became addicted to reading. At the same age, Herbert Wells entered Mr. Thomas Morley's commercial academy, which was supposed to prepare him for the profession of a merchant. However, when Herbert was thirteen years old, his father broke his hip, and with cricket The training was considered completed, and Herbert had to begin an independent life.

He was educated at King's College, University of London, graduating in 1888. By 1891 he received two academic titles in biology, and since 1942 he has been a doctor of biology.

After an apprenticeship with a textile merchant and work in a pharmacy, he became a school teacher, a teacher of exact sciences, and an assistant to Thomas Huxley. In 1893 he became a professional journalist.

In 1895 Wells wrote his first piece of art- the novel “The Time Machine” about an inventor’s journey into the distant future.

In 1895, 10 years before Minkowski, he announced that our reality is four-dimensional space-time (“Time Machine”). In 1898, he predicted wars using poison gases, aviation and devices like lasers (“War of the Worlds”, a little later - “When the Sleeper Awakens”, “War in the Air”). In 1905 he described a civilization of intelligent ants (“The Kingdom of Ants”). The novel The World Set Free (1914) makes reference to the Second World War, which began in the 1940s; there is also " atomic bomb"(that's exactly what it's called), dropped from an airplane and based on the splitting of the atom.

In 1923, Wells was the first to introduce science fiction Parallel Worlds(“People are like gods”). Wells also discovered such ideas, later replicated by hundreds of authors, as antigravity (“The First Men on the Moon”), the invisible man, the pace of life accelerator, and much more.

However, all these original ideas were not an end in themselves for Wells, but rather technical method, which had the goal of highlighting more clearly the main, social-critical side of his works. Thus, in “The Time Machine” he warns that the continuation of an irreconcilable class struggle can lead to the complete degradation of society. IN last decades Wells's creativity completely moved away from science fiction, but his realistic works are much less popular.

From 1903 to 1909, Wells was a member of the Fabian Society, which advocated caution and gradualism in politics, science and public life.

In 1933 he was elected president of the PEN Club.

H.G. Wells visited Russia three times. The first time was in 1914, then he stayed at the St. Petersburg Astoria Hotel on Morskaya Street, 39. The second time, in September 1920, he had a meeting with Lenin. At this time, Wells lived in M. Gorky's apartment in apartment building E.K. Barsova on Kronverksky Prospekt, 23.

Wells wrote the book “Russia in the Dark” about his first visit to the Bolshevik state. In it, among other things, he described in detail his meeting with Lenin and the essence of the difference in their positions: “This topic led us to our main disagreement - the disagreement between the evolutionary collectivist and the Marxist, to the question of whether social revolution with all its extremes is necessary, whether one economic system must be completely destroyed before another can be set in motion. I I believe that as a result of great and persistent educational work the current capitalist system can become “civilized” and turn into a worldwide collectivist system, while Lenin’s worldview has long been inseparably linked with the provisions of Marxism about the inevitability of class war, the need to overthrow the capitalist system as a precondition for the restructuring of society, the dictatorship of the proletariat, etc. "

On July 23, 1934, Wells visited the USSR again and was received by Stalin. Wells wrote about this meeting: “I confess that I approached Stalin with some suspicion and prejudice. In my mind, an image was created of a very cautious, self-centered fanatic, despot, envious, suspicious monopolizer of power. I expected to meet a ruthless, cruel doctrinaire and self-satisfied Georgian mountaineer, whose the spirit never completely escaped from his native mountain valleys... All vague rumors, all suspicions ceased to exist for me forever, after I talked with him for a few minutes. I have never met a more sincere, decent and honest person in him; nothing dark and sinister, and it is precisely these qualities that should explain his enormous power in Russia.".

Wells lived in London and the Riviera, gave frequent lectures and traveled widely. He was married twice: from 1891 to 1895 to Isabella Mary Wells, and from 1895 to 1927 to Amy Catherine (Jane) Robbins. The second marriage produced two sons: George Philip Wells (1901-1985) and Frank Richard Wells (1905-1982).

Died in London on August 13, 1946. At the funeral ceremony, John Boynton Priestley called Wells "a man whose words brought light into many dark corners of life." According to the will, after cremation, two sons, while on the Isle of Wight, scattered the writer’s ashes over the English Channel.

