Born on this day – H. G. Wells:

H. G. Wells

Writer

September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946

Credits:

Books, short stories and screenplays:

30 Eternal Masterpieces of Humorous Stories (2019); 30 Occult & Supernatural Masterpieces You Have to Read Before You Die (2019); 50 Great Short Stories (1952); A Dream of Armageddon (1901); A Modern Utopia (1905); A Modern Utopia and Other Discussions (1925); A Short History of the World (1922); A Story Of The Days To Come (1897); A Vision of Judgment (2022); A Volume of Journalism (1999); Adventure Stories for Boys and Girls (1985); Aepyornis Island (2022); Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Bar The Doors (1946); All Aboard for Ararat (1940); Amazing Stories, February 1929 (2014); An Englishman Looks at the World (1914); Ann Veronica (1909); Anticipations (1901); Apropos of Dolores (1938); Autocracy of Mr. Parham (1930); Babes in the Darkling Wood (1940); Bealby: A Holiday (1915); Boon (1915); Boon, the Mind of the Race (1915); Brynhild (1937); Bulpington of Blup (1930); Certain Personal Matters (1897); Christina Alberta's Father (1925); Classic Martian Stories (2014); Classic Tales of Horror (2020); Collected Short Stories (2008); Contact: Stories of the New World (2013); Crux Ansata (1943); Early Writings in Science and Science Fiction (1975); Elements of Reconstruction (1916); Experiment in Autobiography (1934); Experiment in Autobiography, Vol. 2 (1984); First and Last Things (1908); Floor Games (1911); Frank Swinnerton (1975); God the Invisible King (1917); Great Classic Science Fiction (2010); Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror (1931); H.G. Wells in Love (1934); In the Days of the Comet & Seventeen Short Stories (1999); In the Days of the Comet (1906); In The Fourth Year (1918); Interviews and Recollections (1981); Joan and Peter: A Story of an Education (1918); Kipps (1905); Little Wars (1913); Little Wars and Floor Games (2006); Lost Mars (2018); Love and Mr. Lewisham (1899); Mankind in the Making (1903); Marriage (1912); Meanwhile the Picture of a Lady (1927); Men Like Gods (1923); Mind at the End of Its Tether (1945); Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island (1928); Mr. Britling Sees It Through (1916); Mr. Ledbetter's Vacation (1898); Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland (1903); Mysterious Sea Stories (1987); New Worlds for Old (1908); Over the Rainbow (1983); Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1979); Science Fiction Stories (1988); Select Conversations with an Uncle (Now Extinct) and Two Other Reminiscences (1895); Star Begotten (1937); Tainted: Tales of Terror and the Supernatural (2008); Tales of Space and Time (1899); Tales of the Occult (1989); Tales of the Weird and Supernatural (2011); Tales of Wonder (1910); The Argonauts of the Air & 15 Short Stories (2015); The Best Crime Stories Ever Told (2002); The Best Short Stories of H.G. Wells (2015); The Brothers (1938); The Camford Visitation (1937); The Campfire Collection (2003); The Chronic Argonauts (1888); The Complete Short Stories (1927); The Conquest of Time (1942); The Conquest of Time and The Happy Turning (2002); The Correspondence of H G Wells, Vol. 2 (1997); The Correspondence of H G Wells, Vol. 3 (1997); The Correspondence of H G Wells, Vol. 