This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It is written like a personal reflection or essay rather than an encyclopedic description of the subject. Tagged since April 2012. Its neutrality is disputed. Tagged since April 2012.

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, McClurg, 1917

Barsoom is a fictional representation of the planet Mars created by American pulp fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The first Barsoom tale was serialized as Under the Moons of Mars in 1912, and published as a novel as A Princess of Mars in 1917. Ten sequels followed over the next three decades, further extending his vision of Barsoom and adding other characters.

The world of Barsoom is a romantic vision of a dying Mars, based on now-outdated scientific ideas made popular by Astronomer Percival Lowell in the early 20th century. While depicting many outlandish inventions, and advanced technology, it is a savage world of honor, noble sacrifice, and constant struggle, where martial prowess is paramount, and where many races fight over dwindling resources. It is filled with lost cities, heroic adventures and forgotten ancient secrets.

The series has inspired a number of well known science fiction writers in the 20th century, and also key scientists involved in both space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life. It has informed and been adapted by many writers, in novels, short stories, comics, television and film.

Series[link]

Burroughs began writing the Barsoom books in the second half of 1911, and produced one volume a year between 1911 and 1914; seven more were produced between 1921 and 1941.^[1] The first Barsoom tale was serialized in The All-Story magazine as Under the Moons of Mars (1912), and then published in hardcover as the complete novel A Princess of Mars (1917).^[2][3] The final Barsoom tale was a novella, Skeleton Men of Jupiter, published in Amazing Stories in February 1943.^[4]

Etymology[link]

Burroughs frequently made up words from the languages spoken by the peoples in his novels, and used these extensively in the narrative. In Thuvia, Maid of Mars he included a glossary of Barsoomian words used in the first four novels. The word "Barsoom", the native Martian word for Mars, is composed of the Martian name for planet, "soom", and the Martian word for eight, "bar". This assumes that Mars is the eighth body in the inner solar system, though to reach this figure it is necessary to count the Sun and the satellites of both the Earth and Mars itself even though they are not planets.^[5]

Character focus[link]

A Princess of Mars, the first novel in the Barsoom series, is a stand-alone. It connects, however, with the two novels that followed, The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars, to form a trilogy (although there is a ten-year gap between the first and second novels). The trilogy focuses on Earthman John Carter and Martian princess Dejah Thoris, with Green Martian Tars Tarkas making frequent appearances. John Carter's and Dejah Thoris's son Carthoris is also introduced as a minor character in The Gods of Mars, as is Thuvia.^[6]

Three other books focus on their descendants: Carthoris, in Thuvia, Maid of Mars, his sister, Tara of Helium, in The Chessmen of Mars, and Tara's daughter, Llana of Gathol, in Llana of Gathol.

Ulysses Paxton, another Earth man transported to Mars, is the focus of The Master Mind of Mars, and the rest of the books focus on John Carter's later adventures (Swords of Mars and John Carter of Mars), or native Martian characters (A Fighting Man of Mars and Synthetic Men of Mars).^[7]

Form[link]

The majority of the tales are novels, but two of the books in the series of eleven are collections of shorter works: Llana of Gathol has four linked novelettes, originally published in Amazing Stories during 1941,^[8] and John Carter of Mars is composed of two novellas.

Most of the tales are first-person narratives. John Carter narrates A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, The Warlord of Mars, Swords of Mars, the four novellas in Llana of Gathol and "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" in John Carter of Mars. Ulysses Paxton narrates one, The Master Mind of Mars. Martian guardsman Vor Daj narrates Synthetic Men of Mars and Martian navy officer Tan Hadron narrates A Fighting Man of Mars. Two other novels, Thuvia, Maid of Mars and The Chessmen of Mars, are written in the third person, as is "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" in John Carter of Mars.

Introductions[link]

Beginning with A Princess of Mars, Burroughs established a practice which continued in the four sequels: introducing the novel as though it were a factual account passed on to him personally. He describes John Carter to be an avuncular figure known to his family for years, who gave him the manuscript during an earlier visit, with instructions not to publish it for twenty-one years.^[5] The same device appears in several sequels: The Gods of Mars, The Chessmen of Mars, Swords of Mars, and Llana of Gathol.

Authorship[link]

All of the Barsoom tales were published under the name of Edgar Rice Burroughs (except Under the Moons of Mars, the first publication of A Princess of Mars, which was published under the pseudonym "Norman Bean." Burroughs had actually typed "Normal Bean" (meaning not crazy in the head) on his submitted manuscript, but his publisher's typesetter thought it a typo and changed it to "Norman." The first novella in John Carter of Mars, "John Carter and the Giant of Mars", is thought to have been penned by Burroughs's son John "Jack" Coleman Burroughs, although allegedly revised by his father. It was recognized by fans, upon publication, as unlikely of being Burroughs' work, as the writing is of a juvenile quality compared to that of Burroughs' other stories.^[4]

Genre[link]

The stories are science fantasy, belonging to the subgenre planetary romance, which has strong elements of both science fiction and fantasy.^[9] Planetary romance stories are similar to sword and sorcery tales, but include scientific aspects.^[10] They mostly take place on the surface of an alien world, frequently include sword fighting, monsters, supernatural elements such as telepathic abilities, and civilizations similar to Earth in pre-technological eras, particularly with the inclusion of dynastic or religious social structures. Spacecraft may appear, but are not central to the story.^[9]

The stories also share a number of elements with westerns in that they feature desert landscapes, women taken captive and a final confrontation with the antagonist.^[11]

Burroughs' Barsoom stories are considered seminal planetary romances. While examples existed prior to the publication of his works, they are the key influence on the many works of this type that followed.^[9] His style of planetary romance has ceased to be written and published in the mainstream, though his books remain in print.^[12]

Plot[link]

Like most of Burroughs' fiction, the novels in the series are mostly travelogues, feature copious action of a violent nature, and often have plots involving civilized heroes being captured by uncivilized cultures and being forced to adapt to the cruel nature of their captors to survive.^[13]

While there is variation, most of the Barsoom novels follow a familiar plot structure. A hero is forced to journey to a far-off location in search of a woman he is either in love with or believes himself to be in love with. The woman has been kidnapped by an odious but powerful man, who both desires her and values her for his own political ends.^[14] Female characters are frequently threatened with sexual assault;^[15] Dejah Thoris (on numerous occasions), Thuvia and Tara of Helium are all subjected to this threat. Tara notably is pursued by a headless body being remotely controlled by telepathy by a Kaldane in The Chessmen of Mars.^[7][16]

The hero is awkward with women and will tend to misinterpret their interest in him due to his low confidence or familiarity with the ways of women. Female characters are likely to be virtuous and fight off amorous advances and other dangers until able to connect with the hero.^[14] The hero is often forced to adopt a disguise and is not recognized by the heroine.