Films based on the works of H.G. Wells:

1919 - “The First Men on the Moon,” directed by Bruce Gordon
1932 - “Island of Lost Souls”, directed by Earl Canton
1933 - “The Invisible Man”, directed by James Whale
1936 - The Shape of Things to Come, directed by William Cameron Menzies
1953 - “War of the Worlds”, directed by Byron Haskin
1960 - “The Time Machine”, directed by George Pal
1964 - “The First Men on the Moon”, directed by Nathan Juran
1974 - “A Wonderful Visit”, directed by Marcel Carné
1976 - “Food of the Gods”, directed by Bert A. Gordon
1977 - “The Island of Doctor Moreau”, directed by Don Taylor
1977 - “Empire of the Ants”, directed by Bert I. Gordon
1979 - “Journey in the Time Machine”, directed by Nicholas Meyer
1984 - “The Invisible Man”, director Alexander Zakharov
1989 - “Food of the Gods 2”, directed by Damian Lee
1996 - “The Island of Doctor Moreau”, directed by John Frankenheimer and Richard Stanley
2001 - " Fantastic worlds H.G. Wells, directed by Robert Young
2002 - “The Time Machine”, directed by Simon Wells, great-grandson of H.G. Wells
2005 - “War of the Worlds”, director
2005 - “War of the Worlds”, directed by Timothy Hines
2005 - "H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds", directed by David Michael Latt
2010 - “The First Men on the Moon”, directed by Mark Gatiss


English writer and publicist

short biography

Herbert George Wells(English Herbert George Wells; September 21, 1866, Bromley, UK - August 13, 1946, London) - English writer and publicist. Author of famous science fiction novels “The Time Machine”, “The Invisible Man”, “War of the Worlds”, etc. Representative of critical realism. Supporter of Fabian socialism.

He visited Russia three times, where he met with Lenin and Stalin.

His father, Joseph Wells, and mother, Sarah Neal, formerly worked as a gardener and maid on a wealthy estate, and later became the owners of a small porcelain shop. However, the trade brought in almost no income, and basically the family lived on the money that the father, being a professional cricketer, earned from playing. When the boy was eight years old, he was “lucky,” as he himself put it, to break his leg. It was then that he became addicted to reading. At the same age, Herbert Wells entered Mr. Thomas Morley's commercial academy, which was supposed to prepare him for the profession of a merchant. However, when Herbert was thirteen years old, his father broke his hip, and cricket was over; Herbert had to start an independent life.

He was educated at King's College, University of London, graduating in 1888. By 1891 he received two academic titles in biology, and since 1942 he has been a doctor of biology.

After an apprenticeship with a textile merchant and work in a pharmacy, he became a school teacher, a teacher of exact sciences, and an assistant to Thomas Huxley. In 1893 he became a professional journalist.

From 1903 to 1909, Wells was a member of the Fabian Society, which advocated caution and gradualism in politics, science and public life. In 1933, he was elected president of the PEN Club.

Wells lived in London and the Riviera, gave frequent lectures and traveled widely.

He was married twice: from 1891 to 1895. to Isabella Mary Wells (divorced), and from 1895 to 1928. - on Amy Katherine (nicknamed Jane) Wells (nee Robbins, died of cancer), about whom he himself wrote: “I can’t imagine what I would be without her.” The second marriage produced two sons: George Philip Wells and Frank Richard Wells (1905-1982).

In 1920, Wells met Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya-Budberg. The relationship was renewed in 1933 in London, where she emigrated after breaking up with Maxim Gorky. M. Budberg's close relationship with Wells continued until the writer's death; he asked her to marry him, but she rejected this proposal.

H.G. Wells died on August 13, 1946, a little over a month before his 80th birthday, at his home on Hanover Terrace, from complications due to severe metabolic problems. In the preface to the 1941 edition of The War in the Air, Wells wrote that his epitaph should be “I warned you. You damned fools. ( I told you so. You damned fools)».

At the funeral ceremony, John Boynton Priestley named Wells “a man whose word brought light into many dark corners of life”. Wells' body was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 16 August. According to the will, Wells' sons scattered the writer's ashes over the English Channel, between the Isle of Wight and Cape St. Albans.

In honor of Wells, more than a dozen memorial plaques have been erected at sites associated with him.

Creation

The writer’s first novel was published in 1895 and was called “The Time Machine.” The novel told about the journey of an inventor into the distant future. In just 50 years of its creative activity Wells wrote about 40 novels and several volumes of stories, more than a dozen polemical works on philosophical issues and about the same number of works on the restructuring of society, two world stories, about 30 volumes with political and social forecasts, more than 30 brochures on topics about the Fabian Society, weapons, nationalism, world peace, etc., 3 books for children and an autobiography. His works have been translated into many languages ​​of the world.

