The Gods of Mars
First edition cover
Author(s)	Edgar Rice Burroughs
Cover artist	Frank E. Schoonover
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Barsoom
Genre(s)	Planetary romance
Publisher	A. C. McClurg
Publication date	1918
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	348 pp first edition
Preceded by	A Princess of Mars
Followed by	The Warlord of Mars

The Gods of Mars is a 1918 Edgar Rice Burroughs science fiction novel, the second of his famous Barsoom series. It was first published in All-Story as a five-part serial in the issues for January-May 1913.^[1] It was later published as a complete novel by A. C. McClurg in September, 1918.

Throughout his novels, Burroughs uses the classic device of a fictional Foreword or Preface that suggests that the contents of the following story reflect true events.

Plot introduction[link]

At the end of the first book, A Princess of Mars, John Carter is unwillingly transported back to Earth. The Gods of Mars begins with his arrival back on Barsoom (Mars) after a ten-year separation from his wife Dejah Thoris, his unborn child, and the Red Martian people of the nation of Helium, whom he has adopted as his own. Unfortunately, Carter materializes in the one place on Barsoom from which nobody is allowed to depart: the Valley Dor, which is the Barsoomian afterlife.

Plot summary[link]

After John Carter's arrival, a boat of Green Martians arrive on the River Iss and are ambushed by the previously unknown Plant Men. The lone survivor is his friend Tars Tarkas, the Jeddak of Thark, who has taken the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor to find Carter.

Carter and Tars Tarkas discover that the Therns, rulers of Valley Dor, a white-skinned race of self-proclaimed gods, have for eons deceived the Barsoomians of the outer world by disseminating the myth that the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor is a journey to paradise. Most arrivals are killed by the beasts of Valley, the survivors enslaved by Therns.

Carter and Tars Tarkas rescue Thuvia, a slave girl, and attempt to escape, capitalizing on the confusion caused by an attack by the Black Pirates of Barsoom upon the Therns. They are separated during the attack: Tars Tarkas and Thuvia hijack a Black Pirate flier, while Carter fights his way aboard another, killing all but one of the Pirates, and rescuing a captive Thern princess.

Carter, talking with the captured Pirate Xodar, discovers that the Black Pirates, called the "First Born", also think of themselves as gods, and prey upon the Therns as the Therns prey upon others. He also discovers that the captive Thern is Phaidor, daughter of the "Holy Hekkador" (high priest) of the Therns. When their flier is recaptured by the First Born, they are taken to their land, built around the underground sea of Omean, below the lost sea of Korus and the Valley Dor. Both are located at the South Pole of Barsoom.

Once there, Carter is taken before Issus, the goddess of Barsoom; an ancient, evil woman who has manipulated her own people and the rest of Barsoom into maintaining a hierarchy with the First Born on top. Issus dictates the policies of the Therns through secret communications with them. The Therns, thinking they are receiving divine communications, do not realize that they are duped by their enemies.

Issus takes Phaidor into her service as a handmaiden for one Martian year. Carter is imprisoned, with Xodar as his slave as punishment for being defeated by Carter. Thereafter Carter treats him with honor, and thus gains in him a friend. In prison, they meet a young Red Martian captive from Carter’s home country of Helium. Soon thereafter, Carter and the youth are taken to the monthly games of Issus.

In the games, the handmaidens of a year before are sacrificed, and their bodies will be eaten by Issus and her nobles. Carter leads a revolt of the prisoners, killing many of the First Born. Carter and the youth almost kill Issus before the First Born suppress the revolt. Carter and the youth escape via underground tunnels, and give themselves up to guards unacquainted with the revolt to be returned to their prison island. Upon hearing the story of the revolt, Xodar rejects the notion of Issus’ divinity.

Carter, Xodar and the youth hijack a flier and escape. Soon after, Carter discovers that the youth is his son, Carthoris. The flier is damaged and must be abandoned in unknown territory. They encounter Thuvia, who describes the capture of Tars Tarkas by the green warriors of Warhoon (a clan rival to his own). Carter goes alone to rescue Tars Tarkas, but is discovered. After a chase, Thuvia is sent on alone mounted while the men attempt a last stand against the Warhoons. They are rescued by the Heliumetic navy; but do not find Thuvia.

Commanding one of the warships is Carter’s friend Kantos Kan; but the fleet is commanded by Zat Arras, a Jed (chieftain) of the hostile client state of Zodanga, and Carter is suspected of returning from Valley Dor, which is punishable by death. Tardos Mors, the Jeddak of Helium, and Mors Kajak, the Jed of Hastor (the grandfather and father, respectively, of Dejah Thoris, and thus Carter’s in-laws) are absent from Helium, having led fleets in search of Carthoris. Later, Carter discovers that Dejah Thoris is missing, believed to have taken the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor to find him.

Upon returning to Helium, Carter is tried for heresy by the Zodangans; but the people of Helium do not tolerate this. To avoid civil war, Carter's judgment is deferred for a year. Sola, the daughter of Tars Tarkas, arrives, having escaped the First Born. Zat Arras has John Carter captured in an underground chamber. He is held prisoner for 365 days un til his son comes to free him. This is one case where John Carter almost kills his only son.

Carter realizes that Dejah Thoris will be selected as a handmaiden of Issus, and thus will have only a year to live; wherefore he and his comrades go to rescue her. They uncover evidence that Thern spies are monitoring them, and Carter is kidnapped by the Zodangans. Carter refuses Zat Arras’ offer of freedom in exchange for endorsing Zat Arras as Jeddak of Helium, and is imprisoned. After half a year in a dungeon, Carter wins his freedom through a ruse, and the mission to the land of the First Born is launched, with secretly raised troop levies, ships, and many troops lent by Tars Tarkas.

