Norwich bulletin., 1922-04-15
FAMOUS MEN.
JULES VERNE

During the second. half of the past century no novelist was more read than Jules Verne, the French writer of descriptive fiction. Verne had a long literary career. Born in 1928, be- fore the age of twenty he had writ ten number of libfettes for operas and at the age of twetity-two he had written a play of such merit that is was produced at the Paris Gymnase.
 About the middle of the last cen
 tury was the great age of invention, and Verne utilized this enthusiasm to
 conceive number of imaginary Voy-
 ages, a trip to the moon, twenty thou sand leagues under the sea, to the cen ter of the earth, etc. The first of these rofnances was written in 1862, and was published in Hetzers Magazine of Education Thence forward for a quarter of a century scarcely year passed in which Hetze1 did not pub fish one or more of his fantastic sto- ries, illustrated generally by pictures of the most lurid and sensational de- scription.
 These novels were so well written and became so popular that they were 1 translated in the various European [ languages; and some even into Japan
 sse and Arabic. The last of these sto- l ries, written when Verne was sixty
 years of age, was Hector Servadac,
 a romance of existance upon comet. After this the writer's invention began
 to show signs of fatigue. He then turn ed his attention to a different style of fiction, and wrote his popular ''The {, Southern Star and "The Carpathian 1 Chateau when he was we'll past his sixtieth year. He lived to the advanced oE " Q France, on March 24, 1905.
 |, Jules Verne was industrious with his pen up to within a very short time of his death. He was always extreme ly popular in society and during the last five years of his life he divided his time for the most part between
 Paris, his home at Amiens and his yacht. He was a member of the Le- a gien of Honor and a number of his
 romanees were crowned by the French
 Academy.
 Verne, on account of his wonderful imagination; as revealed in his sto-
 ries, was given the title of the ''Wizar6 of France And it is not strange, 1T , view of his family history, that tht eldest of his brothers, who died in 199: , had attained the advanced age of 110 i During his lifetime Jules Verne
 wrote more than 100 novels, althougf at the time of his death but eighty : four of them had been published, i 5 having been his habit to write then , far ahead of the printer, and even t } construct plots in his mind far aheaC I of his own industrious pen. His story 'Jean Marie Cabionlin," was writer after he had passed seventy-five year : of age.
 < The great disappointment in Verne v life was that he failed of election t : one of the forty Aeademicians 0 France. They claimed. that his work e were mot literature and it bitterl s disappointed the old man, especiRll T as he knew what careful workfnanshi e he bestowed on his novels, sometime d rewriting one book ten times. T The last few years of his life h y was nearly blind, but he did not whel s lv surrender to the affiction and con c tinued to, write his novels. in thei q themes keeping sefnpalously abreas : with up-to date discoveries. The las
 year he lived he had laid plains t
 make up a series Of ronanees on bus 5 mess fife. with the intricate intrigue $ of syndicates, trusts, combination Q and gigantic deals. but he was nc
 destined to even begin this task,