Jules Gabriel Verne (February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905) was a French author, regarded as a pioneer of the science-fiction genre. His contribution to what latter has become “speculative fiction” was enormous, such major works as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), A Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873) to name but a few. Verne predicted the use of hydrogen as an energy source and many future modern conveniences and technological inventions such as skyscrapers, submarines, helicopters, and airplanes. He greatly admired the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, and stressed the importance of strict scientific accuracy, disparaging H. G. Wells for his more cavalier inventiveness.
