Background and Content Knowledge

• In the late 1890s, it was common to serialize novels in newspapers or popular magazines prior to their publication. Each excerpt would end with a “cliffhanger” that tempted readers into buying the next edition of the newspaper or magazine to see what happened next. The War of the Worlds was first published in serial form in Pearson’s Magazine from April to December 1897.

Background Content Knowledge

• Herbert George Wells was an English writer who wrote dozens of novels, short stories, works of social commentary, and biographies. However, he is best known for his science fiction novels. In his work, he foresaw the advent of airplanes, space travel, nuclear weapons, and even something resembling today’s Internet.

Background and Content Knowledge

• In 1938, actor and filmmaker Orson Welles presented excerpts from The War of the Worlds as news bulletins that interrupted a regular radio broadcast. Welles shifted the setting to New Jersey, and the “bulletins” sounded so realistic that some listeners thought the invasion was actually happening. The War of the Worlds was also made into a motion picture twice, once in 1953 and again in 2005.