The Complete War of the Worlds

H.G. Wells published "The War of the Worlds" in 1898. He created his work at the perfect time, in the perfect place. This book provides the complete history of "The War of the Worlds," from its first serialization in 1897 through its many versions: comic books, radio, film, stage, and even computer games. The work has been translated into "countless languages," and "has inspired a wide range of invasion tales in every medium." In short, it has experienced dramatic success!

But, it had to start somewhere, and Wells managed to write the book at precisely the right time. As Editors Brian Holmsten and Alex Lubertozzi explain, "the elements had to be in place at precisely the right moment." Charles Darwin's "Origin of the Species" had been released in 1859. At the time of the first publication, fear of invasion seemed very real to many people. They expected that London would be invaded, that it "was not only possible, but inevitable." Even though the book "predated the Boer War and World War I," as the editors point out, it "foresaw a warfare more mechanized and brutal than any ever seen before."

Fear of the Unknown

If H.G. Wells played upon the fears of a nation in 1898, Orson Welles took it much further when he aired the Howard Koche version of H.G. Wells' novel on Halloween night in 1938. The response that night was immediate and unforgettable. As more than six million listeners heard the tale of the invasion from Mars, an estimated 1.7 million people believed the radio play was real, and 1.2 million panicked, according to a study later conducted by Princeton professor, Hadley Cantril.

H.G. Wells complained that the radio play had taken "unwarranted liberty," that it amounted to a rewriting, which he had not given them permission to do. However, he ceased his protestations when the sale of his books began to climb, and his novel was finally recognized as a true classic, one of his finest works.

More Real Than Fiction?

The editors write that the amazing part of Wells' novel "The War of the Worlds" is that it took place in real places, not fictional ones. It could have happened just next door, or in the backyard. There was a sense of proximity, of immediacy.

With the radio play, Orson Welles took that sense of urgency one huge step further. The story sounded like news reports from credible sources. Welles later wrote, "We wanted people to understand that they shouldn't take any opinion predigested and they shouldn't swallow everything that came through the tap, whether it was radio or not."

Welles made his point, even though lawsuits were brought against him because of it. He was never charged with any crime, but the experience of "The War of the Worlds" radio play will never be forgotten. It has been seared in the minds of not only the people who listened and believed, but all of their descendants.

The editors write: "Few ideas have captured the imagination of so many people all over the world in the last century so well. It is a tribute to H.G. Wells that his story of alien conquest was not only the first of its kind, but remains among the best."