I was going to do a review of the above book but the good Man of Tin beat me to it - The Young H.G. Wells: Changing the World, a biography by Claire Tomalin 2021 – Man of Tin blog (wordpress.com)
It was not a bad read covering his early life up till about 1911 - BUT no mention of Toy Soldiers !. This could be because the book finishes before the publication of 'Little Wars' - although his later life is covered briefly in the last chapter and has a list of his published works - 'Floor Games' is mentioned but NOT 'Little Wars' !? , or is the biographer to embarrassed to mention this 'childishness ' as it seems do his other biographers . It makes you think how successful was 'Little Wars' was at the time ? - obviously the events of the following year must have put a dampener on sales . I wonder how it was received by contemporary reviewers ? , we as gamers think it a classic but we are biased ? . I wonder if any literary reviews exist from 1913 ? .
PS Man of Tin has a review from 1913 on his blog
How H.G. Wells’ Little Wars was reviewed in 1913 part 1 – Man of Tin blog (wordpress.com)
I shall check out the British Newspaper Archive for 1913 Little Wars and check out its reception.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you think of the rest of the book?
I enjoyed it, he's an interesting chap ahead of his time in many ways.
Deletehttps://manoftinblogtwo.wordpress.com/2021/12/05/how-h-g-wells-little-wars-was-received-in-the-press-in-1913-part-2/
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link
DeleteThanks to both of you - I too will follow the link. I suspect "Little Qars" may have had a very limited, niche appeal back in 1913, much as it does today. Does the TLS review current wargaming rulesets or purely wargaming related books - I doubt it (Achtung Schweinhund!" might be an exception but then, it was written by a fellow journalist.....)!
ReplyDeleteI tried the link but it didnt seem to work - I managed to get to part 1 but not 2.....
ReplyDelete