Author: H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells (1866-1946), English author, futurist, one of the fathers of science fiction, historian, socialist, and teacher.

In 2009, the 143rd birthday of [Herbert George] H. G. Wells (21 September) spurred some unusual doodles on the Google search page. Later the mystery was revealed in their blog.

"Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment."
--Ch. 1., War of the Worlds (1898)

"It is possible to believe that all the past is but the beginning of a beginning, and that all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn. It is possible to believe that all the human mind has ever accomplished is but the dream before the awakening"
--H.G. Wells, 24 January, 1902 lecture at the Royal Institute, London titled "The Discovery of the Future".

In his Preface to the 1941 edition of The War In The Air (first published in 1908, then in 1921) Wells wrote: "Again I ask the reader to note the warnings I gave in that year, twenty years ago. Is there anything to add to that preface now? Nothing except my epitaph. That, when the time comes, will manifestly have to be: 'I told you so. You damned fools.' (The italics are mine.)"

Author: Shakespeare: Lost Poem

Lost Shakespeare poem--"An 18-line poem written by William Shakespeare is being published for the first time since it was discovered by American scholars. 'To the Queen by the Players' is believed to have been written for a performance at the court of Queen Elizabeth in 1599."
--from CBC.ca

As the dial hand tells o'er
The same hours it had before,

Still beginning in the ending,
Circular account still lending,

So, most mighty Queen we pray,
Like the dial day by day

You may lead the seasons on,
Making new when old are gone,

That the babe which now is young
And hath yet no use of tongue

Many a Shrovetide here may bow
To that empress I do now,

That the children of these lords,
Sitting at your council boards,

May be grave and aged seen
Of her that was their fathers' queen.

Once I wish this wish again,
Heaven subscribe it with "Amen".

"The poem has been compared to the epilogue to A Midsummer Night's Dream, with the same metre and similarities in language."