Wells is considered the author of many themes popular in science fiction in subsequent years. In 1895, 10 years before Einstein and Minkowski, he announced that our reality is four-dimensional space-time (“Time Machine”). In 1898, he predicted wars using poison gases, aviation and devices like lasers (“War of the Worlds”, a little later - “When the Sleeper Awakens”, “War in the Air”). In 1905 he described a civilization of intelligent ants (“The Kingdom of Ants”). The novel The World Set Free (1914) makes reference to the Second World War, which began in the 1940s; There is also an “atomic bomb” (that’s exactly what it’s called), dropped from an airplane and based on the splitting of an atom.

In 1923, Wells was the first to introduce parallel worlds into science fiction (“Men as Gods”). The author of the writer also belongs to anti-gravity ("The First People on the Moon"), invisibility "The Invisible Man", an accelerator of the pace of life ("The Newest Accelerator") and many others.

However, all these original ideas were not an end in themselves for Wells, but rather a technical device aimed at more clearly highlighting the main, socially critical side of his works. Thus, in “The Time Machine” he warns that the continuation of an irreconcilable class struggle can lead to the complete degradation of society. In the last decades of his work, Wells completely moved away from science fiction, and his realistic works are much less popular.

Bibliography

Political Views

Wells defined his political views as socialist, although he was skeptical, wary and ambiguous about Marxist teaching, writing: “Marx was for the liberation of the working class, I stand for its destruction.” Already in the summer of 1886, spent on the farm, Wells outlined his political vision of democratic socialism in an essay initially entitled “Wells's Plan new organization society."

Wells was guided by the Fabian Society, into which he was admitted only in 1903. Even earlier, he, along with Bertrand Russell, joined the Interaction Club, created within it by Bernard Shaw and the Webbs in 1900 as a platform uniting “realistic” socialists who sought to seize the levers of power. At the same time, among the Fabians, Wells found himself in frequent conflicts, including with Bernard Shaw. Having met the aspiring politician Winston Churchill (then still a liberal, but later becoming a conservative and political opponent of Wells), he actively supported his election campaign for parliament. Then Wells was not expelled from the Fabian Society, but in 1909 he himself was forced to leave it due to an affair and an illegitimate child from a young supporter, Amber Reeves.

He stood as a candidate for the Labor Party in the London University constituency in the parliamentary elections of 1922 and 1923.

Wells mainly acted as a pacifist throughout his life. However, in 1914 he supported British participation in the war, although he subsequently wrote about the First World War as a massacre of nationalists. To prevent similar disasters in the future, he called for the creation of a world government. However, the real possibilities of the League of Nations, which failed to resist the coming new world war, disappointed Wells, who was one of the first European writers to warn about the danger of fascism in the novel “The Eve” (1927). After the Munich Agreement he nominated himself as a candidate for Nobel Prize peace of Czechoslovak President Edvard Benes.

Visits to Russia

The writer first visited Russia in 1914. He spent 2 weeks in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Wells arrived in Russia after the revolution at the invitation of L. B. Kamenev, who was visiting London as part of the Soviet delegation of L. B. Krasin. In September 1920 he had a meeting with Lenin. At this time, Wells lived in M. Gorky’s apartment in the apartment building of E. K. Barsova at 23 Kronverksky Avenue.

Wells wrote the book “Russia in the Dark” about his first visit to the Bolshevik state. In it, among other things, he described in detail his meeting with Lenin and the essence of the difference in their positions:

This topic led us to our main disagreement - the disagreement between the evolutionary collectivist and the Marxist, the question of whether social revolution with all its extremes is necessary, whether one economic system must be completely destroyed before another can be brought into operation. I believe that as a result of great and persistent educational work, the current capitalist system can become “civilized” and turn into a worldwide collectivist system, while Lenin’s worldview has long been inseparably linked with the tenets of Marxism about the inevitability of class war, the need to overthrow the capitalist system in as a precondition for the restructuring of society, the dictatorship of the proletariat, etc.

On July 23, 1934, Wells visited Russia (USSR) again and was received by Stalin. Wells wrote about this meeting:

I confess that I approached Stalin with some suspicion and prejudice. In my mind, an image was created of a very cautious, self-centered fanatic, despot, envious, suspicious monopolizer of power. I expected to meet a ruthless, cruel, doctrinaire and self-righteous Georgian mountaineer, whose spirit had never completely escaped from his native mountain valleys...