He will have to fight both strange races and hideous creatures to claim her love. Along the way the hero will encounter kings or other powerful figures who rule over a severely repressed population, ripe for rebellion. He will be instrumental in deposing the ruler, usually with the assistance of a fresh-faced member of the same population, whom the hero will have encountered when both are in some kind of slavery or imprisonment.^[17]

Typically the novels include descriptions of aspects of the Martian world such as the architecture, and the presence of desolate landscapes punctuated by abandoned cities — whose histories are often elaborated upon, technological achievements, advanced medicine, cultural elements such as superstitious religious practices and eating habits, breeding practices and methods of population control.^[18]

Many lost cities and civilizations and journeys into forgotten underworlds appear across the series, and the environment beyond the cities is populated by a variety of ferocious beasts, many roughly equivalent with Earth creatures and most with multiple sets of limbs. There are numerous examples of striking coincidences and deus ex machina events that are usually to the benefit of the protagonists; perhaps the most striking example is an invisible flying ship in A Fighting Man of Mars which is lost, only to be bumped into by accident some time later, just when needed to escape death.

Mad scientists also appear, Ras Thavas from The Master Mind of Mars and Synthetic Men of Mars being the principal example, although another plays a prominent role in A Fighting Man of Mars.^[7] Incidences of the use of superstition by religious cults to control and manipulate others are also common.^[19]

A Princess of Mars was possibly the first fiction of the 20th century to feature a constructed language; although Barsoomian was not particularly developed, it did add verisimilitude to the narrative.

Villains[link]

The majority of the villains in the Barsoom series are inplacably evil, and often their appearance matches this. Typically they are rulers or despots of major empires, or little known hidden fiefdoms. They are usually hated by their subjects and possess a voracious sexual appetite, usually directed towards the heroine. The pattern is established by green martian Jeddak, Tal Hajus, in the first novel, A Princess of Mars, hated even by the bloodthirsty green martians. Further examples include the yellow martian Salensus Oll in The Warlord of Mars, Nutus of Dusar in Thuvia, Maid of Mars and Ul Vas, Jeddak of the Tarids in Swords of Mars.^[20]

Appeal[link]

The popularity of the Barsoom novels may lie in their reflection of the classic 'rags to riches' tale in a fantastic setting, which may resonate with readers who feel undervalued, and whose abilities are unrecognized. The heroes are men of talent and ability whose circumstances have so far failed to give them the opportunity to reach their proper potential. The epic scale adventures of the novels allow their inner selves to manifest, and reward them with love, companionship, freedom and success. These are action heroes who are noble, fearless and never doubt themselves in the face of adversity. They are not skilled in their dealings with women, but are chivalrous and their noble qualities and fearlessness make them attractive to the heroines. The narratives also set a rapid pace, and offer a considerable sense of escapism. They are mostly read by men, but there are female fans as well.^[21]

Principal characters[link]

Earthmen[link]

John Carter.

• John Carter: Captain John Carter is an Earthman, who originated in Virginia. He fought in the American Civil war on the Confederate side.^[22] 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 ten years [while on Mars], and was believed dead, but re-emerged in New York in 1876, settling on the Hudson. He appeared to die in 1886, leaving instructions for Burroughs, who refers to him as an 'uncle', 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.^[23] 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 steel gray eyes.^[22] He is honorable, courageous and eternally optimistic, even in the face of certain death.^[24] He is transported to the planet Mars by a form of astral projection. There, he encounters both formidable alien creatures and various warring Martian races, wins the hand of martian princess Dejah Thoris, and rises to the position of Warlord of Mars. Protagonist of the first three novels. Carter also headlines the eighth, tenth and eleventh books, and is a major secondary character in the fourth and ninth novels.
• Ulysses Paxton: The central character in The Master Mind of Mars. Paxton is a soldier in the First World War who is transported to Barsoom after he is mortally wounded, and becomes the assistant of scientist Ras Thavas.

Martians[link]

• 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. The daughter of Mors Kajak, jed of Lesser Helium and granddaughter of Tardos Mors, jeddak of Helium, she is highly aristocratic and fiercely proud of her heritage.^[25] She is introduced early in the first Barsoom novel, A Princess of Mars, and is the love interest of John Carter.^[26] She is a central character in the first three novels, and her capture by various enemies, and subsequent pursuit by John Carter, is a constant motivating force in these tales. She is a minor character in The Chessmen of Mars and John Carter of Mars.
• Tars Tarkas: A fierce Green Martian warrior who is unusual among his savage race for his ability to love, and is therefore much affected by the loss of his lover while he is away on a raid. He befriends John Carter and fights many battles at his side. Carter helps him become Jeddak of his tribe and negotiates an alliance between them and the city-state of Helium, which results in the destruction of their enemies, the city of Zodanga, at the end of A Princess of Mars.^[23] While John Carter is able to befriend him, and he shows some civilized noble qualities, Tars Tarkas remains unable to understand art or much improve his grasp of technology and still takes pleasure in cruelty and violence.^[27]
• Thuvia of Ptarth: A Princess of Ptarth, who first appears in The Gods of Mars, as a slave girl, rescued by John Carter from the nefarious Therns. She is later imprisoned with Carter's wife Dejah Thoris, in a prison which can only be opened once per year and remains by her side until the conclusion of The Warlord of Mars.^[28] Like many of Burroughs' Martian heroines, she is tough, courageous, and proud, and strongly identifies with her aristocratic position in Martian society. Also typically, she is abducted by evildoers who wish to use her for political gain in Thuvia, Maid of Mars, her rescue providing primary motivation for the plot of that novel.^[29] She is a central character in Thuvia, Maid of Mars and love interest of John Carter and Dejah Thoris' son Carthoris.^[28]
• Ras Thavas: A mad scientist who develops both brain transplant techniques and a form of cloning, a principal character in both The Master Mind of Mars and Synthetic Men of Mars.
• Tan Hadron: A young Red Martian navy officer, who is the central character of A Fighting Man of Mars.
• Vor Daj: A soldier in John Carter's guard. Principal character in Synthetic Men of Mars, who spends much of the novel with his brain transplanted into a hideous but powerful synthetic body.
• Gahan of Gathol: A prince of Gathol; love interest for Tara of Helium and father of Llana of Gathol; a principal character in The Chessmen of Mars.

