The First Men in the Moon, H. Wells [latest books to read .TXT] 📗

A chronology of H. G. Wells

1866(21 September) Herbert George Wells born in Bromley, Kent.1869Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy.1870Elementary Education Act, providing compulsory education for all children 5–13 years old.1871Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man; Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Coming Race. The Paris Commune: revolutionary period, ending in destruction and massacre.1872Samuel Butler, Erewhon.1874–80HGW pupil at Morley’s Academy, Bromley.1877Injury to father leaves Wells family in sudden poverty.1880HGW apprenticed to Rodgers and Benyer, Drapers, for a month’s trial after which he is dismissed; his mother takes position as resident housekeeper, Uppark. Ray Lankester’s lecture Degeneration: A Chapter in Darwinism a big influence on HGW’s biological thought.1881Attends Alfred Williams School, then Midhurst Grammar School; apprenticed to Hyde’s Drapery Emporium in Southsea.1882Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.1883HGW’s indentures cancelled.1884Wins scholarship to Normal School of Science in South Kensington, where T. H. Huxley is dean.1885Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde; Richard Jefferies, After London.1886HGW matriculates. Attends socialist meetings at home of William Morris. Founds and edits Science School Journal. Charles Howard Hinton, Scientific Romances. Colonial and Indian Exhibition held opposite Normal School of Science.1887HGW’s first published work in Science Schools Journal. Fails geology exam at Normal School, so loses scholarship; teaches at Holt Academy in Wales. Severely injured in accident during football match, resulting in lung haemorrhage which forces him to convalesce. Edward Bellamy, Looking Backwards, influential utopian fiction; Gaspar Enrique, The Time Ship, Spanish novel featuring time machine. (13 November) ‘Bloody Sunday’ riots in London, following police charge on marchers in Trafalgar Square.1888HGW returns to London; teaches at Henley House School. Publishes three parts of ‘The Chronic Argonauts’ in Science Schools Journal, which is the unfinished first version of The Time Machine.1889Mark Twain’s time travel satire A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court; Elizabeth Corbett, New Amazonia, feminist utopia. London Dock Strike.1890HGW passes Bachelor of Science exams and is awarded University of London degree. Elected Fellow of the Zoological Society. William Morris, News from Nowhere, socialist utopia written as riposte to Bellamy. William Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out.1891Tutor for University Tutorial College; publishes essay ‘The Rediscovery of the Unique’ in Fortnightly Review, his first major publication. Marries cousin Isabel Wells. Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray.1892Max Nordau, Degeneration.1893Recurrence of lung haemorrhage. Publishes A Text Book of Biology, his first book. Career as professional journalist begins. T. H. Huxley, Evolution and Ethics; Robert Blatchford’s political vision Merrie England, hugely influential in popularizing socialist ideas; George Griffith’s novel about futuristic war in London, Angel of the Revolution. Gilbert and Sullivan’s satirical Utopia, Limited operetta opens.1894HGW elopes with Amy Catherine Robbins (‘Jane’). Seven episodes of ‘The Time Machine’ published by W. E. Henley in National Observer. Writes as journalist for Pall Mall Gazette, and for the Saturday Review under Frank Harris’s editorship. Publishes ‘Popularising Science’ in Nature. Camille Flammarion, Omega: The Last Days of the World.1895( January–May) The Time Machine serialized in New Review, again edited by Henley; HGW declared ‘a man of genius’ by leading journalist W. T. Stead. Meets G. B. Shaw on opening night of Henry James’s play, Guy Domville. (May) The Time Machine issued. Also publishes Select Conversations with an Uncle; The Wonderful Visit; The Stolen Bacillus. (April–May) Arrest and prosecution of Oscar Wilde. Decadent movement in retreat. Max Nordau’s Degeneration; Grant Allen’s The British Barbarians: A Hill-Top Novel.1896The Island of Doctor Moreau; The Wheels of Chance. Meets novelist George Gissing.1897The Invisible Man; The Plattner Story; Thirty Strange Stories; The Star; Certain Personal Matters. Begins friendship with Arnold Bennett. Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee.1898The War of the Worlds. Suffers from lung damage again; recovering on south coast, meets Henry James and Joseph Conrad. Also travels to Italy, where stays with Gissing. Dislikes Rome intensely.1899When the Sleeper Wakes; Tales of Space and Time.1900House designed and built for HGW at Sandgate in Kent where he becomes near neighbour of Henry James. Love and Mr Lewisham.1901Anticipations, HGW’s speculations on the year 2000. Rediscovers Mendel’s theory of ‘genetics’. First Men in the Moon, the last of his early scientific romances. Birth of first son.1902Lecture ‘The Discovery of the Future’ at Royal Institution.1903Joins Fabian Society. Birth of second son.1904The Food of the Gods.1905Kipps; A Modern Utopia. Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity.1906In the Days of the Comet; The Future in America. Affairs with Dorothy Richardson, Rosamund Bland, Amber Reeves.1908First and Last Things; The War in the Air; New Worlds for Old. Resigns from the Fabian Society after dispute with G. B. Shaw.1909Tono-Bungay; Ann Veronica, HGW’s transparently autobiographical account of relationship with Amber Reeves, who gives birth to their daughter Anna-Jane at the end of the year. E. M. Forster publishes ‘The Machine Stops’, an anti-Wellsian dystopia.1910The History of Mr Polly. Affair with Elizabeth von Arnim.1911The New Machiavelli.1912Marriage. Essay ‘The Contemporary Novel’ for Atlantic Monthly.1914Birth of son Anthony, from affair with Rebecca West. Publishes The World Set Free, which predicts the invention of the atomic bomb (and became the inspiration for the physicist Leo Szilard). Henry James criticizes HGW in essay ‘The Younger Generation’. Great War begins after assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.1915Boon contains HGW’s savage parody of Henry James, which ends their friendship.1916Visits western front; publishes Mr Britling Sees It Through and What Is Coming?1917HGW has brief Christian phase. Writes positive review for Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Russian Revolution.1918Joins Ministry of Information. Vote given to women over 30.1919Joins committee to set up League of Nations and contributes to The Idea of a League of Nations; advocates world government. Publishes his controversial but bestselling Outline of History.1920Visits Russia and meets Lenin, Trotsky, and Maxim Gorky.1921Affair with Margaret Sanger. Red Army victory in Russian Civil War.1922A Short History of the World. Mussolini in power in Italy.1923Men Like Gods and The Dream. Affair with Odette Keun. Virginia Woolf’s essay ‘Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown’ famously attacks the novels of Bennett and Wells.1924The Atlantic Edition of his works published: substantially reworks The Time Machine. Zamyatin’s Russian