When I spoke to him about the planned world, I spoke in a language he did not understand. Listening to my proposals, he could not understand what was going on. Compared to President Roosevelt, he was very poorly endowed with the ability to quickly react, and there was no trace of the cunning, sly tenacity that distinguished Lenin. Lenin was thoroughly imbued with Marxist phraseology, but he had complete control over this phraseology, could give it new meanings, and use it for his own purposes. Stalin's mind was trained to almost the same extent, nurtured on the doctrines of Lenin and Marx, as those minds of the British diplomatic service about whom I have already written so many unkind words were nurtured by governesses. His ability to adapt is also low. The process of intellectual equipment for him stopped at the point that Lenin reached when he modified Marxism. This mind does not possess either the free impulsiveness or the organization of a scientist; he went through a good Marxist-Leninist school... I have never met a more sincere, decent and honest person; there is nothing dark and sinister about him, and it is these qualities that should explain his enormous power in Russia

I expected to see a Russia stirring in its sleep, a Russia ready to awaken and acquire citizenship in the World State, but it turned out that it was sinking deeper and deeper into the intoxicating dreams of Soviet self-sufficiency. It turned out that Stalin's imagination was hopelessly limited and driven into a well-trodden channel; that the ex-radical Gorky has become remarkably accustomed to the role of the ruler of Russian thoughts... For me, Russia has always possessed some special charm, and now I bitterly lament that this great country is moving towards new system lies, how a lover laments when his beloved moves away...

Criticism

Mr. Wells gives the impression of a man who, while walking through the garden, would say: “I don’t like that fruit tree. It bears fruit not in the best way, does not shine with perfection of forms. Let’s cut it down and try to grow another, better tree in this place.” Is this what the British people expect from their genius? It would be much more natural to hear him say: “I don’t like this tree. Let's try to improve its viability without causing damage to the trunk. Maybe we can make it grow and bear fruit the way we would like it to. But let’s not destroy it, because then all past labors will be in vain, and it’s still unknown what we will get in the future.”

A. Conan Doyle, 1912.

Years of life: from 09/21/1866 to 08/13/1946

Herbert Wells was born in the London suburb of Bromley (Kent). His father, Joseph Wells, and mother, Sarah Neal, were former gardeners and maids on a wealthy estate, and later owned a small china shop. However, the trade brought in almost no income, and basically the family lived on the money that the father, being a professional cricketer, earned from playing.

When the boy was eight years old, he was “lucky,” as he himself put it, to break his leg. It was then that he became addicted to reading. At the same age, H.G. Wells entered Mr. Thomas Morley's Commercial Academy, which was supposed to prepare him for the profession of a merchant. However, when Herbert turned thirteen, his father broke his leg and cricket was over. The training was considered completed, and Herbert had to begin an independent life.

He was educated at King's College, University of London, graduating in 1888. It was at Teachers College that Wells studied with the famous biologist Thomas Huxley, who had a strong influence on him. " Science fiction Wells (though he never called it that) was clearly influenced by his studies at Teachers College and the interests he developed in biology. By 1891 he received two academic titles in biology, and from 1942 he became a doctor of biology.

After an apprenticeship with a textile merchant and work in a pharmacy, he became a school teacher, a teacher of exact sciences, and an assistant to Thomas Huxley. In 1893 he became a professional journalist.

In 1895, Wells wrote his first work of fiction, the novel The Time Machine, about an inventor's journey into the distant future.

From 1903 to 1909, Wells was a member of the Fabian Society, which advocated caution and gradualism in politics, science and public life.

Wells lived in London and the Riviera, gave frequent lectures and traveled widely.

In 1917 he was a member of the Study Committee of the League of Nations and published several books on world organization. Although Wells had many doubts about the Soviet system, he understood the broad goals of the Russian Revolution, and had a rather pleasant meeting with Lenin in 1920. In the early 1920s, Wells was a Labor candidate for Parliament. Between 1924 and 1933 Welles lived mainly in France. From 1934 to 1946 he was international president of PEN. In 1934 he held conversations with Stalin and Roosevelt. Wells was convinced that Western socialists could not compromise with communism, and that the best hope for the future lay in Washington. In his book The Holy Terror, Wells described psychological development modern dictator, illustrated by the careers of Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler.

His last book"A Mind on the Edge" expressed pessimism about the future prospects of humanity.

For creative life Wells wrote about 40 novels and several volumes of stories, more than a dozen polemical works on philosophical issues and about the same number of works on the restructuring of society, two world histories, about 30 volumes with political and social forecasts, more than 30 brochures on topics about the Fabian Society, weapons, nationalism, world peace, etc., 3 books for children and an autobiography.