Martian descendants of John Carter and Dejah Thoris[link]

John Carter's descendants

• Carthoris: Son of John Carter and Dejah Thoris who inherits his father's superior strength and ability with a sword. A minor character in The Gods of Mars. A principal character in Thuvia, Maid of Mars and love interest of Thuvia.^[30]
• Tara of Helium: Impetuous daughter of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, who runs away and gets involved in various perilous situations as a principal character in The Chessmen of Mars. Love interest of Gahan of Gathol and mother of Llana of Gathol.^[16]
• Llana of Gathol: Granddaughter of John Carter and Dejah Thoris and daughter of Tara of Helium and Gahan of Gathol; a principal character in the stories collected in Llana of Gathol.

Environment[link]

While Burroughs' Barsoom tales never aspired to being anything other than exciting escapism, his vision of Mars was loosely inspired by astronomical speculation of the time, especially that of Percival Lowell, that saw the planet as a formerly Earthlike world now becoming less hospitable to life due to its advanced age.^[31] Living on an aging planet, with dwindling resources, the inhabitants of Barsoom have become hardened and warlike, fighting one another to survive.^[32] Once a wet world with continents and oceans, Barsoom's seas gradually dried up, leaving it a dry planet of highlands interspersed with moss covered dead sea bottoms. Abandoned cities line the former coast lands. The last remnants of the former bodies of water are the Great Toonolian Marshes and the antarctic Lost Sea of Korus.

Barsoomians distribute scarce water supplies via a worldwide system of canals, controlled by quarreling city-states which have grown up at the junctures of the canals. The idea of Martian "canals" stems from telescopic observations by 19th century astronomers who, beginning with Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877, believed they saw networks of lines on the planet. Schiaparelli called them canali ("grooves" in Italian is scanalature, whilst canale is, in fact, channel and/or canal, depending on the context) which was mistranslated in English as "canals". During the time Burroughs wrote his first Barsoom stories, the theory was put forward by a number of prominent scientists, notably Lowell, that these were huge engineering works constructed by an intelligent race. This caught the imagination of the public, resulting in a fascination with Mars which inspired much science fiction. The thinning Martian atmosphere is artificially replenished from an "atmosphere plant" on whose smooth functioning all life on the planet is dependent.^[33]

The Martian year comprises 687 Martian days, each of which is 24 hours and 37 minutes long. (Burroughs presumably derived this from the figures published by Lowell, but erroneously substituted the number of 24-hour Earth days in the Martian year, rather than the number of 24.6-hour Martian days, which is only 669.) The days are hot and the nights are cold, and there appears to be little variation in climate across the planet, except at the poles.^[34]

Burroughs explained his ideas about the Martian environment in an article "A Dispatch on Mars" published in the London Daily Express in 1926. He assumed that Mars was formerly identical to the Earth; therefore a similar evolutionary development of fauna would have taken place. He referenced winds, snows and marshes which had supposedly been observed by astronomers, as evidence of an atmosphere, and that the wastes of the planet had been irrigated (probably referencing Lowell's canals), which suggested that an advanced civilization existed on the planet.

Peoples and culture[link]

All Barsoomian races resemble Homo sapiens in most respects, except for being egg laying^[35] and having lifespans in excess of 1,000 years unless killed through violent means.^[2] The traditional Martian lifespan of 1,000 is based on the customary pilgrimage down the River Iss, which is taken by virtually all Martians by that age, or those who feel tired of their long lives and expect to find a paradise at the end of their journey. None return from this pilgrimage, because it leads to almost certain death at the hands of ferocious creatures.^[30]

While the Martian females are egg-laying, Martians have mammalian characteristics such as a navel and breasts.^[36] While they have skins of various colors, and their bodies differ in some cases from traditional humans, they are very similar to varieties of Earth humans, and there is little examination of how their extraterrestrial biology might make them unusual or particularly distinct from terrestrial humans.^[2] There is only one spoken language across the entire planet, but a variety of writing systems.^[7]

All Martians are telepathic, among one another, and also with domestic animals. Other telepathic abilities are demonstrated across the books. The Lotharians in Thuvia, Maid of Mars, are able to project images of warfare, which images can kill by suggestion.^[7]

Trade and cultural relations in Barsoom, as presented by Burroughs, are contradictory. In The Warlord of Mars nations are described as being bellicose and self sufficient, but in The Gods of Mars inter-city state merchants are mentioned, and in Thuvia, Maid of Mars, towering staging posts for inter-city liners are also described.^[37]

Most of the cultures are dynasties or theocracies.

Red Martians[link]

The Red Martians are the dominant culture on Barsoom. They are organized into a system of imperial city-states including Helium, Ptarth and Zodanga, controlling the planetary canal system, as well as other, more isolated city-states in the hinterlands. The Red Martians are the interbred descendants of the ancient Yellow Martians, White Martians, and Black Martians, remnants of which exist in isolated areas of the planet, particularly the poles. The Red Martians are said in A Princess of Mars to have been bred when the seas of Barsoom began to dry up, in hopes of creating a hardy race to survive in the new environment.^[7][38]

The Red Martians are highly civilized, respect the idea of private property, adhere to a code of honor and have a strong sense of fairness. Their culture is governed by law and is advanced technologically. They are capable of love and have families.^[39]

Green Martians[link]

A four armed Green Martian on his thoat, as represented in the original 1920 edition of Thuvia, Maid of Mars.

The Green Martians are fifteen feet tall (males) and twelve feet tall (females), have four arms and eyes mounted at the side of their heads. They are nomadic, warlike and barbaric, do not form families, have little concept of friendship or love and enjoy inflicting torture upon their victims. Their social structure is highly communal — they have no concept of private property — and is rigidly hierarchical, consisting of various levels of chiefs, with the highest office occupied by an all powerful Jeddak. However, the title of Jeddak is obtained by mortal combat, rather than hereditary means. They form tribes, which war among one another constantly. They ride aggressive animals, thoats, and armed themselves with swords, lances and firearms which use 'radium' ammunition.^[23][39]

The Green Men are primitive, intellectually unadvanced, do not have any kind of art and are without a written language. While they craft weapons, any advanced technology they possess, such as 'radium pistols', is stolen from raids upon the Red Martians. They inhabit the ancient ruined cities left behind by civilizations which lived on Barsoom during a more advanced and hospitable era in the planet's history.^[32] They apparently arose from a biological experiment which went awry^{[citation needed]} and as with all other Martians, they are an egg-laying species, concealing their eggs in incubators until hatching. Tars Tarkas, who befriends John Carter when he first arrives on Barsoom, is an unusual exception from the typical ruthless Green Martian, due to having known the love of his own mate and daughter.^[23][39]

In the novels, the Green Martians are often referred to by the names of their hordes, which in turn take their names from the dead cities which they inhabit. Thus the followers of Tars Tarkas, based in the ruined ancient city of Thark, are known as "Tharks". Other hordes bear the names of Warhoon, Torquas and Thurd.