4 (1997); The Correspondence of H.G. Wells (1996); The Country of the Blind and Other Selected Stories (1909); The Croquet Player (1936); The Crystal Egg (1897); The Crystal Egg and Other Tales (1897); The Desert Daisy (1957); The Discovery of the Future (1902); The Door in the Wall (1906); The Door in the Wall? And Other Stories (2017); The Dream (1924); The Empire of the Ants and Other Stories (1977); The Fate of Homo Sapiens / The Fate of Man (1939); The First Men in the Moon (1901); The Flowering of the Strange Orchid (1894); The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth (1904); The Future in America (1906); The Grisly Folk, and the Wild Asses of the Devil (2008); The History of Mr Polly (1910); The Holy Terror (1939); The Invisible Man (1897); The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896); The King Who Was a King (1929); The Magic Shop (1903); The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1898); The Man With a Nose (1984); The Martian Invasion of Earth (1898); The Moth and Other Stories (1962); The New Accelerator (2017); The New Machiavelli (1911); The New World Order (1939); The Obliterated Man (2022); The Outline of History (1919); The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales (1993); The Passionate Friends (1913); The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories (1984); The Plattner Story (1896); The Plattner Story and Others (1897); The Pocket Book of Mystery Stories (1941); The Red Room and Other Stories (2000); The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes / The Story of Davidson's Eyes (1895); The Research Magnificent (1915); The Salvaging of Civiization (1921); The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume II A (1973); The Science of Life (1929); The Sea Lady (1902); The Sea-Raiders (1897); The Secret Places of the Heart (1922); The Shape of Things to Come (1933); The Sixth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (1970); The Sleeper Awakes (1911); The Soul of a Bishop (1917); The Star (1897); The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents (1896); The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost (1902); The Time Machine (1895); The Time Traveler's Almanac (2013); The Treasure in the Forest (1894); The Triumphs of a Taxidermist (1894); The Undying Fire (1919); The Valley of Spiders (1903); The War in the Air (1908); The War of the Worlds (1898); The War of the Worlds: Fresh Perspectives (2005); The Wealth of Mr. Waddy (1969); The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction (2010); The Wheels of Chance (1896); The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914); The Wonderful Visit (1895); The World of William Clissold (1926); The World Set Free (1914); Thirty Strange Stories (1897); This Misery of Boots (1907); Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow... (1974); Tono-Bungay (1909); Twelve Stories and a Dream (1906); Ugh-Lomi and the Cave Bear (2016); Under the Knife (2022); War and the Future / Italy, France and Britain at War (1917); War Stories (1987); Washington and the Riddle of Peace / Washington and the Hope of Peace (1922); What is Coming? (1916); When the Sleeper Wakes / The Sleeper Awakes (1899); World Brain (1938); World's Great Mystery Stories (1943); You Can't Be Too Careful (1941).

