Barsoom: The Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs

[johnnypt]

Fighting Man came out in 1930, Swords of Mars came out in 1935. I got a Kindle Omni of the first seven about a year ago. The others were either available individually or in their own volume for about $10. Swords probably should be falling into PD soon if it hasn’t already.

[finarvyn]

If the whole series eventually becomes public domain, does that mean that the ERB estate loses all rights to the works? For years I've heard that the first few books were public domain, but the ERB estate still had copyright on some of the names like "Dejah Thoris."

[deuce]

A fine review of A Princess of Mars:


kestifer.blogspot.com/2017/07/appendix-n-review-princess-of-mars.html

[deuce]

Courtesy of ERB scholar, John Martin:

In three books, John Carter went from one pole of Mars to the other and lots of places in between, finally reaching the frozen north, where he had to make his way past ferocious white apes in the Carrion Caves to encounter the race of yellow men, known as the Okar.

Those people have innovations found nowhere else on Mars -- the magnetic tower which draws fliers to their doom, and two swords for each fighting man, one with a hook on the end to grab onto the foe and draw him close enough to slay!

The final part of the three-part tale is told in The Warlord of Mars, which was published by A.C. McClurg & Co. on this date, September 27, in 1919.

When ERB got around to finishing that three-part trilogy of Barsoom he wondered what he should title the book. “The Fighting Prince of Mars?” “Across Savage Mars?” “Prince of Helium?” He also thought about calling it “Yellow Men of Barsoom.” Since he didn't use that title then, however, it was still available later on for a short story published in 1941 under the title “Yellow Men of Mars.”

When ERB finally submitted the manuscript to The All-Story, he had settled on “The Prince of Helium.” However, he also suggested to the editor that it could be called “The War Lord of Mars.”

Editors will be editors, no matter what. And so the editor edited War Lord into Warlord, and that became the title for both the magazine appearance and the book itself, which was published by A.C. McClurg & Co. this date, Sept. 27, in 1919.

Both Henry Hardy Heins and Robert B. Zeuschner report a first and second state of the first edition, the main difference being that the first state has a tiny W.F. Hall imprint at the bottom of the copyright page, while the second state does not. Also, the spine of the first state has "A.C." above "McClurg on the spine, while the second state has "A.C. McClurg" on one line on the spine.

If you have the first or second state of the McClurg edition in your library, you're not alone, as it had the largest print run of all the McClurg Mars books -- 20,000 copies.

In “Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Bibliography,” Zeuschner notes that ERB’s first three Mars novels “…may be the first science fiction/fantasy trilogy, although it is doubtful that Burroughs planned it that way. This classic trilogy was profoundly important in shaping the history of science fiction.”

[deuce]

Cool gallery of ERB's Green Martians rendered by various artists:


capnscomics.blogspot.com/2010/02/erburroughs-martians.html

[deuce]

It's artist Dave Cockrum's birthday:

www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?27041


Dave--best-known for his work on The X-Men--was a long-time fan of Barsoom/John Carter. Here's a very early piece by him:





And here is an illo by him--originally from a Marvel comic--used for a recent cover of A Princess of Mars:

[deuce]

The 1964 UK edition...

[finarvyn]

Nov 12, 2018 13:23:00 GMT -5 deuce said:

And here is an illo by him--originally from a Marvel comic--used for a recent cover of A Princess of Mars:

Love this cover, but how many copies of the same book do I really need?

[deuce]

Good review of "The Martian Trilogy":


frasersherman.com/2011/04/05/mars-needs%E2%80%94virginians/

[deuce]

Courtesy of ERB scholar, John Martin...


MASTER MIND OF CHESSMEN


The two Edgar Rice Burroughs is a topic which has come up from time to time in fandom.

On the one hand is the real Burroughs, the one we read about in non-fiction books such as those by Porges, Fenton and Lupoff. On the other hand, there is the romantic Burroughs, the one who emerges from the way ERB describes himself in his books. This is the one who is a personal friend of Jason Gridley, a relative of John Carter, a visitor to the estate of Tarzan of the Apes in Africa, and the recipient of midnight visits from apparitions representing space-traveling story teller Carson Napier.