Okarians[link]

Yellow Martians are supposedly extinct, but in The Warlord of Mars they are found hiding in secret domed cities at the North Pole of Mars. At the time John Carter arrives on Barsoom the Yellow Race is known only in old wives' tales and campfire stories.

The only means of entrance to the Okarians city is through The Carrion Caves, which are every bit as unpleasant as the name suggests. Air travel over the barrier is discouraged through the use of a great magnetic pillar called "The Guardian of the North," which draws fliers of all sizes inexorably into their doom as they collide with the massive structure.

Their cities are domed hothouses which keep out the cold, but outdoors they favor orluk furs and boots. Physically, they are large and strong, and the men wear bristling black beards as a rule. .^[28][39]

White Martians[link]

Orovars[link]

The White Martians, known as 'Orovars' were rulers of Mars for 500,000 years, with an empire of sophisticated cities with advanced technology. They were white skinned, with blond or auburn hair. They were once a seafaring race but when the oceans began to dry up, they began to cooperate with the Yellow and Black Martians to breed the Red Martians,^[40] foreseeing the need for hardy stock to cope with the emerging harsher environment. They became decadent and 'overcivilized'. At the beginning of the series they are believed to be extinct, but three remaining populations, some original Orovars, Therns and Lotharians, are still living in secret and are discovered as the books progress.^[7]

Lotharians[link]

The Lotharians are a remnant population of the original White Martians, which appear only in Thuvia, Maid of Mars. There are only 1000 of them remaining, all of them male. They are skilled in telepathy, able to project images that can kill, or provide sustenance. They live a reclusive existence in a remote area of Barsoom, debating philosophy amongst themselves.^[41]

Therns[link]

Descendants of the original White Martians who live in a complex of caves and passages in the cliffs above the Valley Dor. This is the destination of the River Iss, on whose currents most Martians eventually travel, on a pilgrimage seeking final paradise, once tired of life or reaching 1000 years of age. The valley is actually populated by monsters, overlooked by the Therns, who control these creatures, and ransack, and eat the flesh of those who perish, enslaving those who survive. They consider themselves a unique creation, different from other Martians. They maintain the false Martian religion through a network of collaborators and spies across the planet. They are themselves raided by the Black Martians. They are white skinned and bald but wear blond wigs.^[42]

Black Martians (First Born)[link]

Legend suggests that the Black Martians are inhabitants of one of the moons of Mars, when in fact they live in an underground stronghold near the south pole of the planet, around the subterranean Sea of Omean, below the Lost Sea of Korus, where they keep a large aerial navy. They call themselves the 'First Born', believing themselves to be a unique creation among Martian races, and worship Issus, a woman who styles herself as the God of the Martian religion, but is no such thing. They frequently raid the White Martian Therns, who maintain the false Martian religion, carrying off people as slaves. John Carter defeats their navy in The Gods of Mars.^[42]

Others[link]

Kaldanes and Rykors[link]

The Chessmen of Mars introduces the Kaldanes of the region Bantoom, whose form is almost all head but for six vestigial legs and a pair of Chelae, and whose racial goal is to evolve even further towards pure intellect and away from bodily existence. In order to function in the physical realm, they have bred the Rykors, a complementary species composed of a body similar to that of a perfect specimen of Red Martian but lacking a head; when the Kaldane places itself upon the shoulders of the Rykor, a bundle of tentacles connects with the Rykor's spinal cord, allowing the brain of the Kaldane to interface with the body of the Rykor. Should the Rykor become damaged or die, the Kaldane merely climbs upon another as an earthling might change a horse.^[7]

Kangaroo Men[link]

A lesser people of Barsoom are the Kangaroo Men of Gooli, so called due to their large, kangaroo-like tails, ability to hop large distances and the rearing of their eggs in pouches. They are presented as a race of boastful, cowardly individuals.^[43] Their moral character is not highly developed; they are devout cowards and petty thieves, who only value (aside from their lives) a "treasure" consisting of pretty stones, sea shells, etc.

Hormads[link]

In addition to the naturally occurring races of Barsoom, Burroughs described the Hormads, artificial men created by the scientist Ras Thavas as slaves, workers, warriors, etc. in giant vats at his laboratory in the Toonolian Marsh in Synthetic Men of Mars and "John Carter and the Giant of Mars". Although the Hormads were generally recognizable as humanoid, the process was far from perfect, and generated monstrosities ranging from the occasional misplaced nose or eyeball to "a great mass of living flesh with an eye somewhere and a single hand." ^[44]

Technology[link]

When Burroughs wrote the first volume of the Barsoom series, aviation and radio technology was in its infancy and radioactivity was a fledgling science. Despite this, the series includes a range of technological developments including radium munitions, battles between fleets of aircraft, devices similar to faxes and televisions, genetic manipulation, elements of terraforming and other ideas. One notable device mentioned is the "directional compass"; this may be believed to be the precursor to the now-common "global positioning system", or GPS for short.^[45]

Martian flier on cover of The Gods of Mars.

Fliers[link]

The Red Martians have flying machines, both civilian transports, and fleets of heavily armed war craft. These stay aloft through some form of anti-gravity, which Burroughs explains as relating to the rays of the Sun.^[7] Fliers travel at approximately 166.1 earth miles per hour (450 Martian Haads per hour).^[46]

The following are excerpts from the second novel 'The Gods of Mars':

"For those who may be interested, however, I will explain that the Martian day is a trifle over 24 hours 37 minutes duration (Earth time). This the Martians divide into ten equal parts, commencing the day at about 6 A.M. Earth time. The zodes are divided into fifty shorter periods, each of which in turn is composed of 200 brief periods of time, about equivalent to the earthly second. The Barsoomian Table of Time as here given is but a part of the full table appearing in Captain Carter’s notes. 200 tals 1 xat 50 xats 1 zode 10 zodes 1 revolution of Mars upon its axis"^[47]

"The ten Earth years I had spent upon Barsoom had encompassed but five years and ninety-six days of Martian time, whose days are forty-one minutes longer than ours, and whose years number six hundred and eighty-seven days."^[48]

