Jules Verne
Jules Verne was born in 1828 in France. Young Jules was interested in machinery, sailing and writing. Together with his brother Paul, he explored the river near their home in an old sailboat.
Jules' father was a lawyer and he wanted his son to continue his career. So Jules was sent to Paris to study law. Jules, however, decided soon that his main interest was writing. He joined the club of scientific writers. This group was interested in balloons so Jules soon wrote an adventure story called "Five Weeks in a Balloon". His favourite subject at school was geography, so he wanted to describe in his books as many parts of the world as possible.
Jules Verne's books are still popular now because they are good adventure stories. But in his books Verne also forecast many inventions that we have now. He believed that someday people would have airplanes, submarines, television, dirigibles and powerful weapons.
His most popular books are "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea" and "Around the World in Eighty Days".
Verne had a notebook where he wrote every idea or bit of information he came across that might be useful for his books. In his study he had a large map of the world with all routes of his heroes marked on it.
During his life, Jules Verne has written more than 50 books. He died at the age of 77.