Herbert George Wells was an extraordinary and unique man of British letters, perhaps best known today as a science-fiction writer, but prolific in publishing fiction, history, political and social commentary, and biography.

During his lifetime, however, he was most known for being what today would be termed a ‘futurist’, with his analyses and prognostications. Wells rendered his works convincing by instilling commonplace detail alongside a single extraordinary assumption per work – dubbed “Wells’s law” – leading Joseph Conrad to hail him in 1898 as “O Realist of the Fantastic!”

by George Charles Beresford, black and white glossy print, 1920
by George Charles Beresford, black and white glossy print, 1920