In Thuvia, Maid of Mars, John Carter's son, Cathoris, invents what appears to be a partial precursor of the autopilot (several decades before this became a reality). The device, built upon existing Martian compass technology, allows the pilot to reach any programmed destination, only having to keep the craft pointed in the set direction. Upon arrival, the device automatically lowers the craft to the surface. He also includes a kind of collision detector, which uses radium rays to detect any obstacle and automatically steer the craft elsewhere, until the obstacle is no longer detected.^[49] This works in principle almost identically to the backscatter radiation detector used to fire the braking rockets on the Soyuz space capsule. In Swords of Mars a flier with some kind of mechanical brain is introduced. Controlled by thought, it can be remote controlled in flight, or instructed to travel to any destination.^[50]

Weapons[link]

Firearms are common, and use 'Radium' bullets, which explode when exposed to sunlight. Some weapons are specific to races or inventors. The mysterious Yellow Martians, who live in secret glass domed cities at the poles, and appear in The Warlord of Mars have a form of magnet which allows them to attract flying craft and cause them to crash. Scientist Phor Tak, who appears in A Fighting Man of Mars, has developed a disintegrator ray, and also a paste which renders vehicles such as fliers impervious to its effects. He also develops a missile which seeks out craft protected in this fashion, and a means of rendering fliers invisible which becomes a key plot device in the novel. However, while advanced weapons are available, most martians seem to prefer melee combat — mostly with swords — and their level of skill is highly impressive.^[7]

Atmosphere plant[link]

There are many technological wonders in the novels, some colossal works of engineering. The failing air of the dying planet is maintained by an atmosphere plant, and the restoration of this is a plot component of A Princess of Mars.^[7] It is described as being four miles across with walls 100 feet in depth, and telepathically operated entrance doors of 20-foot-thick (6.1 m) steel.^[15]

Medicine and biology[link]

Martian medicine is generally greatly in advance of that on Earth.^[51] In The Master Mind of Mars aging genius, Ras Thavas, has perfected the means of transplanting organs, limbs and brains, which during his experiments he swaps between animals and humanoids, men and women and young and old.^[7] Later, in Synthetic Men of Mars, he discovers the secret of life, and creates an army of artificial servants and warriors, which are grown in giant vats filled with organic tissue. They frequently emerge deformed, are volatile and are difficult to control, later threatening to take over the planet.^[52]

Measurements[link]

Burroughs developed a system of Martian measurements for the novels. He also drew maps for his own reference while writing, which used the Martian haad as a unit of length. Martian measurements include the following^[46][53]

The following are excerpts from the second novel 'The Gods of Mars':

"For those who may be interested, however, I will explain that the Martian day is a trifle over 24 hours 37 minutes duration (Earth time). This the Martians divide into ten equal parts, commencing the day at about 6 A.M. Earth time. The zodes are divided into fifty shorter periods, each of which in turn is composed of 200 brief periods of time, about equivalent to the earthly second. The Barsoomian Table of Time as here given is but a part of the full table appearing in Captain Carter’s notes. 200 tals 1 xat 50 xats 1 zode 10 zodes 1 revolution of Mars upon its axis"^[54]

"The ten Earth years I had spent upon Barsoom had encompassed but five years and ninety-six days of Martian time, whose days are forty-one minutes longer than ours, and whose years number six hundred and eighty-seven days."^[55]

Clothing[link]

The Martians wear no clothing other than jewelry and leather harnesses, which are designed to hold everything from the weaponry of a warrior to pouches containing toiletries and other useful items; the only instances where Barsoomians habitually wear clothing is for need of warmth, such as for travel in the northern polar regions described in The Warlord of Mars.

This preference for near-nudity provides a stimulating subject for illustrators of the stories, though art for many mass-market editions of the books feature Carter and native Barsoomians wearing loincloths and other minimal coverings, or use strategically placed shadows and such to cover genitalia and female breasts.

Fauna[link]

It appears that most of Burrough’s Martian creatures are roughly equivalent to those found on Earth. Though in general, most seem to have multiple legs and all are egg-laying.

“Insects”, "reptiles" and "birds"[link]

• Sith: A giant, venomous hornet-like insect endemic to the Kaolian Forest.^[56]
• Reptiles: Are described as repulsive and usually poisonous, and include

• Darseen, a chameleon-like reptile.
• Silian, an Antarctic sea-monster found in the Lost Sea of Korus.

• Birds: Burroughs tells us that Martian birds are brilliantly plumed, but the only species actually described is the enormous Malagor, native to the Great Toonolian Marshes.

“Mammals”[link]

Green Martian riding a thoat, as illustrated by J. Allen St. John in first edition of Thuvia, Maid of Mars

The martian mammalian equivalents all have fur, and both domestic and wild varieties are described by Burroughs.

Domesticated[link]

• Sorak: A small six-legged creature, equivalent to a cat.
• Calot: A large dog-like creature with a frog-like mouth and three rows of teeth. John Carter has his own calot, named Woola, who is his faithful companion during The Warlord of Mars.
• Thoat: A Martian horse. It has four legs on each side of its body and a wide, flat tail, which is larger at the base than at the apex and which is extended while running. The Greater Thoat is used as a mount by the Green Martians and stands about ten feet high at the shoulder; the Lesser Thoat bred by the Red Martians is closer to Earth horses in size. The Thoat is described as a slate-colored animal, with a white underside and yellow lower legs and feet.
• Zitidar: A draft animal, described as being similar to mastodons.

Wild[link]

Ulsio as illustrated by J. Allen St. John in first edition of Chessmen of Mars

• Apt: A large white-furred arctic creature with six limbs, four being legs, which give it rapid speed, and two being arms with hairless hands, with which it grasps prey. It has tusks growing from its lower jawbone, and large faceted, insect-like eyes. Appears in The Warlord of Mars.^[56]
• Banth: A Barsoomian "lion". It hunts the hills surrounding the dead seas of Barsoom. It has a long, sleek body, with ten legs, large jaws equipped with several rows of sharp fangs in a mouth which extends back almost to small ears. It is mostly hairless, except for a thick mane around the neck. It has large, protruding green eyes.^[57]
• Ulsio: A kind of Barsoomian "rat", described as a dog-sized burrower.
• White Ape: Huge and ferocious, semi-intelligent gorilla-like creatures with an extra set of arms which first appear in A Princess of Mars.

