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TIME MACHINE by William J. Boerst

TIME MACHINE

The Story of H.G. Wells

by William J. Boerst

Pub Date: Oct. 5th, 1999
ISBN: 1-883846-40-4

Boerst’s biography will surprise readers familiar with Wells’s tales of adventure and war. This spirited, original novelist was “argumentative in nature, often allowing his temper to interfere with clear thinking.” His life was fraught with sexual escapades, and he had an overriding dedication to the creation of a one-world government and the propagation of socialist policies. Grossly unproductive as a draper’s apprentice, he turned to the world of academics, but his rebellious nature and outspoken preference for socialism led to his expulsion. Wells then developed a writing routine that resulted in countless novels about natural science, ecology, history, philosophy, religion, sexuality and morality, socialism, and wars. His goal was “to convince people to act and think in new ways”; to that end he often purposefully inserted a strong and radical social message in his work to shake up the old order. Boerst offers a glimpse into his subject’s scandalous private life and his controversial social philosophies, while numerous black-and-white photographs of Wells’s lovers are testament to his belief in open marriage, and the annotated bibliography eloquently demonstrates his vision. (chronology, glossary, bibliography, index) (Biography. 12-14)