Upon approaching the South Pole, a Thern fleet challenges Carter’s fleet, and behind Carter’s fleet arrive another fleet led Zat Arras. Finally, a fleet of First Born arrives, leaving the rescue mission for Dejah Thoris in jeopardy. Carter encourages the Therns and First Born to fight one another, and the Heliumetic crews of the Zodangan fleet mutiny in support of Carter. Carter then takes his remaining fleet with Tharkian troops to invade the underground sea of Omean.

The combined Heliumites and Tharks defeat the First Born, and Issus herself is killed; but Dejah Thoris, Thuvia, and Phaidor, each of whom loves John Carter, are imprisoned in a room of the Temple of the Sun, of whose rooms each opens only once per year.

Carter is able to talk to Dejah Thoris through the doorway and Xodar gives the women sufficient food supplements to last them the year; but the room cannot be opened. Just before the room closes, Phaidor attempts to kill Dejah Thoris, and her success or failure are left unknown. The story is carried on in the third book of Burroughs’ Martian series, The Warlord of Mars.

Writing[link]

Origins[link]

On March 4, 1912, Burrough's editor at All-Story Magazine, Newell Metcalf wrote suggesting a sequel to Under the Moons of Mars (serialization title of A Princess of Mars). The Valley of Dor, the River Iss and the Sea of Korus were all key locations in the Martian conception of heaven or the afterlife, which Burroughs had introduced in A Princess of Mars. Metcalf, who thought the appeal of these mystical locations might be strong for readers of the previous tale, suggested that John Carter could arrive from Earth at this location and be instrumental in exposing and destroying this religion as a falsehood. These ideas, which may have already have occurred to Burroughs, appeared to be highly inspirational.^[2]

Development[link]

During 1912 Burroughs had been working on Tarzan of the Apes, which he finished in June of that year. Incredibly by 20 September 1912 Burroughs had almost completed the sequel to A Princess of Mars, which was entitled The Gods of Mars. It was submitted on October 2, 1912. Metcalf had suggested killing off Dejah Thoris in the story, but Burroughs admitted to be unable to do so. Although readers had already complained about the suspense created at the end of A Princess of Mars, Burroughs once again, produced a story with a cliff hanger ending. The tale was advertised in the December 1912 issue of All-Story magazine.^[3]

Publication[link]

The Gods of Mars was serialized in five parts in All-Story magazine, the first part published in January 1913 and the final part published in May 1913.^[3] Burroughs was paid $750 for the novel.^[4]

Introduction[link]

Burroughs introduced A Princess of Mars, the first Barsoom Novel as though it were a factual account passed on to him personally. He imagines John Carter to be an avuncular figure known to his family for years who entrusted the manuscript of the novel to Burroughs for publication 21 years later.^[5] The Gods of Mars is the second Barsoom novel to use this device. John Carter 'visits' Burroughs 12 years after the events of A Princess of Mars, claiming to have mastered the secret of inter-planetary travel and stating this will be the last time he makes such a journey from his adopted home. However, the device was used to two further Barsoom novels, The Chessmen of Mars and Swords of Mars.^[6]

Genre[link]

While the novel is an example of science fiction, it is most closely related to the planetary romance genre.^[7] The genre is similar to sword and sorcery, but includes scientific aspects.^[8] Planetary romances mostly take place on the surface of an alien world, frequently include sword fighting, monsters, supernatural elements such as telepathic abilities (as opposed to magic), and civilizations similar to Earth in pre-technological eras, particularly with the inclusion of kingdoms, empires or religious societies. Spacecraft may appear, but are not central to the story (something which makes these tales distinct from Space Opera, where spaceships are usually a key focus of the narrative). There were some Planetary Romances prior to the publication of the Barsoom novels, but A Princess of Mars and The Gods of Mars and other novels in the Barsoom series were the most influential on the numerous similar stories that were published subsequently.^[7]

Setting[link]

Scientific basis[link]

Burroughs's vision of Mars was loosely inspired by astronomical speculation of the time, especially that of Percival Lowell, who saw the planet as a formerly Earthlike world now becoming less hospitable to life due to its advanced age, whose inhabitants had built canals to bring water from the polar caps to irrigate the remaining arable land.^[9] Lowell was influenced by Italian astronomer, Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, who in 1878, had observed features on Mars he called canali (Italian for "channels"). Mistranslation of this into English as "canals" fuelled belief the planet was inhabited.^[10] The theory of an inhabited planet with flowing water was disproved by data provided by Russian and American probes such as the two Viking missions which found a dead, frozen world where water does not exist in a fluid state.^[9]

World of Barsoom[link]

A million years before the narrative commences, Mars was a lush world with oceans. As the oceans receded, and the atmosphere grew thin, the planet has devolved into a landscape of partial barbarism;^[11] living on an aging planet, with dwindling resources, the inhabitants of Barsoom have become hardened and warlike, fighting one another to survive.^[12] Barsoomians distribute scarce water supplies via a worldwide system of canals, controlled by quarreling city-states. The thinning Martian atmosphere is artificially replenished from an "atmosphere plant".^[13]

Themes[link]

Race[link]

Race is a major theme in the Barsoom novels. It is a world with clear territorial divisions between White, Yellow, Black, Red and Green skinned races. Each has particular traits and qualities, which seem to define the characters of almost every individual thereof. Nevertheless Burroughs' concept of race, as depicted in the novels, is more like a division between species than between ethnicity.^[14]

The Gods of Mars introduces two new races; the White-Skinned Therns and the Black-Skinned First Born, both of which are strongly connected to the Martian religion that John Carter exposed in the novel.

