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TODAY IN SCIENCE: Jules Verne Was Born

Born in France on this day in 1828, science fiction pioneer Jules Verne would send readers around the world, under the sea, and to the center of the earth from the pages of his popular books – and all before the advent of modern rockets, submarines, or airplanes.

Verne, who trained to be a lawyer and who supported himself early in his career as a stockbroker, first started writing in school. As a young man, he published short stories and operetta librettos to moderate acclaim. After marrying and spending some time traveling abroad, Verne made the acquaintance of a publisher, Pierre Jules Hetzel, who would help Verne shape his fiction for a contemporary audience, getting him to craft less technical, more optimistic works.

In an era when exploration of Africa and South America were generating headlines, Verne tapped into that interest, publishing Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, as well as 51 other adventure books, collected as The Extraordinary Voyages. Hetzel wrote in the prologue of the fourth novel in the series that its goal was “to outline all the geographical, geological, physical, and astronomical knowledge amassed by modern science and to recount, in an entertaining and picturesque format … the history of the universe.“

Verne’s international appeal is constant, and, more than a century after his death, he remains the second-most translated fiction author in the world (after mystery novelist Agatha Christie).

Learn more.

Photo Credit: Cover of “L'Algerie” Magazine, 15 June 1884 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Photo Credit: Photograph of Jules Verne by Félix Nadar [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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