Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY. JULY 18. 1925 SOME EARLY WORK OF H. G. WELLS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 18 July 1925, Page 6

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY. JULY 18. 1925 SOME EARLY WORK OF H. G. WELLS

11. O. WELLS never learned to write. Writing with him was a natal gilt ; just, as some men are horn with an extra digit or the faculty of moving the skin of the scalp. Proof of that? His writing to-day is no whit hotter than when lie started ; some of it is worse. That is. of course, from a strictly literary point, of view ; in experience, in, observation, in knowledge, Mr Wells growi? dailv.

Whether, fifteen years ago, Mr Wells could have written the “Outline of History - 'is doubtful ; that is the sort of work which means much study and thought. Rut fifteen yeans ago, or twenty, for that matter, lie was writing things like ‘‘Kipps" and "Mr Polly,’’ joyous comedy things which will live when such, earnest futilities as “Tho Soul of a Bi.-liop” and “Mr Brilling” arc forgotten. In the first blush of Ids teens ”11. G.” vva» put into a draper's shop. “I’nf’ is tlie right, word for it ; for trade is the very la I of human activities which one would have expected him to find congenial: Two years were spent in acquiring the intimacies of haberdashery and then he deliberately threw tip his indentures for an assistant,ship in Midhnrst Grammer School, a post for which lie had been qualifying himself by diligent study. But we have reason to he thankful for the drapery episode in Well'.? career. Without it we should probably never have had “Kipps" or ‘l'oilv.’ It may be questionable whether the future author put his whole fold into the midcrstnndii ,g of raiment hut it is certain that he noted and stored up for future use every detail of t.lie human eomodv around him. In “The Wheels of (.‘banco" be draw.--, a picture of wiia! might have been liimscli a l the period of h’s drapery e.-rvire: "lie wore liic black morning coat, black tie. ai-i the speckled guy ncllier pants (descending jt to shadow and mystery below tin* ci,iinter) of his era ft. . . . Hi- features were ail '-mail but none ill shaped, rosette. of pins decorated the lapel of I,is coal. Ilis remarks were formulae stereotyped ages ago, an.l learnt long since by heart. 'This, madam,' lie would say. T. si;.Ding very well.’ 'We are doing a very good article, at four iiiree a yard." 'We could show you ."'■•met hi leg lii'tler. of course.' 'No trouI.le. madam. I a-sure you. A ml II is ha rd to I >: lie', e that there as i t : me basis of reality behind i hat scene in ' Mr I’< lly" where I’arsons, born gel.n:s if a window dio-ser, out raged at having his supreme effort called a muddle." runn amuck with a roll of lii.eknha.-k. i vu n to the • •noting of ilm siri'i d lialibu-ss of the managing director with the same. E 'il ‘im on, the ‘ed. aid," was the rehletaiil hit half admiring admission of his friend Bully. The etoi v of Alfred l’oilv is of course only a comedy hut it seems fairly certain that, it is also a biography that might have been. And that subjunctive

liiiigraphv is none other than Mr Wells' own. Given less of this quality or more ni that and the career of 11. G. Wells

might have duplicated that, of Alfred Bel Iv. Looking hack on the environment

his early days the author ponders on the effect of that environment on an individual of a different heredity to his own. lie hnl gone through it,'all, want of edneatiion. ill-health, poor ciremn-.-lances. hut from the first lie had set. 11 imselt to achieve something different. Ami he knew how to go about it. Rut so many do rot. "I've never really planned my life." said Mr Polly, “or set. out to live. Most of my time I’ve been half Ireutmtig. I happened; tilings happened to me.”

Tilings happened." They certainly did. To Mr Pollv. Even his marriage merely 'happened.' He did not mean to marry Ids cousin Miriam. If ho had really exercised a choice among his eligible cousins it would have fallen on the amorous and giggliousi Minnie, hut it •motned to him that he ought to commence negotiations with the elder sister. And wag snapped up before lie got his more or less casual proposal fairly out.

It, “happened.” That happening, and the opening of a shop, almost made timeless ruin of the life of Mr Boilv. But after fifteen years

ef growing misery, of incompatibility of ideals and indigestion of body and mind. In- burnt the place down, heroically

saved a deaf old lady from the flames, made Ids wife safe with the insurance money and disappeared to live his own

file. And at the Potwell Inn he finds the niche in scheme of things that, he was meant for. 80 that in tho end ho

to master of Ins fate. He lias learnt, through much tribulation, that destiny van he to some extent both coaxed and driven. It took him three parts of a life to learn that hit of wisdom; his creator, Mr 11. G. Wells, knew it from tin- first.