Jules Gabriel Verne was born on February 8, 1828 in Nantes, France. He was the oldest of five children. Both of his parents were of a seafaring tradition, a factor which influenced his writings. His father was a lawyer and his mother, Sophie Allotte, came from a family of ship builders and sea captains ("Verne, Jules"). Jules’s father wanted him to be educated as a lawyer, but he refused to do any work but writing. In 1848 he and a friend went to Paris. Instead of studying law, Jules just kept writing to try to earn a living. He published his first play sometime in the 1850s. When his father heard that he was not continuing law, he discontinued the money he was giving him to pay for his expenses in Paris. This forced Verne to make money by selling his stories ("Jules Verne").

      Jules Verne started there by studying geology, engineering, and astronomy for hours in the library. Jules Verne published his first novel Five Weeks in a Balloon(1863). Soon he started writing novels such as Journey to the Center of the Earth(1864), From the Earth to the Moon(1866), and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea(1873) ("Jules Verne").

Jules Verne died in the city of Amines on March 24, 1905.