How did he get involved?

[Commandingtripod]

I was reading somewhere that Wells got involved in politics after (Or during I can't remember) WW1 because of the invention of the tank.

I think I read that part of the idea of the tank was taken from Wells' book Land of the Ironclads and he became embittered because he was not consulted first.

Is this true or just something someone made up?

[Lensman]

In a brief Internet search, the only extensive Wells biography I find is at Wikipedia. That's strange; you'd think there would be one at the H.G. Wells Society website. Anyway, reading over the Wikipedia entry on Wells, it seems it was the natural result of growing up impoverished yet educated, with a comparison of his family's poverty (perceived as unjust) when compared to the wealthy, most of whom didn't earn their wealth, but merely inherited it.

"Blimey, this redistribution of weath is trickier than I thought." --"Dennis Moore" (John Cleese), Monty Python's Flying Circus

Some excerpts from
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells:

~~~~~~~~~~~
From 1881 to 1883 [ages 14-15 to 16-17] H. G. had an unhappy apprenticeship as a draper at the Southsea Drapery Emporium. His experiences were later used as inspiration for his novels The Wheels of Chance and Kipps, which describe the life of a draper's apprentice as well as being a critique of the world's distribution of wealth.
~~~~~~~~~~~
...he won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science (later the Royal College of Science, now part of Imperial College, London) in London, studying biology under T. H. Huxley. As an alumnus, he later helped to set up the Royal College of Science Association, of which he became the first president in 1909. H. G. studied in his new school until 1887 with an allowance of twenty-one shillings a week thanks to his scholarship.

He soon entered the Debating Society of the school. These years mark the beginning of his interest in a possible reformation of society. At first approaching the subject through studying The Republic by Plato, he soon turned to his contemporary ideas of socialism as expressed by the recently formed Fabian Society and free lectures delivered at Kelmscott House, the home of William Morris. He was also among the founders of The Science School Journal, a school magazine which allowed him to express his views on literature and society.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Commandingtripod]

Ok thanks Lensman.

I got my facts mixed up in the my first post and then remember where I got my information from so how accurate it is I don't know:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Land_Ironclads

It was The Land Ironclads not Land of the Ironclads.

It seems that Wells' didn't become interested in polictics because of what happened - more over it seems he developed an aversion to it.
My bad.

Though you've raised an interesting point Lensman about the more exstensive biography on Wikipedia not in the Society site.

[Charles]

Wells never developed an aversion to politics. Frustration over politics, yes, but of course we all do. In fact Wells was very much involved in world politics, almost until his death. The extent of his involvement was staggering - far more than a simple Internet search could possibly turn up. See David Smith's "Desperately Mortal" or Norman and Jean MacKezie's "H.G. Wells" for more indepth analysis on Wells' political entanglements.

Funny enough, I always thought it was a bit odd there was no sort of overview on Wells on the UK chapter's side of the site, so from the beginning I made sure the Americas Chapter site had one:

www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/introduction.html

[Commandingtripod]

holgerdanske said:

Wells never developed an aversion to politics. Frustration over politics, yes, but of course we all do. In fact Wells was very much involved in world politics, almost until his death. The extent of his involvement was staggering - far more than a simple Internet search could possibly turn up. See David Smith's "Desperately Mortal" or Norman and Jean MacKezie's "H.G. Wells" for more indepth analysis on Wells' political entanglements.

Funny enough, I always thought it was a bit odd there was no sort of overview on Wells on the UK chapter's side of the site, so from the beginning I made sure the Americas Chapter site had one:

www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/introduction.html

Thanks for that info.

Only just picked up on your post then.

Very interesting stuff.

[Lensman]

Thank you Charles!