Therns[link]

The Therns are white skinned and bald, wearing blond wigs. They live in a complex of caves and passages in the cliffs above the Valley Dor, the supposed Martian heaven. The Therns control the dangerous beasts that live in the valley, and ransack, enslave, or eat the flesh of the survivors. They consider themselves a unique creation, different from other Martians. They are themselves raided by the Black Martians.^[15]

Black Martians (First Born)[link]

Supposedly the inhabitants of a Martian moon, the Black Martians actually live along the coast of the subterranean Sea near the south pole. They call themselves the 'First Born', believing themselves a unique creation among Martian races, and worship Issus, the false deity of the Martian religion. They raid the White Martian Therns, carrying them off as slaves and have a massive aerial navy, which John Carter defeats.^[15]

Religious deception[link]

There are a number of incidences of religious deception, or the use of superstition by those in power to control and manipulate others, in the Barsoom series. This theme was introduced in A Princess of Mars,^[16] but is central to The Gods of Mars. Upon reaching 1,000 years of age almost all Martians undertake a pilgrimage along the River Iss expecting to find a valley of paradise; but find in fact a deathtrap, populated by ferocious creatures and overseen by a race of cruel, cannibal priests known as Therns, who perpetuate the Martian religion through a network of spies across the planet.^[1] John Carter's battle to track down the remnants of the Therns and their masters, continues in the sequel The Warlord of Mars.^[17] More deceitful priests in a theocratic nation appear in The Master Mind of Mars, where they manipulate a temple idol to control followers.^[18]

Burroughs continued this theme in his Tarzan novels. Burroughs was not anti-religious; but was concerned by the abuse and exploitation of religious belief, and saw this as a common feature of organized religion.^[19]

[edit] Characters in The Gods of Mars

• John Carter: Earthman Captain John Carter, a “gentleman of Virginia”, is a soldier of fortune after his service as an officer in the Confederate army.^[20] After the war he moved to the southwest US to work as a prospector. In 1866 he and his prospector partner strike it rich; but the partner is killed by American Indians and Carter takes refuge in a cave where he is overcome by smoke produced by an American Indian woman and wakes up on Mars. He effectively disappeared for nine years [while on Mars], believed dead, but re-emerged in New York in 1876, settling on the Hudson. He appeared to die in 1886, leaving instructions for a fictionalized Burroughs, who refers to him as an 'uncle' of the family, to entomb him in a crypt, and leaving Burroughs with the manuscript of A Princess of Mars with instructions not to publish it for another 21 years.^[21] He has no memory before the age of 30 and seems never to age. He is adept with command, horsemanship, swords, and all weapons. He is 6'2" tall, with black hair and gray steel eyes.^[20] He is honorable, courageous and eternally optimistic, even in the face of certain death.^[22]
• Dejah Thoris: A Martian Princess of Helium, who is courageous, tough and always holds her resolve, despite being frequently placed in both mortal danger and the threat of being dishonored by the lustful designs of villains. She is the daughter of Mors Kajak, jed of Lesser Helium and granddaughter of Tardos Mors, jeddak of Helium, highly aristocratic and fiercely proud of her heritage.^[23] She was introduced early in the first Barsoom novel, A Princess of Mars, and is the love interest of John Carter.^[24]
• Carthoris: Son of Dejah Thoris and John Carter; unusual in having no second name. He is described as worthy of his parentage in nobility, ferocity, and intelligence.
• Tars Tarkas: A fierce Green Martian warrior, unusual among his people for his ability to love. He befriends John Carter and later fights at his side. Carter helps him become Jeddak of the Green Martians in A Princess of Mars and negotiates an alliance between the Green Martians and the city state of Helium.^[21] Although Tars Tarkas shows some civilization, he remains a noble savage.^[25] He is notable for a wry sense of humor invoked when he notices some irony in his present situation, as at his discovery of the Valley Dor.
• Kantos Kan: A soldier of Helium and Carter's friend.
• Thuvia of Ptarth: A Princess of Ptarth, rescued by John Carter from the Therns. She is later imprisoned with Carter's wife Dejah Thoris, in a prison which can only be opened once per year.^[17] Typically of Burrough's heroines, she is tough, courageous, proud, and strongly identifies with her aristocratic position in Martian society.^[17][26]
• Phaidor: A high-ranked Thern, who becomes enamoured of John Carter and therefore envious of Dejah Thoris. Considered somewhat amoral throughout the story.

Literary significance and criticism[link]

Many consider the first three books of the Martian series to be a trilogy. The books are a showcase of Burroughs’ talents: imagination, colorful descriptions, and adventure. Burroughs’ complicated and sometimes flamboyant prose, vocabulary, and grammatical constructions are surprisingly sophisticated for pulp fiction.

Copyright[link]

The copyright for this story has expired in the United States and, thus, now resides in the public domain there. The text is available via Project Gutenberg.