Died in London on August 13, 1946. According to the will, after cremation, the two sons, while on the Isle of Wight, scattered the writer’s ashes over the English Channel.

He was married twice: from 1891 to 1895 to Isabella Mary Wells, and from 1895 to 1927 to Amy Catherine (Jane) Robbins. The second marriage produced both sons: George Philip Wells and Frank Richard Wells.

H.G. Wells visited Russia three times. The first time was in 1914, then he stayed at the St. Petersburg Astoria Hotel on Morskaya Street, 39. The second time, in September 1920, he had a meeting with Lenin. At this time, Wells lived in M. Gorky’s apartment in the apartment building of E. K. Barsova at 23 Kronverksky Avenue.

After this visit, the book “Russia in the Dark” was published.

On July 23, 1934, Wells met with Stalin. About the meeting with I.V. Stalin Herbert Wells wrote: “I confess that I approached Stalin with some suspicion and prejudice. In my mind, an image was created of a very cautious, self-centered fanatic, despot, envious, suspicious monopolizer of power. I expected to meet a ruthless, cruel doctrinaire and self-righteous Georgian mountaineer, whose spirit had never completely escaped from his native mountain valleys... All vague rumors, all suspicions ceased to exist for me forever, after I talked with him for a few minutes. I have never met a more sincere, decent and honest person; there is nothing dark or sinister about him, and it is these qualities that should explain his enormous power in Russia.”

Wells lived throughout the Second World War in his Regent's Park, refusing to leave London, even during the bombing.

At the funeral ceremony, John Boynton Priestley called Wells "a man whose words brought light into many dark corners of life."

Bibliography

Science fiction novels

- (1895)
- A Wonderful Visit (1895)
- (1896)
- (1897)
- (1898)
- (1899)
- (1901)
- Sea Maiden (1902)
- (1904)
- (Prophecy of the Golden Age) (1906)
- War in the Air (1908)
- World Liberated (1914)
- (1923)
- Mr Blettsworthy on Rampole Island (1928)
- (The Guns Are Talking, The Autocracy of Mr. Parham) (1930)
- The Shape of Things to Come (1935)
- Croquet Player (1936)
- Born of a Star (1937)

Realistic, everyday novels

- (1896)
- (1900)
- Epiphanies (1902)
- (1905)
- (1905)
- Anna Veronica (1909)
- Tono-Bengue (1909)
- (1910)
- The New Machiavelli (1911)
- Marriage (1912)
- Passionate Friendship (1913)
- Sir Isaac Harman's Wife (1914)
- Sought Splendor (1915)
- Belby (1915)
- The Insight of Mr. Britling (1916)
- God is the invisible king (1917)
- Soul of a Bishop (1917)
- Joan and Peter (1918)
- (1919)
- The World of William Clissold (1926)
- Waiting (1927)
- Legal Conspiracy (1928)
- Brunnhilde (1937)
- Speaking of Dolores (1939)
- God's Punishment (1939)
- Caution Required (1941)

Philosophical works

- (1896)
- Morals and Civilization (1897)
- New world for the old (1908)
- First and Last (1908)
- An Englishman Looks at the World (1914)
- Washington and the Hope of the World (1922)
- What are we doing with our lives? (1931)
- Labor, wealth and happiness of the human race (1932)
- After Democracy (1932)
- Anatomy of Disappointment (1936)
- Man's Destiny (1939)
- New World Order (1939)
- Conquest of Time (1942)
- Prospects for Homo sapiens (1942)
- New Human Rights (1942)
- Mind at the Edge of Its Tight Rein (1945)

Film scripts

- King by Right (1929)
- The Shape of Things to Come (1935)
- New Faust (1936)
- The Miracle Worker (1936)

Autobiographical works

- (1920)
- (1934)
- Contemporary memoirs ["42 to "44: A Contemporary Memoir] (1944)
- Postscript to The Experience of Autobiography (1984)