Album:

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds (1978).

Movies and television:

A Brief History of Time Travel (2018); A Trip to the Moon (1902); Actor's Studio (1948); Alien Conquest (2021); Ancient Aliens (2022); Ann Veronica (1964); Armchair Theatre (1957); BBC Play of the Month (1966); BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950–1952); BBC: The Voice of Britain (1935); Blue Bottles (1928); Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951); Chapter 9 (2019); Charmed Lives: A Family Romance (2024); Christmas Tales (1990–1991); Cineficción Radio (2019); Das Land der Blinden oder Von einem der auszog (1976); Day-Dreams (1928); Dead of Night (1945); Deadly Tales (1998); Deadly Tales / Segment: Crystal Glazing (1998); Dr. Jekyll Meets the Invisible Man (1977); Dr. Moreau (2022); Empire of the Ants (1977); Endgame (2007); First Men in the Moon (1964); First Men on the Moon (2019); First Person (1960); Gemini Man (1976); Google and the World Brain (2013); Görünmeyen adam Istanbul'da (1955); H.G. Wells Comedies (1928); H.G. Wells: The Father of Science Fiction (2005); H.G. Wells's the Country of the Blind (2014); Half a Sixpence (1967); Have You Got Any Castles? (1938); History's Mysteries (1999); How to Become a Tyrant (2021); How to Lose Weight (1986); Il giustiziere invisibile (1916); In Search of... (1982); Invisible Agent (1942); Island of Lost Souls (1932); Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of the Worlds: Minigame Adventure / Video Game (2011); Jeff Wayne's the War of the Worlds (1998); Kipps (1921 / 1960); La cometa Naranja (1974); La femme invisible (2011); La merveilleuse visite (1974); La Venere d'Ille (1981); Let's Make a Musical (1977); Love and Mr Lewisham (1959 / 1972); Marriage (1927); Matinee Theatre (1957); Miss Winchelsea's Heart (2023); Mr. Paracelsus, Who Are You? (1966); Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland (2023); Mutant League Football (1993); NASA's Unexplained Files (2019); Night of the Invisible Man (2009); Nová metoda malíre Smithe (1973); O Contador de Histórias (1955); Out of Place Podcast (2020); Overlap (2006); Parlez-moi de Vous (2023); Post Tenebras Lux (2017); Prophets of Science Fiction (2006); Riding with Death (1976); Siesta Z (2017); Spine Chillers (1980); Suspense (1963); Tales of Tomorrow (1951); Television Theater (1957); Terror Is a Man (1959); The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1964); The Battle of Grovers Mill (2024); The Beautiful Suit by H.G. Wells (2022); The Button (1982); The Complete Citizen Kane (1991); The Door (2011); The Door in the Wall (1956 / 1990); The DuPont Show of the Week (1962); The Empire Strikes Door (2019); The Erotic Time Machine (2002); The Final Redpill (2022); The First Men in the Moon (1919 / 1997 / 2010); The Food of the Gods (1976); The Golden Twenties (1950); The Greatest Canadian (2004); The History of Mr Polly (2007 / 1949 / 1959 / 1980); The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells (2001); The Invisible Man (1933 / 1975 / 1984 / 1985 / 1998 / 2000 / 2015 / 2020); The Invisible Man / TV Series (1958–1959); The Invisible Man Returns (1940); The Invisible Man's Revenge (1944); The Invisible Thief (1909); The Island of Doctor Agor (1971); The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977 / 1996); The Island of the Lost (1921); The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003); The Magic Shop (1980 / 1982); The Magic Shop by H.G. Wells (2022); The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936); The Man Who Knew How to Work Miracles (1969); The New Adventures of the Time Machine (2000); The Nightmare Worlds of H.G. Wells (2016); The Passionate Friends (1922); The Passionate Friends (1949); The Red Room / Podcast Series (2024); The Red Room: A H.G. Wells Adaptation (2023); The Remarkable Mr. Kipps (1941); The Shape of Things to Come (1979); The Stolen Body by H.G. Wells (2022); The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost (2023); The Time Machine (1949 / 1960 / 1978 / 1997 / 2002); The Tonic (1928); The Truth About Pyecraft (1959); The Twentieth Century (1961); The Twilight People (1972); The Unforeseen (1959); The UnXplained (2021); The War of the Worlds (1953 / 1967 / 2005 / 2014 / 2019); The War of the Worlds 2021 (2021); The War of the Worlds: Great Books (1994); The War of the Worlds: Next Century (1981); The Wheels of Chance (1922); Theatre Fantastique (2017); They Forgot to Read the Directions (1924); Things to Come (1936); Time Machine: Rise of the Morlocks (2011); Time Machine: The Journey Back (1993); Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez (2004); Village of the Giants (1965); War of the Servers (2007); War of the Worlds (2005 / 2013 / 2019 / 2020); War of the Worlds (Is What It Is Theatre) (2001); War of the Worlds / TV Series (1988–1990); War of the Worlds / Video Game (1981); War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave (2008); War of the Worlds the True Story (2012); War of the Worlds: Goliath (2012); We're All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel) (2022); What Lies Beneath (2008); Wishbone (1995); World War Weird (2018); Your Favorite Story (1954).

On this day in movie history - War of the Worlds (movie & novel):

War of the Worlds

directed by Steven Spielberg,

written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp,

based on the novel The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells,

was released in the United States on June 29, 2005.
Narrated by Morgan Freeman.
Music by John Williams.