Film adaptation[link]

Producers Jim Morris and Lindsey Collins are working on a sequel to John Carter which will be based on the second book titled John Carter: The Gods of Mars.^[27]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bainbridge, Williams Sims (1986). Dimensions of Science Fiction. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-20725-4. 
• Baxter, Stephen (2005). Yeffeth, Glenn. ed. H.G. Wells’ Enduring Mythos of Mars. BenBalla Books. ISBN 1-932100-55-5. 
• Bleiler, Everett Franklin; Bleiler, Richard (1990). Science Fiction, the Early Years. Kent State University Press. ISBN 0-87338-416-4. 
• Harris-Fain, Darren (2005). Understanding Contemporary American Science Fiction. Univ of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1-57003-585-7. 
• Holtsmark, Erling B. (1986). Edgar Rice Burroughs. Boston: Twain Publishers. ISBN 0-8057-7459-9. 
• Porges, Irwin (1975). Edgar Rice Burroughs. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press. ISBN 0-8425-0079-0. 
• Sampson, Robert (1984). Yesterday's Faces: A Study of Series Characters in the Early Pulp Magazines. Popular Press. ISBN 0-87972-262-2. http://books.google.com/books?id=-UqgtXUHsycC. 
• Seed, David (2005). A Companion to Science Fiction. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-4051-1218-2. 
• Sharp, Patrick B. (2007). Savage Perils. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3822-X. 
• Slotkin, Richard (1998). Gunfighter Nation. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3031-8. 
• Westfahl, Gary (2000). Space and Beyond. Greenwood Publishing Groups. ISBN 0-313-30846-2. 

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Gods of Mars

• ERBzine Illustrated Bibliography: "The Gods of Mars" entry
• Text of the novel at Project Gutenberg
• Listen to a reading of the novel at LibriVox
• Edgar Rice Burroughs Summary Project page for The Gods of Mars

Look up gods in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Gods as the plural of god, is a synonym of "deities", indicating a context of polytheism.

• God (male deity)
• Goddess
• List of deities
• Names of God

proper names

• The gods (theatrical), the upper levels of a theatre
• The Gods (band), a rock band from England
• Gods (video game)
• Gods of Metal, a music festival in Italy

See also[link]

• God (disambiguation)
• God (monotheism)
• The Godz (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Edgar Rice Burroughs
Born	(1875-09-01)September 1, 1875 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	March 19, 1950(1950-03-19) (aged 74) Encino, California, U.S.
Resting place	Tarzana, California, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	American
Period	20th century
Genres	Adventure novel, Lost World, Sword and Planet, Planetary romance, Soft science fiction, Westerns
Notable work(s)	Tarzan series, Barsoom series
Influences Edwin Lester Linden Arnold, Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, H. G. Wells
Influenced Ray Bradbury, Leigh Brackett, Lin Carter, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Robert E. Howard, Philip José Farmer, Otis Adelbert Kline, A. Merritt, John Norman, Michael Moorcock, Carl Sagan, James Cameron
Signature

Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.

Biography[link]

Burroughs was born on September 1, 1875, in Chicago, Illinois (he later lived for many years in the suburb of Oak Park), the fourth son of businessman and Civil War veteran Major George Tyler Burroughs (1833–1913) and his wife Mary Evaline (Zieger) Burroughs (1840–1920). His middle name is from his paternal grandmother, Mary Rice Burroughs (1802-ca. 1870).^[1][2][3]

Burroughs was educated at a number of local schools, and during the Chicago influenza epidemic in 1891, he spent a half year at his brother's ranch on the Raft River in Idaho. He then attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and then the Michigan Military Academy. Graduating in 1895, and failing the entrance exam for the United States Military Academy (West Point), he ended up as an enlisted soldier with the 7th U.S. Cavalry in Fort Grant, Arizona Territory. After being diagnosed with a heart problem and thus found ineligible to serve, he was discharged in 1897.^[4]

Bookplate of Edgar Rice Burroughs showing Tarzan holding the planet Mars, surrounded by other characters from Burroughs' stories and symbols relating to his personal interests and career

Typsescript letter, with Tarzana Ranch letterhead, from Edgar Rice Burroughs to Ruthven Deane, explaining the design and significance of his bookplate

Some seemingly unrelated short jobs followed. Some drifting and ranch work followed in Idaho. Then, Burroughs found work at his father's firm in 1899. He married childhood sweetheart Emma Hulbert in January 1900. In 1904 he left his job and found less regular work; some in Idaho, later in Chicago.^[5]

By 1911, after seven years of low wages, he was working as a pencil sharpener wholesaler and began to write fiction. By this time Burroughs and Emma had two children, Joan (1908–1972), who would later marry Tarzan film actor James Pierce, and Hulbert (1909–1991).^[6] During this period, he had copious spare time and he began reading many pulp fiction magazines. In 1929 he recalled thinking that

...if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter of fact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines.^[7]

Aiming his work at these pulp fiction magazines, Burroughs had his first story, "Under the Moons of Mars", serialized in All-Story Magazine in 1912^[8][9]

Burroughs soon took up writing full-time and by the time the run of Under the Moons of Mars had finished he had completed two novels, including Tarzan of the Apes, which was published from October 1912 and went on to become one of his most successful series. In 1913, Burroughs and Emma had their third and last child, John Coleman Burroughs (1913–1979).^{[citation needed]}

Burroughs also wrote popular science fiction and fantasy stories involving Earthly adventurers transported to various planets (notably Barsoom, Burroughs' fictional name for Mars, and Amtor, his fictional name for Venus), lost islands, and into the interior of the hollow earth in his Pellucidar stories, as well as westerns and historical romances. Along with All-Story, many of his stories were published in The Argosy.

Tarzan was a cultural sensation when introduced. Burroughs was determined to capitalize on Tarzan's popularity in every way possible. He planned to exploit Tarzan through several different media including a syndicated Tarzan comic strip, movies and merchandise. Experts in the field advised against this course of action, stating that the different media would just end up competing against each other. Burroughs went ahead, however, and proved the experts wrong—the public wanted Tarzan in whatever fashion he was offered. Tarzan remains one of the most successful fictional characters to this day and is a cultural icon.