Novels and stories

1884 A Family Elopement
1887 A Tale of the Twentieth Century. For those who can think
1888 Argonauts of Time
1888 The Devotee Of Art
1893 The Flying Man
1894 Ostriches under the hammer [A Deal in Ostriches]
1894 A Misunderstood Artist
1894 Epiornis Island
1894 How Gabriel Became Thompson
1894
1894 In a modern spirit: a story with a sad ending
1894 The Man Who Made Diamonds
1894 The Final Men
1894
1894 Hammerpond Park Robbery
1894 Rod di Sorno
1894 What writers eat
1894
1894 The Man With A Nose
1894 Stolen bacillus
1894 The Thing In No. 7
1894 The Thumbmark
1894
1894 Triumph of the Scarecrow
1894 At the window
1895 Disaster
1895
1895 How Pingwell Was Routed
1895 Le Marie Terrible
1895 Our Little Neighbor
1895 Porro Sorcerer
1895 Balloonists
1895 (Into the furnace, Above the mouth of the blast furnace)
1895 The Reconciliation
1895 The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes
1895 The Sad Story of a Theater Critic
1895 The Temptation of Harringay
1895 Wayde's Essence
1896
1896 In the abyss
1896 Apple
1896
1896
1896 The Rajah's Treasure
1896
1896
1896
1897 A Perfect Gentleman On Wheels
1897
1897 Mr Marshall's Doppelganger
1897 Crystal Egg
1897 The Ghost of Fear
1897 (Jen's Heart Fermentation, The Abandoned Bride)
1897 Lost inheritance
1897 The Presence By The Fire
1897 Star
1898
1898
1898 Mr. Ledbetter's Holiday
1898 Miracle Worker
1898 Stolen body
1898 Walcote
1899 A Tale of Days to Come
1899 Vision Last Judgment
1899 Mr. Breasher's treasure
1901
1901 Epiphanies
1901 Filmer
1901 Mr Skelmersdale in Fairyland
1901 Newest accelerator
1902 Inexperienced Ghost
1902 The Loyalty Of Esau Common
1903 Earth battleships
1903 Magic Shop
1903 The Truth About Pycraft
1903
1904 Country of the Blind
1905
1906 Door in the wall
1907 Shoe Misfortune
1909
1910 Mommy's Ascent to Death Peak
1910 Great Lark
1915 The Story of the Trumpet
1915 Herd of donkeys
1925 Pearl of Love
1929 Amazing gift
1932 The Strange Adventure of Mr Brownlow
1937 Answer To Prayer

Articles

1908 Creatures that live on Mars
1908 Preface to the first collected works
1910 Preface to George Meek's book "George Meek - Water Orderly"
1913 Socialism and family
1914 About Chesterton and Belloc
1914 About Sir Thomas More
1914 About some possible discoveries
1914 Century of Specialization
1914 Modern Novel
1914 Adventure of Mankind
1914 Ideal Citizen
1914 Disease of Parliaments
1914 So-called sociological science
1922 Unknown Soldier great war
1922 What lasting peace means for humanity
1924 Open letter to Anatole France on his eightieth birthday
1939 Mr. Lyons defends Hitler, the head of a great friendly power, from my “attacks”
1939 Democracy in Patches
1939 With the report “The Poison Called History,” the Traveler again challenges his old friends, teachers, to a debate
1941 All aboard, sailing to Ararat
1941 God Dollar
1941 The Ugly Side of America
1941 Spanish mystery
1942 Science and the World public opinion
1942 Conquest of Time
1945 Detailed history one literary swindler

Other works

1894 Apartment hunting as a sport
1894 Code of Curses
1895 About intelligence and cleverness
1895 Reflections on Cheapness and Aunt Charlotte
1902 Discovering the future
1905
1906 America's Future
1910 Games on the floor
1913 Socialism and the middle class
1913 Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys" games and books (Little Wars)
1914 War against war
1916 What awaits us? About the post-war world structure
1920
1921 Saving civilization
1922
1928 Legal conspiracy
1930 Science of Life
1931 Labor, wealth and happiness of the human race
1940 New World Order
1984 Wells in Love

Film adaptations of works, theatrical performances

1919 - The first men on the moon, directed by Bruce Gordon
1932 - Island of Lost Souls, directed by Earl Canton
1933 - The Invisible Man, directed by James Whale
1936 - The Shape of Things to Come, directed by William Cameron Menzies
1953 - War of the Worlds, directed by Byron Haskin
1960 - The Time Machine, directed by George Pal
1964 - The first men on the moon, directed by Nathan Juran
1976 - Food of the Gods
1977 - The Island of Doctor Moreau, directed by Don Taylor
1979 - Journey in the Time Machine, directed by Nicholas Meyer
1984 - The Invisible Man, director Alexander Zakharov
1989 - Food of the Gods 2
1996 - The Island of Doctor Moreau, directed by John Frankenheimer and Richard Stanley
2002 - The Time Machine, directed by Simon Wells
2005 - War of the Worlds, directed by Steven Spielberg