Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-10-07
new STORY BEGINS
ON PAGE seven

ON PAGE seven
Novelist Described Them In
1.-THE World Set Free"
He 0UT00ES JULES VERNE.
ima0ininss Of Frenchman Surpassed
by Scientific Novels Of Brilliant Eng
lish Writer-Has Solid Foundation
Of knowledge For His Scanning Of
tho Future and His Prophecies Of tho
Workings Of Social Forces and lnven.
tive Genius-Life In Al Ito Phases
Interests Him Enormously, He
Writes In Sketch Of Himself.
ERBERT GEORGE WELLS,
p the British nOvelist-prophet,
foresaw with wonderful exact.
ness some Of the events Of the
great European war and described
them In his book. 1.-The World Set
Free" published before the outbreak
| Of the war. 1t is trite and not quite
exact to call him 1.-The English Jules
Verne," for he goes beyond the French
romancer in the exact quality Of bis
scientific imaginings. Verne foretold
some Of the present day inventions,
such as the submarine and the aero
plane. Wells performs a more difficult
feat He predicts with amazing accur-
racy the play Of social forces as well
as the progress Of invention and does
it all with such literary skill and air
Of verisimilitude that the reader Is car
r1ed along as by the recital Of actual
| events.
Herbert George Wells is one Of the
most modest, retiring writer's of the
day. which quite likely accounts for
the fact that his name publicly has
never got beyond that shrunken 81. g.
Wells. Indeed, Wells frequently does
not sign his name at all to business
letters, letting the stamped address on
his stationery suffice.
| Wells owes his career to a hemOr-
rhage Of the lungs, without which he
would now probably be professor of
biology. He was born about forty
seven years ago at Bromley, Kent, in
the south of England, and at an early
age showed desire for scientific
study. He studied at the Royal College
Of Science, took the degree Of B. Sc. ut
the University Of London and for sew
eral years taught biology at the Uni
versity Tutorial college in Red Lion
square. He wrote a textbook on BIZ
ology which attracted so much atten.
ton that it was even translated into
Chinese.
Made Writer by illness.
It seemed that his life work was
mapped out along definite lines when
suddenly came a severe hemorrhage.
He recognized its warning and knew
that he must give up, at least for a
time, his educational work and seek
something entirely sedentary. He be.
gan writing articles for various Lon.
don newspapers, and his work at
tracted the attention of h. B. Marriott
Watson. Through Mr.. Watson he
made the acquaintance Of w. e. Hen
ley, who was glad to advise and help
him toward literary future. Soon he
began to write books, achieving success
in more varying directions than per-
haps any other English writer. The
reading public has not yet recovered
from Amusement at the latitude of his
themes and methods and his complete
mastery over each.
He is not, however, a creature of
moods and shifting personalities. He is
made up Of many separate characters
within himself, and it is the develop
ment Of each Of these that has com
} bined to make the great Wells Of to-
day master exponent of liberalism
in its broadcast sense His zest is to
study and analyze all the tendencies
of the time, and he reveals all of them
illuminatingly, crisply and tolerantly.
His present personality compactly dis.
plays all those varying, individual per-
sonalities which he first, when develop.
ing and assembling his strength, dis.
played one by one.
| Nearly twenty years ago, in his 'Se
Iect Conversations With an Uncle" he
displayed an inventive talent. but the
discursive little sketches were limited
and affected.
His "Scientific" Stories.
This inventive talent was shown In
much more perfected degree and form
in his following scientific" stories
1.-THE First Men In the Moon" 1.-THE
Time Machine" "Dr. Moreau's Island
But there was nothing as yet creative
tnspirational or imaginative in them
Wells was just clever workman
manufacturing his stories piecemea
out Of the storehouse Of his special
and acquired knowledge He was un
deniably clever at his job. much clev.
erer than Jules Verne had been be
fore him, but he as yet evinced nc
sign Of the "divine spark" the rea
creative gift which is based on imagf
:. nation.
The first suggestion of this quality
came with his 1.-THE Wonderful VISIT
? and later developing with his 1.-THE
Good Of the Gods" Then in. 'Kipps'
be showed that he could create real
3 living. throbbing segment of life. genu