The World Set Free

This chilling, futuristic novel, written in 1913 and first published the following year, was incredibly prophetic on a major scale. Wells was a genius and visionary, as demonstrated by many of his other works, but this book is clearly one of his best. He predicts nuclear warfare years before research began and describes the chain reactions involved and the resulting radiation. He describes a weapon of enormous destructive power, used from the air that would wipe out everything for miles, and actually used the term "atomic bombs." This book may have been at least part of the original inspiration for the development of atomic weapons, as well as presenting many other ideas that would ultimately come to pass. Some ideas may still be coming, including a one-world government referred to as The World Republic, that will attempt to end all wars.

Born in 1866 in Bromley, England, to a poor family, Herbert George Wells began as an apprentice at the age of 14, but educated himself on his own, received a scholarship (1884), and specialized in biology at the University of London, from which he graduated in 1888. Having become a teacher, but still without money, he will ask journalism for additional resources. His first book is a work of biology, his second a novel: La Machine à explorer le temps (1895), which was an immediate success. One of the pioneers, with Jules Verne, of the novel of anticipation, Wells is also a polemist, believing in progress through science. These trends are reflected throughout a work that includes nearly 50 novels, tales, short stories and essays. H. G. Wells died in London on August 13, 1946.