Bidspirit auction | WELLS H.G.: (1866-1946)

WELLS H.G.: (1866-1946) - WELLS H. G.: (1866-1946) English writer, remembered particularly for his pioneering science fiction novels. An excellent and unusual vintage signed and inscribed 8 x 10 photograph of Wells seated in a confident half-length pose, holding a book in one hand. Inscribed by Wells in dark fountain pen ink to the background of the image, ´Mr. Wells offers his best to the Town Hall´ , and further signed by the writer across the light-coloured cover of the book which he holds, also adding the title of his 1940 novel, ´BABES IN THE DARKLING WOOD, H. G. Wells´ . Some slight traces of former mounting to the verso, otherwise about EX Babes in the Darkling Wood was published by Secker & Warburg in 1940 and belongs to the final phase of Wells's literary career. Written against the background of the opening stages of World War II, the novel examines the predicament of the younger generation in an increasingly uncertain world, incorporating Wells's continuing interests in psychology, education, sexuality and social organisation. The present photograph is particularly appealing in that Wells has playfully utilised the light cover of the book he holds as part of the image itself, boldly adding the novel's title and his signature directly across it. His further greeting to the ´Town Hall´ is intriguing: Stockholm and its celebrated Town Hall are specifically mentioned in the novel, although any direct connection between that passage and the present inscription remains uncertain.