In either 1915 or 1919, Burroughs purchased a large ranch north of Los Angeles, California, which he named "Tarzana." The citizens of the community that sprang up around the ranch voted to adopt that name when their community, Tarzana, California was formed in 1927. http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/research/divisions/sd/communityprofiles/California/Tarzana_CA.pdf Also the unincorporated community of Tarzan, Texas, was formally named in 1927 when the US Postal Service accepted the name,^[10] reputedly coming from the popularity of the first (silent) Tarzan of the Apes film, starring Elmo Lincoln, and an early "Tarzan" comic strip.

In 1923 Burroughs set up his own company, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., and began printing his own books through the 1930s.

Burroughs divorced Emma in 1934 and married the former actress Florence Gilbert Dearholt in 1935, the former wife of his friend, Ashton Dearholt, and Burroughs adopted the Dearholts' two children. This couple divorced in 1942.^[11]

At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Burroughs was a resident of Hawaii and, despite being in his late sixties, he applied for permission to become a war correspondent. This permission was granted, and so he became one of the oldest war correspondents for the U.S. during World War II. After the war ended, Burroughs moved back to Encino, California, where, after many health problems, he died of a heart attack on March 19, 1950, having written almost seventy novels.^[12]

Selected bibliography[link]

[edit] Barsoom series

• A Princess of Mars (1912)
• The Gods of Mars (1914)
• The Warlord of Mars (1918)
• Thuvia, Maid of Mars (1920)
• The Chessmen of Mars (1922)
• The Master Mind of Mars (1928)
• A Fighting Man of Mars (1931)
• Swords of Mars (1936)
• Synthetic Men of Mars (1940)
• Llana of Gathol (1948)
• John Carter of Mars (1964)
  • "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" (1940) Actually written by Burroughs's son, John Coleman Burroughs.
  • "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" (1942)

[edit] Tarzan series

• Tarzan of the Apes (1912)
• The Return of Tarzan (1913)
• The Beasts of Tarzan (1914)
• The Son of Tarzan (1914)
• Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916)
• Jungle Tales of Tarzan (1916, 1917)
• Tarzan the Untamed (1919, 1921)
• Tarzan the Terrible (1921)
• Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1922, 1923)
• Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924)
• Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1927, 1928)
• Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928)
• Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929)
• Tarzan the Invincible (1930–1931.)
• Tarzan Triumphant (1931)
• Tarzan and the City of Gold (1932)
• Tarzan and the Lion Man (1933, 1934)
• Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1935)
• Tarzan's Quest (1935, 1936)
• Tarzan the Magnificent (1936, 1937)
• Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938)
• Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947)
• Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins (1963, for younger readers)
• Tarzan and the Madman (1964)
• Tarzan and the Castaways (1965)
• Tarzan: the Lost Adventure (with Joe R. Lansdale) (1995)

[edit] Pellucidar series

• At the Earth's Core (1914)
• Pellucidar (1923)
• Tanar of Pellucidar (1928)
• Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929)
• Back to the Stone Age (1937)
• Land of Terror (1944)
• Savage Pellucidar (1963)

[edit] Venus series

• Pirates of Venus (1934)
• Lost on Venus (1935)
• Carson of Venus (1939)
• Escape on Venus (1946)
• The Wizard of Venus (1970)

[edit] Caspak series

• The Land That Time Forgot (1918)
• The People That Time Forgot (1918)
• Out of Time’s Abyss (1918)

[edit] Moon series

• The Moon Maid (1926) (aka The Moon Men)
  • Part I: The Moon Maid
  • Part II: The Moon Men
  • Part III: The Red Hawk

These three texts have been published by various houses in one or two volumes. Adding to the confusion, some editions have the original (significantly longer) introduction to Part I from the first publication as a magazine serial, and others have the shorter version from the first book publication, which included all three parts under the title The Moon Maid.^[13]

[edit] Mucker series

• The Mucker (1914)
• The Return of the Mucker (1916)
• The Oakdale Affair (1917)

Other science fiction[link]

• Beyond the Farthest Star (1941)
• The Lost Continent (1916) (aka Beyond Thirty)
• The Monster Men (1929)
• The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw (1937)

Jungle adventure novels[link]

• The Man-Eater (1915)
• The Cave Girl (1925)
• The Eternal Lover (1925) (aka The Eternal Savage)
• Jungle Girl (1932) (aka Land of the Hidden Men)
• The Lad and the Lion (1938)

Western novels[link]

• Apache Devil (1933)
• The Bandit of Hell's Bend (1926)
• The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County (1940)
• The War Chief (1927)

Historical novels[link]

• I am a Barbarian (1967)
• The Outlaw of Torn (1927)

Other works[link]

• The Efficiency Expert (1921)
• Forgotten Tales of Love and Murder (2001)
• The Girl from Farris's (1916)
• The Girl from Hollywood (1923)
• The Mad King (1926)
• Marcia of the Doorstep (1999)
• Minidoka: 937th Earl of One Mile Series M (1998)
• Pirate Blood (1970)
• The Rider (1937)
• You Lucky Girl! (1999)

Popular culture[link]

• In the video game Jurassic Park: Trespasser there is a statue of E. R. Burroughs, possibly as a reference to his novel The Land That Time Forgot.

• Burroughs is mentioned in the classic 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird in the first chapter: " Routine contentment was: improving our treehouse that rested between giant twin chinaberry trees in the back yard, fussing, running through our list of dramas based on the works of Oliver Optic, Victor Appleton, and Edgar Rice Burroughs."