Other[link]

• Rykors are headless but otherwise human-like creatures bred by the Kaldanes, appearing only in The Chessmen of Mars.
• Plant Men: Monsters found in the Valley Dor. They are between 10 and 12 feet in height when upright, with blue hairless bodies similar in form to humans, excepting broad flat feet which are three feet in length and a six foot tail, which tapers from a round profile to a flat blade shape at the tip. They also have short, sinuous arms similar to elephant trunks, ending with taloned hands, with mouths set in the palms. The creature uses these to feed on foliage.^[58] It also attacks and feeds upon Martian Pilgrims, who travel to the Valley Dor expecting to find final paradise.^[30] Their faces are without mouths, a nose like an open wound, have a single white eye, surrounded by a white band, and black hair 10 to 12 inches long, each strand similar in thickness to an earthworm. They appear in The Gods of Mars.^[58]
• Orluk: An Arctic predator with a black and yellow striped coat, whose legs are not described.

Themes[link]

American frontier[link]

Barsoom might be seen as a kind of Martian Wild West. John Carter is himself an adventuring frontiersman. When he arrives on Barsoom he first compares it to the landscape of Arizona which he has left behind. He discovers a savage, frontier world where the civilized Red Martians are kept invigorated as a race by repelling the constant attacks of the Green Martians, a possible equivalent of Wild West ideals. Indeed, the Green Martians are a barbaric, nomadic, tribal culture with many parallels to stereotypes of American Indians. The desire to return to the frontier became common in the early 20th century America. As the United States become more urbanized, the world of the 19th century frontier America became romanticized as a lost world of freedom and noble qualities.^[32]

Race[link]

Race is a constant theme in the Barsoom novels and the world is clearly divided along racial lines. White, Yellow, Black, Red and Green races all appear across the novels, each with particular traits and qualities which seem to define the characters of almost every individual within them. In this respect, Burroughs' concept of race, as depicted in the novels, is more like a division between species. The Red and Green Martians are almost complete opposites of one another, with the Red Martians being civilized, lawful, capable of love and forming families, and the Green Martians being savage, cruel, tribal and without families or the ability to form romantic relationships.^[39]

Religious deception[link]

The Barsoom series features a number of incidences of religious deception, or the use of superstition by those in power to control and manipulate others.^[19] Burroughs is particularly concerned about the hypocrisy of religious leaders.^[59] This is first established in A Princess of Mars,^[19] but becomes particularly apparent in the sequel, The Gods of Mars. Upon reaching 1,000 years of age almost all Martians undertake a pilgrimage on the River Iss, expecting to find a valley of mystical paradise; what they find is, 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.^[30]

John Carter's battle to track down the remnants of the Therns and their masters continues in the sequel, The Warlord of Mars.^[28] More deceitful priests in a nation controlled by such appear in The Master Mind of Mars, on this occasion manipulating a temple idol to control followers.^[28]

Burroughs continued this theme in his many Tarzan novels. Burroughs was not anti-religious; however, he was concerned about followers placing their trust in religions and being abused and exploited, and saw this as a common feature of organized religion.^[59]

Excessive intellectualism[link]

While Burroughs is generally seen as a writer who produced work of limited philosophical sophistication, he wrote two Barsoom novels which appear to explore or parody the limits of excessive intellectual development at the expense of bodily or physical existence. The first was Thuvia, Maid of Mars, in which Thuvia and Carthoris discover a remnant of ancient White Martian civilization, the Lotharians. The Lotharians have mostly died out, but maintain the illusion of a functioning society through powerful telepathic projections. They have formed two factions which appear to portray the excesses of pointless intellectual debate. One faction, the realists, believes in imagining meals to provide sustenance; another, the etherealists, believes in surviving without eating.

The Chessmen of Mars is the second example of this trend. The Kaldanes have sacrificed their bodies to become pure brain, but although they can interface with Rykor bodies, their ability to function, compared to normal people of integrated mind and body, is ineffectual and clumsy.^[60] The Kaldanes, though highly intelligent, are ugly, ineffectual creatures when not interfaced with a Rykor body. Tara of Helium compares them to effete intellectuals from her home city, with a self-important sense of superiority; and Gahan of Gathol muses that it might be better to find a balance between the intellect and bodily passions.^[29]

Paradox of "Superiority"[link]

Some of Barsoom's peoples especially the Therns and First Born hold themselves as "superior" to the "lesser order" peoples on Barsoom. A paradox is established in that the Therns and First Born though they hold themselves in such high esteem, nonetheless are dependent on these lesser orders for their sustainance, labor, and goods as the Therns and First Born are "non-productive" peoples and do not produce anything or invent as such labor is seen as beneath them. Thus the implication is if they are so utterly dependent, then are they really "superior?" This is punctuated by the fact that the Therns and First Born are obliged to create strongholds in the southpole to insulate themselves from the otherwise red and green Martian dominated planet.

Antecedents and influences on Burroughs[link]

Scientific inspiration[link]

Martian canals depicted by Percival Lowell.

The arid, lifeless surface of Mars as seen by the Viking Probe.

Burroughs concept of a dying Mars and the Martian canals follows the theories of Lowell and his predecessor Giovanni Schiaparelli. In 1878, Italian astronomer, Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli observed geological features on Mars which he called canali (Italian: "channels"). This was mistranslated into the English as "canals" which, being artificial watercourses, fueled the belief that there was some sort of intelligent extraterrestrial life on the planet. This further influenced American astronomer Percival Lowell.^[61]

In 1895 Lowell published a book titled Mars which speculated about an arid, dying landscape, whose inhabitants had been forced to build canals thousands of miles long to bring water from the polar caps to irrigate the remaining arable land.^[31] Lowell followed with Mars and Its Canals (1906) and Mars as an Abode of Life (1908). This formed prominent scientific ideas about the conditions on the red planet in the early years of the 20th century. Although Burroughs does not seem to have based his vision of Mars on precise reading of Lowell's theories, as there are a number of errors in his ideas which may suggest he got most of his information from reading newspaper articles and other popular accounts of Lowell's Mars.^[62]

The concept of canals with flowing water and a world where life was possible were later proved erroneous by more accurate observation of the planet, and later landings by Russian and American probes such as the two Viking missions which found a dead world too cold for water to exist in its fluid state.^[31]

Previous Mars fiction[link]

Martians, escaping a dying Mars, invade Earth in The War of the Worlds.

