Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

About three years ago I started a blog about "interesting books." Interesting to me anyway. As I said then, since I run an online used book store I come across many books which are obscure, old, collectible, or just downright, well, interesting. I did two posts the last time and let the whole thing lapse. However I think I'll give it another shot. So here is Interesting Book Number 3.

Everyone who reads has heard of Edgar Rice Burroughs. His most enduring creation is, of course, Tarzan of the Apes. But Mr. Burroughs also wrote books in many genres including science fiction and westerns. Mr. Burroughs was born in 1875 and died in 1950. Just to give you an idea of the times he lived through, when he was younger he was a Trooper in the 7th Cavalry in the Arizona Territory from 1895 to 1897 after failing the West Point entrance exam. Though the major Indian wars were over by then Arizona had not yet become a state. And at the other end of his life he was a war correspondent during World War II. Quite a contrast.

Burroughs was not schooled as a writer, in fact up until the time he started writing in 1911 he held a series of low-paying, going-nowhere jobs which gave him lots of spare time in which to read the pulp fiction magazines he enjoyed. In 1929, reflecting on his writing career he said," ...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." And so he began. His first story, Under the Moons of Mars was accepted and serialized by All-Story Magazine in 1912. By the time Under the Moons of Mars serial run was finished he'd completed Tarzan of the Apes which was published in 1912. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The Warlord of Mars is the third novel in what is know as the Barsoom series. This series takes place on Mars, a romantic vision of a dying Mars that was based on ideas made popular by Astronomer Percival Lowell in the early 20th century.

Barsoom is the Martian word for Mars. The first three novels in this series, A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, and The Warlord of Mars, form a trilogy in which earthling John Carter fights villains and eventually saves and marries Dejah Thors, the princess. Many of the Barsoom novels were serialized in popular magazines of the day before being published as novels.

The Warlord of Mars was first published by A. C. McClurg & Co. in 1919. There were two printings before the book was reprinted twice by Grosset & Dunlap. It was further reprinted by Burroughs himself in 1948 by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Incorporated of Tarzana, California.

Of course, Tarzan is well-known even to audiences of today because of the many movies that have produced over the years. And the Barsoom series has been cited by many well-known science fiction writers as having influenced them in their youth to begin their own writing.

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