Wells
Wells names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Wells a city in Somerset
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city in Somerset, England; at the foot of the Mendip Hills; 20 miles S. W. of Bath and 20 miles S. of Bristol. Here, near St. Andrew's Well, from which and other springs the place took its name, King Ina in 1704 established a house of secular canons; but the see was first founded in 909 by Edward the Elder, and the city has grown up round the cathedral. The see was translated to Bath during the first half of the 12th century, and still is styled Bath and Wells, though Bath's connection has been purely titular since the Reformation. Among its 70 bishops have been Jocelin (1206-1242), the "second founder" of the cathedral, Fox, Wolsey, Barlow, Laud, and Ken. That cathedral, though one of the smallest yet perhaps the most beautiful of English cathedrals, is mainly Early English in style, and is 371 feet long, by 123 across the transept, while the height of the central tower is 160 feet, of the two W. towers 130. Other to buildings, all of extreme interest, are the moated episcopal palace, with an undercrypt of about 1220; the deanery, rebuilt by Dean Gunthorpe in the reign of Edward IV.; the archdeaconry, now remodeled as a theological college; the gateways and St. Cuthbert's Church, with a noble W. tower. It was chartered by King John in 1202. Pop. about 5,000.
Wells HERBERT GEORGE, an English novelist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
HERBERT GEORGE, an English novelist; born in Bromley, Kent, England, Se Sept. 21, 1866; was educated at the Royal College of Science, London. Starting as teacher in a London, he became a journalist there. He wrote: "The Time Machine" (1895); "Select Conversations with an Uncle" (1895); "The Wonderful Visit" (1895); a humorous satire; "The Island of Dr. Moreau" (1896); "The Wheels of Chance" (1896): "Thirty Strange Stories" (1897); "The Invisible Man" (1897); "The War of the Worlds" (1898); "Tales of Space and Time" (1899); "Love and Mr. Lewisham" (1900); "Tono Bungay" (1909); "History of Mr. Polly" (1910); "The World Set Free" (1914); "The Research Magnificent" (1915); "Mr. Britling Sees It Through" (1916); "The Soul of a Bishop" (1917); "Joan and Peter" (1918); "Outline of History" (1920). Wells several times visited and lectured in the United States. In 1920 he went to Russia as the guest of the Soviet Government, and recorded his impressions, which were, for the most part, favorable.
Wells DAVID AMES, an American political economist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
DAVID AMES, an American political economist; born in Springfield, Mass., June 17, 1828; was graduated at Williams College in 1847, and at the Lawrence Scientific School in 1851; and became assistant professor in the latter institution. In 1866 he was made the chairman of a commission to devise the best means to raise money for the government; in 1866-1870 was a special commissioner of revenue; and in 1879 was appointed a member of the Board of Arbitration for Railroads. His publications include: "Our Burden and Our Strength" (1864); "The Creed of the Free Trader" (1875); "Why We Trade and How We Trade" (1878); "The Silver Question, or the Dollar of the Fathers vs. the Dollar of the Sons" (1878); "Our Merchant Marine; How it Rose, Increased, became Great, Declined, and and Decayed" (1882); "Relation of Tariff to Wages" (1888); etc. He died in Norwich, Conn., Nov. 5, 1898.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote up H. G. Wells in 1921 as a living novelist whose latest book was the "Outline of History" (1920); he went on to publish "The Shape of Things to Come" (1933), interview both Stalin and Roosevelt in 1934, and die in London on 13 August 1946, by which time "The War of the Worlds" had been made notorious afresh by Orson Welles's 1938 radio broadcast. The city of Wells has grown from the "about 5,000" of 1921 to roughly 12,000, but it remains the smallest city in England outside London, and the cathedral, the moated Bishop's Palace and St Cuthbert's stand as described (the entry's "King Ina in 1704" is a slip for 704). David Ames Wells, a household name in tariff debates when he died in 1898, is now read mainly by historians of economics, though the Wells Prize he endowed at Harvard is still awarded.
Written for this edition, 2026.