Cast:

Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins, Rick Gonzalez, Yul Vazquez, Lenny Venito, Lisa Ann Walter, Ann Robinson, Gene Barry, David Alan Basche, Roz Abrams, Michael Brownlee, Camillia Monet, Marlon Young, John Eddins, Peter Gerety, David Harbour, Miguel Antonio Ferrer, January LaVoy, Stephen Gevedon, Julie White, Marianne Ebert, Rafael Sardina, Amy Ryan, Erika LaVonn, Christopher Evan Welch, John Michael Bolger, Zoe Quist, Ana Maria Quintana, Lorelei Llee, Mark Manley, John Scurti, Becky Ann Baker, Mariann Mayberry, Jerry Walsh, Tommy Guiffre, Daniel Franzese, Ed Schiff, Ellen Barry, Amy Hohn, Dan Ziskie, David Conley, Daniel Eric Gold, Booker T. Washington, Eric Zuckerman, Daniel A. Jacobs, Asha R. Nanavati, Joaquin Perez-Campbell, Dendrie Taylor, James DuMont, Ben Ciaramello, Ricky Luna, Columbus Short, Kent Faulcon, Kevin Collins, Terry Thomas, Clay Bringhurst, Jorge-Luis Pallo, Suanne Spoke, Kirsten Nelson, Melody Garrett, Lauri Johnson, Takayo Fischer, Shanna Collins, Elizabeth Jayne Hong, Art Chudabala, Jeffrey Hutchinson, Dempsey Pappion, Chris Todd, Johnny Kastl, Juan Carlos Hernández, Bruce W. Derdoski Jr., John N. Morales.

Recommended reading:

The War of the Worlds

By H.G. Wells

First published 1898.

ISBN 10: 0451522761
ISBN 13: 9780451522764

Description:

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own....

So begins The War of the Worlds, the science fiction classic that first proposed the possibility of intelligent life on other planets and has enthralled readers for generations. This compelling tale describes the Martian invasion of earth. When huge, tireless creatures land in England, complete chaos erupts. Using their fiery heat rays and crushing strength, the aliens just may succeed in silencing all opposition. Is life on earth doomed? Will mankind survive? A timeless view of a universe turned upside down, The War of the Worlds is an ingenious and imaginative look into the possibilities of the future and the secrets yet to be revealed.

On this day in radio history - The War of the Worlds (1938 radio broadcast & book):

The War of the Worlds

directed by Orson Welles,

originally broadcast on CBS Radio, on October 30, 1938.
A one-hour dramatization, based on the novel by H. G. Wells.
Written by Howard Koch.
Produced by Orson Welles and John Houseman.
Broadcast from 8 – 9 p.m. (ET)
Announced by Dan Seymour.
Hosted by the radio series: The Mercury Theatre on the Air.
Narrated by Orson Welles.
Cast: Orson Welles, Frank Readick, Kenny Delmar, Ray Collins.

-------------------------

Recommended reading:

Dead Air: The Night That Orson Welles Terrified America

By William Elliott Hazelgrove.

Published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Published 2024.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1538187167

ISBN-13: 978-1538187166

Description:

A "granular history" (Wall Street Journal) of the greatest hoax in radio history and the panic that followed, which Publishers Weekly calls "a rollicking portrait of a director on the cusp of greatness" and Booklist, in a starred review, says, "Hazelgrove’s feverishly focused retelling of the broadcast as well as the fallout makes for a propulsive read as a study of both a cultural moment of mass hysteria and the singular voice at its root.”

On a warm Halloween Eve, October 30, 1938, during a broadcast of H G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, a twenty-three-year-old Orson Welles held his hands up for radio silence in the CBS studio in New York City while millions of people ran out into the night screaming, grabbed shotguns, drove off in cars, and hid in basements, attics, or anywhere they could find to get away from Martians intent on exterminating the human race. As Welles held up his hands to his fellow actors, musicians, and sound technicians, he turned six seconds of radio silence – dead air – into absolute horror, changing the way the world would view media forever, and making himself one of the most famous men in America.