The first science fiction to be set on Mars may be Across the Zodiac, by Percy Greg, published in 1880. It was a long-winded book concerned with a civil war on Mars. Another Mars novel, dealing with benevolent Martians coming to Earth was published in 1897 by Kurd Lasswitz, Auf Zwei Planeten. It was not translated until 1971, and was thus unlikely to have influenced Burroughs, although it did depict a Mars influenced by the ideas of Percival Lowell.^[63] Other examples are Mr. Stranger's Sealed Packet (1889), which took place on Mars; Gustavus W. Popes's Journey to Mars (1894); and Ellsworth Douglas's Pharaoh's Broker, in which the protagonist encounters an Egyptian civilization on Mars which, while parallel to that of the Earth, has evolved somehow independently.^[9]

H.G. Wells' novel, The War of the Worlds, most definitely influenced by Lowell and published in 1898, did however create the precedent for a number of enduring Martian tropes in science fiction writing. These include Mars being an ancient world, nearing the end of its life; being the home of a superior civilization, capable of advanced feats of science and engineering; and a source of invasion forces, keen to conquer the Earth. The first two tropes were prominent in Burroughs' Barsoom series.^[31] Burroughs, however, claimed never to have read any of H.G. Wells' books.^[64] Lowell was probably the greater direct influence on Burroughs.^[65]

Richard A. Lupoff claimed that Burroughs was influenced in writing his Martian stories by Edwin Lester Arnold's earlier novel Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (1905) ( later retitled Gulliver of Mars). Gullivar Jones, who travels to Mars by flying carpet rather than via astral projection, encounters a civilization with similarities to those found on Barsoom, rescues a Martian Princess, and even undertakes a voyage down a river similar to the Iss in The Gods of Mars. Lupoff also suggested that Burroughs derived characteristics of his main protagonist John Carter from Phra, hero of Arnold's The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician (1890), who is also a swashbuckling adventurer and master swordsman, for whom death is no obstacle. Lupoff's theories were disputed by numerous scholars of Burroughs' work. Lupoff countered, claiming that many of Burroughs' stories had antecedents in previous works, and that this was not unusual for writers.^[66]

Burroughs' influence[link]

Scientists[link]

Burroughs' Barsoom series was extremely popular with American readers and many scientists who grew up reading the novels, and helped inspire public support for the US space program. Readers included some of the first space pioneers and those involved in the search for life on other planets. Scientist Carl Sagan read the books as a young boy, and they continued to affect his imagination into his adult years.^[67] He remembered Barsoom as a "world of ruined cities, planet girdling canals, immense pumping stations — a feudal technological society". For two decades, a map of the planet, as imagined by Burroughs, hung in the hallway outside of Sagan's office in Cornell University.^[65]

Science fiction[link]

SF Writer Arthur C Clarke was inspired by Barsoom.

Well-known early science fiction writers Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke both read, and were inspired by Burroughs' series of Barsoom books in their youth. Bradbury admired Burroughs' stimulating romantic tales, and they were an inspiration for The Martian Chronicles (1950), in which he used some similar concepts of a dying Mars. Robert A. Heinlein also wrote fiction inspired by Burroughs' Barsoom series, and for many others, the Barsoom series helped to establish Mars as an adventurous, enticing destination for the imagination.^[68][69]

The John Carter books enjoyed another wave of popularity in the 1970s, with Vietnam War veterans who said they could identify with Carter, fighting in a war on another planet.^{[citation needed]}

Novels and short stories[link]

Numerous novels and series by others were inspired by Burroughs' Mars books: the Radio Planet trilogy of Ralph Milne Farley; the Mars and Venus novels of Otis Adelbert Kline; Almuric by Robert E. Howard; Warrior of Llarn and Thief of Llarn by Gardner Fox; Tarzan on Mars, Go-Man and Thundar, Man of Two Worlds by John Bloodstone; the Michael Kane trilogy of Michael Moorcock; The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, Through the Gates of the Silver Key by H.P. Lovecraft, the Gor series of John Norman; the Callisto series and Green Star series of Lin Carter; The Goddess of Ganymede and Pursuit on Ganymede by Mike Resnick; and the Dray Prescot series of Alan Burt Akers (Kenneth Bulmer). In addition, Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, Andre Norton, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Alan Dean Foster show Burroughs' influence in their development of alien cultures and worlds.

A. Bertram Chandler's pulp novels The Alternate Martians and The Empress of Outer Space overtly borrow a number of characters and situations from Burroughs' Barsoom series.

Robert A. Heinlein's novels Glory Road and The Number of the Beast, and Alan Moore's graphic novels of Allan and the Sundered Veil and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II directly reference Barsoom.

In Philip José Farmer's World of Tiers series (1965–1993) Kickaha, the series' adventurer protagonist, asks his friend The Creator of Universes to create for him a Barsoom. The latter agrees only to make an empty world, since "It would go too far for me to create all these fabulous creatures only for you to amuse yourself by running your sword through them." Kickaha visits from time to time the empty Barsoom, complete with beautiful palaces in which nobody ever lived, but goes away frustrated.

L. Sprague de Camp's story "Sir Harold of Zodanga" recasts and rationalizes Barsoom as a parallel world visited by his dimension-hopping hero Harold Shea. De Camp accounts for Burroughs' departures from physics or logic by portraying both Burroughs and Carter as having a tendency to exaggerate in their storytelling, and Barsoomian technology as less advanced than usually presented.

Furthermore, his Viagens Interplanetarias series of novels and short stories, especially those set on Krishna, one of Tau Ceti's inhabited planets, owe much to the premise of feudal co-existence alongside advanced technology pioneered within the Barsoom series.

In 1989 Larry Niven and Steven Barnes published "The Barsoom Project", where a futuristic form of live action role-playing games (LARPs) is based on the Barsoom books.

The Mars-based novels of Kim Stanley Robinson (published from 1992 to 1999) also offer several nods in Burroughs' direction.

The 2008 novel In the Courts of the Crimson Kings by S.F. writer S. M. Stirling is an alternate telling of the Princess of Mars story but this time the princess is a very powerful character indeed.

DC Comics character Adam Strange's method of transportation, the Zeta Beam, recalls the way Carter is transported to Mars.

In the Commonwealth Saga novels by Peter F. Hamilton a group of humans who undertake unprecedented and often illegal genetic modifications of their own bodies are known as the Barsoomians, in apparent reference to Burroughs' creation.

Richard Corben's Den series also appears to be inspired by the Barsoom series. It features a hero, Den, who mysteriously arrives naked on a (largely) desert planet where he becomes a great warrior and where the humanoids wear no clothes. Many of the creatures resemble the description of the white apes of the Gods of Mars. Like John Carter, he also receives great physical prowess from arriving in Neverwhere, although Carter's prowess stems from gravity, whereas Den undergoes a complete physical transformation.

