June, 2024

While H G Wells was happy to caricature himself, he was less happy to have others make fun of him in the course of scathing book reviews.  Hilaire Belloc, humourist critic and author, was also a stout catholic and anti-evolutionist.

In reviewing Wells’ 1920 Outline of History, Belloc attacked it for its evolutionary and secular approach, agreeing that it was a fine and powerful account “up until the appearance of Man, that is, somewhere around page seven”.

While ‘Man’ appeared a bit later than page 7, it is a fine line.

Wells responded with a book “Mr Belloc Objects” in 1926, and Belloc replied with “Mr Belloc still Objects”!

We have for sale a fine single volume copy of Wells’ ‘The Outline of History’ with an inscription to his close friend, Lady Wavertree, indicating the work was “written specially for Lady Wavertree” with a sketch of Wells himself as an elephant.  As well, we have a hand-written signed letter from Hilaire Belloc, thanking another author for a copy of a book, dated 1921.