--- title: Life on Mars: The War of the Worlds and H.G. Wells at 150 description: The year 2016 marks two Wellsian anniversaries, that is the 150th anniversary of Wells’s birth and the 70th anniversary of his death canonical: https://time.com/4502609/hg-wells-150/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-21T15:00:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:29.326Z article:section: History og:title: Life on Mars: 'The War of the Worlds' and H.G. Wells at 150 og:description: The year 2016 marks two Wellsian anniversaries, that is the 150th anniversary of Wells’s birth and the 70th anniversary of his death og:url: https://time.com/4502609/hg-wells-150/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19a2c245c75c50b0/6988a6f5428a9e87cecd4566/war-of-the-worlds.jpg?branch=production&width=632&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 632 og:image:height: 356 og:image:alt: War of the Worlds og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Life on Mars: 'The War of the Worlds' and H.G. Wells at 150 twitter:description: The year 2016 marks two Wellsian anniversaries, that is the 150th anniversary of Wells’s birth and the 70th anniversary of his death twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt19a2c245c75c50b0/6988a6f5428a9e87cecd4566/war-of-the-worlds.jpg?branch=production&width=632&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Life on Mars: _The War of the Worlds_ and H.G. Wells at 150 > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Peter J. Beck / Harry Ransom Center](https://time.com/author/harry-ransom-center/) ## Peter J. Beck / Harry Ransom Center Sep 21, 2016 3:00 PM UTC  H.G. Wells, “The War of the Worlds” (1898). New York, London, Harper & Brothers H.G. Wells, “The War of the Worlds” (1898). New York, London, Harper & Brothers From the L.W. Currey Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection at the Harry Ransom Center by [Peter J. Beck / Harry Ransom Center](https://time.com/author/harry-ransom-center/) ## Peter J. Beck / Harry Ransom Center Sep 21, 2016 3:00 PM UTC  _This post is in partnership with the_ [_Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin_](http://www.hrc.utexas.edu)_. A version of the article below was originally published on the_ [_Ransom Center’s Cultural Compass blog._ ](http://budurl.com/r573) Responding to news of the singer’s passing in January 2016, the official NASA twitter account tweeted “Rest in peace, David Bowie. ‘And the stars look very different today.’” For Bowie, one of humankind’s hitherto unanswered questions was—to quote from his most famous song—“(Is there) Life on Mars?” In this vein he followed in the footsteps of H. G. Wells, another popular culture icon who was among the select few featured on the cover of The Beatles’ “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1967). Both Bowie and Wells grew up in a London suburb, Bromley. Wells was also born there. Both could not wait to escape from suburbia. Both used talent and imagination through art as part of the process of leaving behind their past. Thus, when writing about Bowie, Simon O’Hagan argued that this “explains how, in so many of his songs, the reality of his suburban upbringing co-exists with themes of outer space.” For O’Hagan, “Bowie was in some ways the H. G. Wells of the jukebox.” Renowned for his bestselling science fiction stories and their audio-visual adaptations such as by Orson Welles and Steven Spielberg, Wells not only wrote serious newspaper articles about life on Mars but also incorporated Martians into his fiction juxtaposing fantasy scenarios with suburban realities. Since landing on Mars in August 2012, NASA’s robot rover has been exploring the Red Planet to try to help answer the question posed by Bowie and Wells, among others. Unsurprisingly, NASA’s Mars Curiosity Project has attracted extensive world-wide media coverage, particularly given the manner in which myriad works of science fiction have both reflected and encouraged our fascination with Mars, Martians, and all that. At present the jury is still out concerning life on Mars, but this has not prevented continuing speculation that, given our present-day surveillance society, we have been, and still are being, watched from Mars. In _The War of the Worlds_ (1898), Wells introduced the idea that, like bacteria under a microscope, people on Planet Earth were being studied by Martians by way of preparation for the first interplanetary war. He made plausible—or at least not out-of-this-world—the possibility of extra-terrestrials acting as spies, invaders, and empire-builders. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) ### _The War of the Worlds_’ prescience and afterlife As a result Wells, like Bowie, occupies a prominent place in our present-day thinking about Mars, as evidenced by his prominent role in, say, NASA’s online “Mars chronology” or the press kit prepared for the launch of the Mars Rover in 2011\. Today, Wells’s ghost still looms large over popular attitudes and contemporary media debates about the Red Planet. In part, this reflects the enduring fame of _The War of the Worlds_ as—to quote Robert Crossley—“a central text in the cultural history of Mars.” Written during the late nineteenth century and set during the early twentieth century, _The War of the Worlds_ continues to attract readers and resonate with audiences during the 21st century. For most readers, the story is just an excellent read, an exciting sci-fi page-turner. But its enduring appeal derives also from a timeless focus upon the impact of invasion and war upon present-day society through a storyline touching upon such perennial themes as complacency about homeland security, the need to take account of the unexpected, the ferocity of aggressive imperialism, the devastation and mass panic prompted by sudden invasions, and the impact of science and technology upon warfare and weaponry. _The War of the Worlds_ remains in print, still sells well, and has been translated into numerous languages. Moreover, the book has enjoyed an extremely successful multimedia afterlife. Thus, Wells’s pioneering story has been taken, and continues to be taken, to new audiences across the world through adaptations, most notably on film by George Pal (1953) as well as by Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise (2005), on radio by Orson Welles (1938), and through music and stage rock operas by Jeff Wayne (1978 _et seq_.). The story’s subject matter, most notably its massive potential for vivid imagery, has made _The War of the Worlds_ a focus also for bubblegum and cigarette cards, comics, computer games, e-books, graphic novels, mobile phone apps, and podcasts, among other outputs. ### Wells as “the Shakespeare of science fiction” For most people, and particularly the media, the big literary event in 2016 is the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. But this year also marks two Wellsian anniversaries, that is the 150th anniversary of Wells’s birth and the 70th anniversary of his death. Hitherto these Wellsian anniversaries have attracted far less media and popular attention, even if they are—to quote Durham University’s Professor Simon James—“every bit as important as that of Shakespeare. His novels _The Time Machine_, _The Invisible Man_ and _The War of the Worlds_ were the first true science fiction novels in the English language.” Indeed, Brian Aldiss, the science fiction grand-master, has represented Wells as “the Shakespeare of science fiction,” the author largely responsible for inspiring and popularizing science fiction, particularly the alien invasion and time travel sub-genres. For many commentators, Wells is viewed as a prime source of inspiration for Gene Roddenberry’s _Star Trek_ films and television series, while BBC television’s time travelling Doctor Who proves a straight steal based upon the Time Traveller in _The Time Machine_. **_Read more at the_** [**_Harry Ransom Center’s Cultural Compass Blog_**](http://budurl.com/r573) **Peter J. Beck,** Emeritus Professor of History at Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames, UK, is the author of _The War of the Worlds: from H. G. Wells to Orson Welles, Jeff Wayne, Steven Spielberg and beyond_, which was published by Bloomsbury Academic in August 2016\. His other books include _Presenting History: Past and Present_ (2012), _Using History, making British Policy: the Treasury and the Foreign Office, 1950-76_ (2006), and _Scoring for Britain: International Football and International Politics, 1900-1939_ (1999). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4502609/hg-wells-150/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4502609/hg-wells-150/"},"headline":"Life on Mars: The War of the Worlds and H.G. 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