In Stephen King's novel The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, Eddie Dean compares the All-World and the quest for the Dark Tower to a Barsoom novel.

The John Carter of Mars series was also felt to be one of the inspirations for the Dark Sun Dungeons & Dragons game world setting.

In A Wizard of Mars by Diane Duane, the main character Kit is a major fan of the Barsoom series and a long dormant wizard artifact recreates Barsoom as Kit imagines it to communicate with him.

Poetry[link]

The science fiction poems in Oscar Hurtado's book La Ciudad Muerta de Korad (The Dead City of Korad, in Spanish) are full of intertextualities with the Barsoom series, as well as with the Sherlock Holmes novels by Arthur Conan Doyle, the Iliad, children folk tales, and other references.

The Dead City of Korad was published in 1964 and marks the beginning of the Science Fiction genre in Cuba.^[70]

Film and television[link]

• Avatar: In interviews, James Cameron has invoked Burroughs as one of the primary inspirations behind his 2009 space adventure.^[71]
• Babylon 5: In this science fiction television series, Amanda Carter — a Martian citizen and advocate of Mars' independence from Earth — is revealed to have had a grandfather named John who was a pioneer colonist on Mars. This has been confirmed by the series creator J. Michael Straczynski as a reference made by the episode writer Larry DiTillio to John Carter of Mars.^[72]
• Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers film serials of the 1930s, and the Star Wars films owe debts and offer nods to Burroughs' Barsoom novels

Adaptations[link]

Comic strips[link]

With the Tarzan comic strip a popular success, newspapers began a comic strip adaptation of A Princess of Mars drawn by Edgar Rice Burroughs' son, John Coleman Burroughs. Never as popular as Tarzan, it ran in only four Sunday newspapers, from December 7, 1941 to March 28, 1943.

John Carter appeared in one of the last Sunday Tarzan comic strip stories, drawn by Gray Morrow.

Comic books[link]

• The Funnies: This comic book included a John Carter serial drawn by John Coleman Burroughs, which ran for 23 issues.
• John Carter (Dell Comics): Dell published published three comic books in 1952, adapting the first three Barsoom books, drawn by Jesse Marsh, who was the Dell Tarzan artist at the time. They were Four Color Comics #375, 437, and 488. They were later reprinted by the successor of Dell, Gold Key Comics as John Carter of Mars #1-3.
• A Princess of Mars (The Sun): This UK comic ran as a weekly serial in 1958 adapted by Robert Forrest.
• John Carter in Tarzan (DC Comics): John Carter was published as a backup feature in the Tarzan series, issues 207–209, after which it was moved to Weird Worlds, sharing main feature status alongside an adaptation of Burroughs' "Pellucidar" stories in issues #1-7; it again became a backup feature in Tarzan Family #62-64. (A non-John Carter Barsoom story also appeared in Tarzan Family issue #60.)
• John Carter, Warlord of Mars (Marvel Comics): This series began in 1977 and lasted for 28 issues (and saw three annuals published).
• Tarzan comic strip: In 1995, writer Don Kraar set a story on Barsoom featuring Tarzan, David Innes, and John Carter.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (DC Comics): John Carter also made a notable cameo in the second volume of the series written by Alan Moore. Along with other literary Martian characters, he leads a campaign against the Martians from The War of the Worlds.
• ABC Magazine, Czechoslovakia: The first four Barsoom novels were printed as two comic-book series (51 pages altogether) from 1970-1972 (Written by Vlastislav Toman, with painters Jiří Veškrna and Milan Ressel.) They were reprinted in 2001 in the comic book Velká Kniha Komiksů I. (ISBN 80-7257-658-5)
• Warlord of Mars (Dynamite Entertainment): Starting in October 2010, Dynamite has begun publishing a twelve-issue series entitled Warlord of Mars. The first two issues served as a prelude story, issues 3-9 adapted A Princess of Mars, and issues 10-12 will be an original story.
• Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris (Dynamite Entertainment): Starting in March 2011, it is set 400 years before A Princess of Mars and focus on Dejah Thoris, her first suitor, and her role in the rise to power of the Kingdom of Helium.
• Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom (Dynamite Entertainment): Starting in July 2011, it is be set 100,000 years before A Princess of Mars and focus on the attempt of two Orovars to save Mars as the seas dry up and the atmosphere becomes thin.

Film[link]

Princess of Mars, was a 2009 direct-to-video film, produced by The Asylum, starring Antonio Sabato Jr. as John Carter, and Traci Lords as Dejah Thoris. This adaptation starts with John Carter as a present day sniper wounded in Afghanistan, and then teleported to another world as a part of a government experiment. This adaptation does not resemble the original work of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

John Carter, was released on March 9th, 2012, as a big budget film by The Walt Disney Company, directed by Andrew Stanton and stars Taylor Kitsch as John Carter, and Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris.

Copyright[link]

The American copyright of the five earliest novels has expired in the United States, and they appear on a number of free e-text sites. However, because they were separately copyrighted in Great Britain, these works remain protected under the Berne Copyright Convention in the UK and throughout much of the world. The Australian copyright of the remainder, not including John Carter of Mars (1964), has also expired and they too appear online.

See also[link]

• Jetan, a game invented by Burroughs and described in The Chessmen of Mars
• Pellucidar

References[link]

• Roy, John Flint (October 1976). A Guide to Barsoom. New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/0345247221175|0345247221175]]. 

External links[link]

• barsoom.com site from ERB, Inc., Tarzana, CA
• Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Web Site
• Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs
• A Guide to Barsoom — the official guide to ERB's Barsoom
• Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site
• A Guide to the Mars Novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Maps of Barsoom
• A Barsoom Glossary
• Panthan Press published The Barsoomian Blade newspaper and the Dateline Jasoom podcast
• Barsoom series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• A Princess of Mars at Project Gutenberg
• The Gods of Mars at Project Gutenberg
• Warlord of Mars at Project Gutenberg
• Thuvia, Maid of Mars at Project Gutenberg
• The Chessmen of Mars at Project Gutenberg
• The Master Mind of Mars (1927) Zip file Text file at Project Gutenberg Australia
• A Fighting Man of Mars (1930) Zip file Text file at Project Gutenberg Australia
• Swords of Mars (1934) Zip file Text file at Project Gutenberg Australia
• Synthetic Men of Mars (1940) Zip file Text file at Project Gutenberg Australia
• Llana of Gathol (1948) Zip file Text file at Project Gutenberg Australia
• Internet Movie Database
• unofficial fan site

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