• In Rainbow Mars by Larry Niven, several different fictional Martian races appear, including a people who are a combination of the Red Martians of Edgar Rice Burroughs and those by Ray Bradbury, and another who are unmistakably Burroughs' big fierce Green Martians.

• In the Mars Trilogy novels of Kim Stanley Robinson the original capital city on Mars is named Burroughs as a sort of tribute. It is later flooded.

• Season 1, Episode 29 of Disney's The Legend of Tarzan animated series, Tarzan and the Mysterious Visitor, illustrates Burroughs as a struggling writer who travels to Africa after learning about Tarzan in the hopes of getting inspiration for a new novel. (Notably, though, the real Burroughs never set foot in Africa.) The character is only referred to as "Ed" throughout the episode and his true identity isn't revealed until his name is shown on his book.

• The 1980 novel The Number of the Beast, by Robert A. Heinlein featured characters named Zebediah John Carter, Jacob Burroughs, and Dejah Thoris Burroughs in homage to Burroughs. The main characters travel to alternate universes, including Barsoom, Oz and Wonderland. The protagonist of Heinlein's Glory Road also muses on Barsoom.

• The Marvel Comics book Excalibur created by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis paid a tribute to the John Carter stories in issue #16 and 17. The story was billed on the cover of issue #16 as "Kurt Wagner Warlord of ?". The series added a further tribute with issue #60 and the story "Braddock of the jungle".

• In The Alternate Martians (Ace, 1965) A. Bertram Chandler explored a fictional Mars curiously combining characters, including Deliah (for Dejah) Thoris and Tars Tarkas, and characteristics of Burroughs's Barsoom with the malevolent Martians of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells.

• In Frank Frazetta's Creatures published by the Frazetta Comics imprint at Image Burroughs appears as a member of a group of supernatural investigators led by former US president Theodore Roosevelt.

• In Rocky II, Rocky reads "The Deputy Sheriff of Comanche County" to Adrian while she is in a coma.

• In Richard Bachman's short story "The Long Walk" the character named Olson introduces himself to Gary Barkovitch and says, "I'm John Carter", "My home is Barsoom, Mars."

• In the TV series ER, the character played by Noah Wyle is usually called simply Carter, but his full name is John Carter. The creator of ER, Michael Crichton, has cited the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs as an early influence, thus this homage.^{[citation needed]}

• In Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, John Carter appears twice. He teams up with H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain, H. P. Lovecraft's Randolph Carter, and Wells' Time Traveller on a strange journey in the supplemental Allan and the Sundered Veil. Later, he is seen leading the Green Martians in a battle against Wells' Martian invaders.

• In the 2012 Disney film John Carter, Daryl Sabara portrays Burroughs as a young man. In the film (as in the book) Edgar is the nephew of John Carter who after passing left him his belongings including a journal with his adventures on Mars.

Books on Edgar Rice Burroughs[link]

• Master of Adventure: The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs by Richard A. Lupoff
• Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Creator of Tarzan by John Taliaferro
• Golden Anniversary Bibliography of Edgar Rice Burroughs by the Rev. Henry Hardy Heins
• Tarzan Alive by Philip Jose Farmer
• Burroughs's Science Fiction by Robert R. Kudlay and Joan Leiby
• Tarzan and Tradition and Edgar Rice Burroughs by Erling B. Holtsmark
• Edgar Rice Burroughs by Irwin Porges
• Edgar Rice Burroughs by Robert B. Zeuschner
• The Burroughs Cyclopædia ed. by Clark A. Brady
• A Guide to Barsoom by John Flint Roy

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	United States Army portal

• Mars in fiction
• Otis Adelbert Kline
• Sword and planet
• John Carter film
• Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
• Several electronic books (eBooks) written by Edgar Rice Burroughs are available from The Gutenberg Project for free. These books are listed at Edgar Rice Burroughs at The Gutenberg Project

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Edgar Rice Burroughs

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Edgar Rice Burroughs

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Edgar Rice Burroughs

• Edgar Rice Burroughs biography at the Science Fiction Hall of Fame

Bibliography

• Works by Edgar Rice Burroughs at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Edgar Rice Burroughs at Project Gutenberg Australia
• Bibliography on SciFan
• LibriVox Audiobook Recordings
• Edgar Rice Burroughs at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Works by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• [[1]]=UK 1st editions]]

Other

• Tarzan.com
• Tarzan.org

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since April 2012. It may contain wording that merely promotes the subject without imparting verifiable information. Tagged since April 2012. Its neutrality is disputed. Tagged since April 2012. It may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since April 2012.

Born in Germany and raised in Australia, Mars Lasar is a keyboardist and composer. Predominantly new age music, his music also contains elements of electronica, jazz, pop, world, and rock. Platinum award winning composer/music producer he is also a sound designer,visual artist/photographer

To date Lasar has released 25 solo albums. His music has been featured on Conviction, The Bachelor, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, America's Got Talent, and 24. His first album, "Olympus" was utilized in the programming for CBS's coverage of the 1992 Winter Olympics. He was involved in the recording of Seal's song Crazy. He has also worked with T.A.T.u., Divinyls, Jon Stevens, Rick Dufay, Steve Balsamo, Siedah Garrett, Michael Jackson and the Brand New Heavies.

History[link]

At 11 his mother, who was an artist from Germany, introduced Lasar to music. His love for both music and gadgets quickly fused in harmony. According to Lasar, "I'd had extensive classical training and composed many themes on the piano, but I needed more and technology was the answer. So back in 1978 you'd find me with a simple cassette player, shortwave radio and a stopwatch. I put the cassette player in pause record, searched for the correct sound on shortwave, then hit record on the cassette player and used the stopwatch to determine when to stop. I'd do that over and over again for an hour to get a rhythmic sample of a shortwave radio sequence. I'd try all kinds of shortwave sampling combinations together with time combinations as long as a full second and down to 1/4 of a second with real neat results. Sequencing and sampling became my obsession." Multi-track sequencing which did not exist at that point and sampling was where Lasar was destined to go."

