Jules Gabriel Verne was born on Feb­ru­ary 8, 1828, in Nantes Paup de la Loire, France. He was the first of five chil­dren born to Sophie Hen­ri­ette Allotte de la Fuye and Pierre Verne. Jules’ imag­i­na­tion for travel and adven­ture was sparked by sum­mers spent watch­ing schooners and ships on the Loire River.

After fin­ish­ing board­ing school, where he wrote many poems and short sto­ries, Jules went to study law. He got his degree in 1850, but was more inter­ested in the­ater, much to the dis­ap­proval of his father. Liv­ing a bohemian life, Jules wrote/collaborated in numer­ous plays, dra­mas and operettas includ­ing Blind Man’s Bluff. (1852)

In 1857, Jules mar­ried Hon­orine de Viane Morel, a widow with two daugh­ters, Suzanne and Valen­tine. He had a son with her– Michael Verne.

Jules met editor/publisher Pierre Jules Het­zel, who, even though Jules had been rejected by other pub­lish­ing com­pa­nies, helped launch Jules’ career.

Jules wrote Five Weeks in a Bal­loon (a.k.a Jour­neys and Dis­cov­er­ies in Africa by Three Eng­lish­men) in 1863, to wide acclaim. It was con­sid­ered if to be the first of his “adven­ture nov­els.” Next came Jour­ney to the Cen­ter of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), its sequel All around the Moon (1870), Twenty Thou­sand Leagues Under the Sea (1869), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

When they weren’t in Amiens, Picardie, France, Jules and Hon­orine spent much time sail­ing on their ship, the Saint-Michael. Jules’ own adven­tures pro­vided much fod­der for his short sto­ries and novels.

Jules was shot by his men­tally ill nephew, Gas­ton, caus­ing him to limp. Two years later, in 1888, Jules was elected coun­cilor of Amiens, a posi­tion he served loy­ally for fif­teen years.

Jules Verne died on March 24, 1905, after devel­op­ing dia­betes. His son Michael over­saw the pub­li­ca­tion of many post-humous works of his father’s, includ­ing The Golden Vol­cano (1906), and The Hunt for the Meteor (1908).