In Dead Air: The Night that Orson Welles Terrified America, Willliam Elliot Hazelgrove illustrates for the first time how Orson Welles’ broadcast caused massive panic in the United States, convincing listeners across the nation that the end of the World had arrived and even leading military and government officials to become involved. Using newspaper accounts of the broadcast, Hazelgrove shows the true, staggering effect that Welles’ opera of panic had on the nation. Beginning with Welles’ incredible rise from a young man who lost his parents early to a child prodigy of the stage, Dead Air introduces a Welles who threw his Hail Mary with War of the Worlds, knowing full well that obscurity and fame are two sides of the same coin. Hazelgrove demonstrates that Welles’ knew he had one shot to grab the limelight before it forever passed him by – and he made it count.

In this fine-grained account, historian Hazelgrove (Writing Gatsby) chronicles the mass hysteria that accompanied Orson Welles's infamous 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds. Hazelgrove presents Welles as an actor of immense ambition and preternatural talent, noting that by age 22, he had put on headline-grabbing plays (the government shut down his 1937 production of The Cradle Will Rock, fearing its pro-labor themes would be incendiary) and traveled around New York City in a faux ambulance to move more quickly between his numerous radio and theatrical commitments. The author recounts the rushed scriptwriting process for War of the Worlds and offers a play-by-play of the broadcast, but he lavishes the most attention on the havoc Welles wreaked. Contemporaneous news accounts reported college students fighting to telephone their parents, diners rushing out of restaurants without paying their bills, families fleeing to nearby mountains to escape the aliens' poisonous gas, and even one woman's attempted suicide. Hazelgrove largely brushes aside contemporary scholarship questioning whether the hysteria's scope matched the sensational news reports, but he persuasively shows how the incident reignited elitist fears that "Americans were essentially gullible morons" and earned Welles the national recognition he'd yearned for. It's a rollicking portrait of a director on the cusp of greatness. – Publishers Weekly.

Orson Welles may be best known for his film Citizen Kane, but a much earlier outing in his career led to the opportunity to make such an artistically ambitious undertaking. Hazelgrove charts Welles' rise from a hectic childhood to the anointed genius of stage, radio, and, eventually, film. But it was the night before Halloween in 1938 when Welles' bombastic radioplay rendition of H.G Wells' War of the Worlds, styled as a breaking-news report, caused an uproar. Arriving at a nexus point when Americans began not only to rely on the relatively new invention of radio for entertainment but also as a trusted news source, the radioplay brought many who were listening to the brink of madness, wholly believing that aliens had actually touched down in a New Jersey town. Suicides, car accidents, and general unrest swept the country, and, at show's end, Welles could only wonder if his career (and even freedom) was over too. Hazelgrove's feverishly focused retelling of the broadcast as well as the fallout makes for a propulsive read as a study of both a cultural moment of mass hysteria and the singular voice at its root. – Booklist, Starred Review.

William Elliott Hazelgrove's richly anecdotal "Dead Air" is the story of Welles's landmark October 1938 radio broadcast and the nationwide panic that resulted. Welles's "you are there" adaptation, crafted to imitate a breaking-news bulletin, sent a tremor of panic into listeners across the country who believed it to be a real report of a flying-saucer invasion. Mr. Hazelgrove has scoured regional newspapers of the time to provide a ground-level view of the hysteria that Welles's radio drama instilled—on the night before Halloween, no less. – Wall Street Journal.

"A fantastical tale about Martians coming to earth and incinerating humans with heat ray guns - up to 12 million people tuned in and were convinced aliens were exterminating the human race." – Daily Mail UK.

"The book highlights what made Welles' production particularly powerful, airing at a time when millions remained unemployed from the Great Depression and the nation was on edge about the threat of Nazi Germany. He details how Welles took advantage of those fears, including using an actor who sounded like Franklin D. Roosevelt for a part in his broadcast.

"A bottled-up sense of panic was in the air and people could almost smell the fear," he writes. "Orson Welles would open that bottle and let the fear run wild." – Associated Press.

"A convincing portrait of the artist as a young man—defiant, reckless, ruthless, and teeming with talent and ambition—Dead Air packs delights worthy of its subject." – New York Journal of Books.