Biography for
Jules Verne More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

8 February 1828, Nantes, Loire-Atlantique, Pays-de-la-Loire, France

Date of Death

24 March 1905, Amiens, Somme, Picardie, France (diabetes)

Birth Name

Jules Gabriel Verne

Nickname

The Father of Science Fiction

Spouse

Honorine de Viane Morel

(10 January 1857 - 24 March 1905) (his death) 1 child

Trivia

Critized H.G. Wells for inventing cavourite, a substance impervious to gravity, for his Le voyage dans la lune (1902) (aka The First Men in the Moon). Verne thought Wells violated a cardinal rule that the logic of the story must not contradict contemporary scientific knowledge: "I sent my characters to the moon with gunpowder ["From the Earth to the Moon"; 1865], a thing one may see every day. Where does Mr. Wells find his cavourite? Let him show it to me!".

On 9 March 1886, as Verne was coming home, his nephew, Gaston, charged at him with a gun. As the two wrestled for it, it went off. The second bullet entered Verne's left shin. He never fully recovered. Gaston spent the rest of his life in an asylum.

Son, Michel Jean Pierre (4 August 1861-1925). A classic enfant terrible, he married an actress over Verne's objections, and had two children by his underage mistress. It seemed to take his father's death for Michel to finally grow up. He oversaw publication of Verne's last novels, "Invasion of the Sea" and "The Lighthouse at the End of the World" (both 1905).

His father was so outraged when he learned Jules was not going to continue law (both he and his father were lawyers), he cut off all financial support. Verne eventually became a stockbroker.

In 1863, he wrote "Paris in the 20th Century" about a young man who lives in a world of skyscrapers, high-speed trains, gas-powered automobiles, calculators, and a worldwide communications network, yet cannot find happiness, and comes to a tragic end. His publisher thought the novel's pessimism would damage Verne's career, and declined to publish it. Verne put the manuscript in a safe, where it was discovered by his great-grandson in 1989.

Had two stepchildren.

His novel The Mysterious Island is a sequel to both In Search of the Castaways and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Jules Verne and his work play a prominent and pivotal role in Back to the Future Part III (1990). Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) discusses Verne's novel with Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen). Later, Doc Brown and Ms. Clayton return to 1985 with their young sons, Jules and Verne, introducing the boys to Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Jennifer Parker (Elisabeth Shue).

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