Shortly after, he was introduced to synthesizers and monophonic sequencers by another student in his high school who was obsessed with electronics, mathematics and music. Unknowingly, Lasar was perfectly situated to become a pioneer in the music sequencer explosion that occurred in the late 70s. Lasar remembers, By 1981, he was deep in the synthesizer/sequencing world along with Kraftwerk, Tomita and Tangerine Dream. I was in a band, IQ, with one other keyboard player, Ken Davis, and singer, Darpan. They dressed up in space suits and played space music on street corners, pubs, discos and open auditoriums. The band became such a popular spectacle we opened for Midnight Oil, Split Enz (featuring the Finn brothers of Crowded House) and eventually Mike Oldfield during the Tubular Bells tour.

As struggling artists, the band huddled in small house and perfected their unusual craft using only synthesizers, drum machines and vocals. Until In 1979, they met Kim Ryrie founder of Fairlight Instruments, the first computer software driven musical instrument manufacturer. Kim hired Mars, knowing he might be a good addition to the Fairlight team. He worked for Fairlight for eight years. During that time, Lasar worked with their R&D team to help create the first multi-track sampler/sequencer "Page R". "I spent countless hours building the first sample library and making demo compositions. I composed countless compositions using my sequencing method which was sent out to the world with the machines at $80,000 a piece. I demonstrated the Fairlight at audio trade shows AES, NAB and others, and to many artists and producers including Alan Parsons, Hans Zimmer, Kate Bush, Duran Duran, Herbie Hancock and many others."

After Fairlight, Lasar came to Los Angeles in 1990 and worked with Seal and Hans Zimmer. He sequenced Seal's song "Crazy" with Trevor Horn and worked on Days of Thunder with Hans Zimmer. Lasar relates, "At that point in my career I was focusing on composing and sound design. The reason I got to know all these guys is that they all loved music technology and the Fairlight." Lasar released his first album as a solo artist in 1991 "Olympus".[1] Twenty five albums later, Lasar is still a prolific composer.

References[link]

External links[link]

• www.marslasar.com - music catalog
• www.picsfrommars.com - fine art catalog
• Mars' Trip

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

Graham Hancock
Born	(1950-08-02)August 2, 1950 (age 61) Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Nationality	British
Citizenship	British
Alma mater	Durham University
Occupation	Author
Known for	Author, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, The Message of the Sphinx

Graham Hancock (born 2 August 1950 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is a British writer and journalist. Hancock specialises in unconventional theories ^[1] involving ancient civilizations, stone monuments or megaliths, altered states of consciousness, ancient myths and astronomical/astrological data from the past. One of the main themes running through many of his books is the possible global connection with a "mother culture" from which he believes all ancient historical civilizations sprang.^[2]

Biography[link]

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Hancock's formative years were spent in India, where his father worked as a surgeon. Having returned to the UK, he graduated from Durham University in 1973, receiving a First Class Honours degree in Sociology.

As a journalist, Hancock worked for many British papers, such as The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and The Guardian. He was co-editor of New Internationalist magazine from 1976–1979 and East Africa correspondent of The Economist from 1981-1983.

Works[link]

Hancock sees himself as a journalist who asks questions based upon observation and as someone who provides a counterbalance to what he perceives as the "unquestioned" acceptance and support given to orthodox views by the education system, the media, and by society at large.^[3] His books include Lords of Poverty, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis (released in the US as Message of the Sphinx), The Mars Mystery, Heaven's Mirror (with wife Santha Faiia), Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, and Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith (with co-author Robert Bauval). In 1996 he appeared in The Mysterious Origins of Man.^[4] He also wrote and presented the documentaries Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age (2002) and Quest for the Lost Civilisation (1998) ^[5] shown on Channel 4. In Hancocks's book Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith,^[6] co-authored with Robert Bauval, the two put forward "a version of the old Jewish-Masonic plot so beloved by ultra-right-wing conspiracy theorists."^[7] They suggest a connection between the pillars of Solomon's Temple and the Twin Towers, and between the Star of David and The Pentagon.^[8]

Hancock's most recent non-fiction book, Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind, was published in the UK in October 2005 and in the US in 2006. In it, Hancock examines paleolithic cave art in the light of David Lewis-Williams' neuropsychological model, exploring its relation to the development of the fully modern human mind.

His first novel, Entangled: The Eater of Souls, the first in a fantasy series, was published in the UK in April 2010 and in the US in October 2010. The novel makes use of Hancock's prior research interests and as he has noted, "What was there to lose, I asked myself, when my critics already described my factual books as fiction?"

Although his books have sold more than five million copies worldwide and have been translated into twenty-seven languages, his methods and conclusions have found little support among academics, his work being labelled "pseudoarchaeology".^[1][9][10]

Orion Correlation Theory[link]

Representation of the central tenet of the OCT - the outline of the Giza pyramids superimposed over a photograph of the stars in Orion's Belt. To achieve this concordance the pyramids have been rotated and scaled to suit. The validity of this match has been called into question by Hancock's critics, as noted in the text.

One of the many recurring themes in several of Hancock's works has been an exposition on the "Orion Correlation Theory" (or OCT),^[11][12] first put forward by Belgian writer Robert Bauval and then further expounded in collaborative works with Hancock, as well as in their separate publications.

