One day, more than 80 years ago, a good-looking man called on an official of the French government. When the caller gave his name to a young man in the office, the young man's face lighted up.

"Monsieur Verne," he said, "please sit down. You must be tired — you travel so much."

Jules Verne, the writer, should have been tired indeed. In his books he had gone around the world many times — on one occasion in 80 days. He had travelled 60,000 miles under the sea. He had visited the moon and journeyed down to the centre of the earth. He had seen many of the wonders of Africa and talked with the Indians of South America. There was little of the world's geography that Jules Verne, the writer, had not visited.

But Jules Verne, the man, was a stay-at-home. If he was tired, it was from writing so much. Year after year, for 40 years, he sat in a room of his home in Amiens, France, finishing a book every six months.

Verne was a great visualizer of things to come. He had television working before radio was even thought of. He called it "phonotelephoto". He had helicopters half a century before the Wright brothers flew the first plane. There were few 20th-century wonders that he did not visualize — from submarines to man's journeys into outer space.

He wrote about the wonders of tomorrow in such careful and complete detail that university professors studied his books and spent weeks going over his figures. When his book about a journey to the moon was published, 500 people wrote letters asking to be taken along on the next trip.

Men who later got their ideas from him gladly gave him credit. When Admiral Richard Byrd returned from flying over the North Pole, he said that Jules Verne had been his guide. Simon, Lake, father of the submarine, wrote: "Jules Verne was the commanding general of my life."

Many others agreed that Jules Verne was the man who had started them thinking. A famous French marshal once said that developing modern science simply meant finding how to do the things that Verne had put down in words.

The writer lived to see many of his imagined wonders come true. He was not surprised that they came true. "What one man can imagine," he said, "another man can do."

Verne was born in 1828 near Nantes. Because his father wanted him to Jules went to Paris when he was 18 to study law. But he was more interested in writing. He was also full of fun and cared little for what people thought of him.

One evening, tired of a big party he was attending, he suddenly walked out and slid down the banister. He landed on top of an older man who was just about to go up to the party. Jules said the first thing that came into his head. "Have you had your dinner, sir?" he asked.

The other replied that he had. He had eaten an omlet made in the manner of Nantes.

"But no one in Paris can make one!" cried young Jules. "Can you?" asked the older man.

"Of course," Jules replied. "I am from Nantes."

"Very well, then, come to dinner next Wednesday — and cook the omelet."

This was the beginning of Jules' friendship with Alexandre Dumas, the author of "The Three Musketeers". His friendship with Dumas made young Verne want more than ever to write. He and Dumas wrote a play which had some success. Then Jules, following in the footsteps of the older man, decided to make geography as interesting to read about as Dumas had made history.

From then on, Jules paid little attention to the study of law. His father was so angry with him that he refused to send the young man any more money. For the next few years Jules had a hard time finding money to buy food and clothes.

Then good-looking, fun-loving Jules fell in love and married. His father started him out again, this time as a stockbroker. Jules, however, continued to write. Every morning at dawn he was hard at work writing science stories. Then, at ten o'clock he left his house and went to his work as a stockbroker.

His first book was "Five Weeks in a Balloon". Fifteen publishers refused to publish it. Jules was so angry that he threw it into the fire. But his wife saved it and made him promise to try once more. The 16th publisher took it.

Immediately "Five Weeks in a Balloon" became a best-seller. In 1862, at the age of 34, its author was famous. He gave up his work as a stockbroker and promised his publisher to write two books every year.

His next book, "A Voyage to the Centre of the earth", took his characters down into the earth in Iceland. After a thousand experiences they came up in Italy. Here was everything that science knew or could guess about the things that went on down deep in the earth. And here was geography made wonderfully interesting by Verne's power to tell a good story. Readers couldn't get enough of it.

When a son was born to the Vernes, they moved from Paris to Amiens. There was more than enough money now. Jules bought a fine boat for his family and built a house with a writing-room that looked like part of a ship. He spent the last 40 years of his life there writing his books.

Perhaps the best known of all Verne's books is "Around the World in 80 Days". A little of the story was published each day in a Paris newspaper. People everywhere were interested in the story of the imaginary Phileas Fogg and his race around the world to win a bet. Newspapers in London and New York reported daily on his imaginary experiences people made bets on whether he would arrive in London on time.

Each day Phileas had a new difficulty. In India he saved a woman's life, fell in love with her and almost missed his travel connections. On his way across North America he was almost killed by the Indians. In New York he missed the boat that was to take him to London. He took the next boat he could find, and it ran out of fuel on its way across the Atlantic. The ship's tables and chairs were burned for fuel. Fogg reached London only a few seconds before his time was up.

Verne ends his story with these words: "At the 57th second the door of the club room opened, and before the 60th second Phileas Fogg appeared and in a calm voice said, "Here I am, gentlemen."

In "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", Verne wrote of a submarine, the "Nautilus". It was able to do what two British scientists finally did 75 years later: make electricity from seawater. It could also do what today's best submarines are at last able to do: stay under water as long as desired.

One of Verne's books, "The Diary of an American Journalist in the Year 2890", tells of New York. Streets 100 yards wide are walled in by buildings 1000 feet tall. The weather is controlled; man can grow food at the North Pole. Shops tell of what they have to sell by means of "writing thrown against the clouds".

Verne's chief character publishes a newspaper which has 80 million readers. The newspaper's reporters send reports by TV from Jupiter, Mars and Venus, and people sitting in their own living-rooms can see what is happening. It is hard to believe that Verne's books were written from 70 to 100 years ago.

The last years of Jules Verne's life were not happy. Some of the great writers and thinkers of his day laughed at his books. He became ill and nearly blind. His hearing started to go. His last books were still full of visualizations. He now visualized a time when governments with life-and-death power over their people would rule a helpless world.

Jules Verne died in 1905. The whole world, including those who had laughed at him, now honoured him. Of all the thousands of words written about him at the time of his death, Jules Verne would have liked best these lines from a Paris newspaper:

"The old storyteller is dead. It is like the passing of Santa Claus."

Sean Townes

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