A Journey to the Center of the Earth

Jules Verne was born in Nantes, France, in 1828. As a boy he learned to travel to unknown worlds and at 12, he tried to stow away on a ship bound for India. But his father pulled him off the ship and gave him a severe beating. Jules, however, vowed to continue to travel fron then on-- but only in his imagination. While Jules Verne's imagination did not invent science fiction, Verne was the first writer to use actual settings for his science fiction stories.