[edit] BBC Horizon controversy

BBC 2's Horizon TV series broadcast a programme, Atlantis Reborn, on 4 November 1999 that challenged the ideas presented by Hancock. It detailed one of Hancock's claims that the arrangement of an ancient temple complex was designed to mirror astronomical features and attempted to demonstrate that the same thing could be done with perhaps equal justification using famous landmarks in New York. It also alleged that Hancock had selectively moved or ignored the locations of some of the temples to fit his own theories (see below).^[13]

Hancock claimed he was misrepresented by the programme, and he and Robert Bauval made complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Commission against the way Horizon had portrayed them and their work. Eight points were raised by Hancock, two by Bauval (one of which duplicated a complaint of Hancock's).^[14] This included the complaint that:

The programme attempted to create the impression that he [Hancock] was an intellectual fraudster who had put forward half baked theories and ideas in bad faith, and that he was incompetent to defend his own arguments.^[15]

The BSC dismissed all but one of the complaints. Overall, the BSC concluded that "the programme makers acted in good faith in their examination of the theories of Mr Hancock and Mr Bauval".^[16] The complaint which was upheld was that

The programme unfairly omitted one of their arguments in rebuttal of a speaker who criticised the theory of a significant correlation between the Giza pyramids and the belt stars of the constellation Orion (the "correlation theory")

which the Commission did find to be unfair. That speaker was the astronomer Edwin Krupp. Krupp accused Bauval of fudging the maps of Orion and the Pyramids by placing them upside down in order to make the theory work.^[17] In interviews filmed in the later and modified Horizon documentary Atlantis Reborn Again shown on 14 December 2000, Hancock and Bauval provided detailed rebuttals to Krupp and argued that the ancient Egyptians had made the Pyramids correlate in the most obvious and intuitive manner with the three stars of Orion's Belt, that Orion could only be seen at the highest point in the sky by the Egyptians looking in a southward direction and a work of symbolic and religious art. A counter argument was provided on Atlantis Reborn Again to Bauval and Hancock's responses to Krupp's statements.

According to Graham Hancock, Krupp's criticism was rejected by two prominent British astronomers, Dr. Percy Seymour of Plymouth University and Dr. Archie Roy, professor Emeritus at Glasgow University.^[18]

Cultural references[link]

In 2009, Roland Emmerich released his blockbuster disaster movie 2012 citing Fingerprints of the Gods in the credits as an inspiration for the film,^[19] stating: "I always wanted to do a biblical flood movie, but I never felt I had the hook. I first read about the Earth's Crust Displacement Theory in Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods." ^[20] Also in 2009, author Geoff Stray released his best-selling book "Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Awakening?" in which he cites Graham Hancock as one of his inspirations and as a guidepost to point others to do their own investigation into the wonder of ancient societies.^[21]

Books[link]

• Hancock, Graham (1985). Ethiopia: The Challenge of Hunger. London: V. Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-03680-X. 
• Hancock, Graham; Enver Carim (1986). AIDS: The Deadly Epidemic. London: V. Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-03837-3. 
• Hancock, Graham (1989). Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 0-87113-253-2. 
• Hancock, Graham (1992). The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. New York: Crown. ISBN 0-517-57813-1. 
• Hancock, Graham (1995). Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization. New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-59348-3. 
• Hancock, Graham; Robert Bauval (1996). The Message of the Sphinx: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind. New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-70503-6.  Published in the United Kingdom as Hancock, Graham; Robert Bauval (1996). Keeper of Genesis: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-00302-6. 
• Hancock, Graham (1998). The Mars Mystery: A Tale of the End of Two Worlds. London: Michael Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-4314-0. 
• Hancock, Graham; Santha Faiia (1998). Heaven's Mirror: Quest for the Lost Civilization. New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-70811-6. 
• Hancock, Graham; Santha Faiia (2001). Fingerprints of the Gods: The Quest Continues (New Updated Edition). New York: Crown Century. ISBN 0-7126-7906-5. 
• Hancock, Graham (2002). Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization. New York: Crown. ISBN 1-4000-4612-2. 
• Hancock, Graham; Robert Bauval (2004). Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith. Tisbury: Element Books. ISBN 0-00-719036-0. 
• Hancock, Graham (2005). Supernatural: Meeting with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind. London: Century. ISBN 1-84413-681-7. 
• Hancock, Graham (2010). Entangled: The Eater of Souls. New York: The Disinformation Company. ISBN 978-1-934708-56-9. 

See also[link]

• Archaeoastronomy
• Erich von Däniken
• Mythology
• Zahi Hawass

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Official Graham Hancock Website
• Broadcasting Standards Commission – Synopsis of adjudication. Horizon: Atlantis Reborn (November 4, 1999)
• Horizon: Atlantis Reborn and the Broadcasting Standards Commission The BBC's response to the Horizon programme debate.
• Brass, M., nd, An analysis of the quality of Graham Hancock's "science", The Antiquity of Man Web Site.
• Brass, M., 2002, Tracing Graham Hancock's Shifting Cataclysm, Skeptical Inquirer. vol. 26, no. 4: 45-49.
• Carroll, R. T., 2009, Atlantis, The Skeptic’s Dictionary website.
• Fagan, N., nd, An Answer to Graham Hancock and Analysis of Hancock's Position Statement on C-14 Dating, Papers, In the Hall of Ma’at website.
• Tonkin, S., nd, Some Astronomical Errors of Graham Hancock, The Astronomical Unit website.
• Flemming, N., nd, Review of Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age, Papers, In the Hall of Ma’at website.
• The Big Idea: Graham Hancock