One small aspect of the contrast between the two Burroughs is found on the chessboard. The real Ed Burroughs was quite adept at the game of chess; the romantic, or fictional, Burroughs was not.

In the "Prelude" to the 1922 Burroughs' novel, "The Chessmen of Mars," Burroughs begins by writing that "Shea had just beaten me at chess, as usual...."

He continues that "also as usual I had gleaned what questionable satisfaction I might by twitting him with this indication of failing mentality by calling his attention for the nth time to that theory, propounded by certain scientists, which is based upon the assertion that phenomenal chess players are always found to be from the ranks of children under twelve, adults over seventy-two or the mentally defective -- a theory that is lightly ignored upon those rare occasions that I win."

The real life Shea was John Shea who, for many years, served as Burroughs's secretary and, for awhile, piano teacher to two of the three Burroughs children, Joan and Hulbert ("Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan," by Irwin Porges, p 334.).

Shea was also a chess opponent for Burroughs in real life, Porges reports (p. 348). But despite what ERB wrote in the opening to "Chessmen," he was more likely the usual victor in those matches. Porges reports that a Jan. 3, 1921, entry in Burroughs' diary, shortly before he began writing "Chessmen," reads: "Played one game of chess with Shea. Won. If scientific theories are correct it is more of an honor to lose at chess than win. I do not recall ever having lost a chess game -- though I have played but few times...."

Certainly Burroughs' enjoyment of this game which he played little but won often was sufficient to spark his interest in creating the game of Martian chess, or Jetan, which formed the backdrop for the imaginative novel, "The Chessmen of Mars," played not only on a game board but also in arenas with living players battling to the death for possession of squares!

Chess continues to hold a fascination for many today. One area in which this manifests itself is in the plethora of magazine ads which have appeared over the years to sell specialty chess sets, such as the Civil War chess set, the Star Trek chess set, the Warner Brothers cartoon characters set, Marvel comics set, Disney, The Simpsons, Peanuts...far more than can be named here.

Many fans have made their own Jetan sets and there have even been a few Tarzan chess sets made by individuals but never anything professionally manufactured and/or commercially marketed.

[ChrisLAdams]

I came across this interesting post on Facebook by Jess Terrell in an Edgar Rice Burroughs group--an article about some of the open-ended mysteries in ERB's Barsoom series--that I wanted to pass along.

The article dives into such topics as what ever became of Tan Hadron? and the continual evolution of the White Ape (why was it the only creature on Barsoom for which ERB never came up with a snazzy Barsoomian moniker, as he did with the banths and calots, etc?)

BTW, if you enjoy the art of Joe Jusko, Joe is to be at the at the ECOF in Oak Brook, IL this summer (2019) where he will do a presentation.  Should be really cool.  Plus, you can meet the movers and shakers (authors, publishers, artists) in ERB-dom keeping Burroughs alive for future generations.

---

not.pulpcovers.com/post/137223229889/great-unsolved-mysteries-in-the-john-carter-of?fbclid=IwAR05Kh-VrD6jnOxf-hTL9V2uCGHe9d7I6W8fE-RhdoV1rk-ptVo-bc1LYYE

[johnnypt]

Mar 11, 2019 9:07:14 GMT -5 ChrisLAdams said:

I came across this interesting post on Facebook by Jess Terrell in an Edgar Rice Burroughs group--an article about some of the open-ended mysteries in ERB's Barsoom series--that I wanted to pass along.

The article dives into such topics as what ever became of Tan Hadron? and the continual evolution of the White Ape (why was it the only creature on Barsoom for which ERB never came up with a snazzy Barsoomian moniker, as he did with the banths and calots, etc?)

I always wondered about more simple things like why didn't Thuvia (there's that book again!) get an intro like almost all the others (Warlord being the exception and that could use at least an afterward).  How about the poor schlub who got his mind transferred into the body of a synthetic man...on purpose?

There's probably a lot more about Pellucidar as well.

[ChrisLAdams]

Mar 11, 2019 9:26:50 GMT -5 johnnypt said:

Mar 11, 2019 9:07:14 GMT -5 ChrisLAdams said:

I came across this interesting post on Facebook by Jess Terrell in an Edgar Rice Burroughs group--an article about some of the open-ended mysteries in ERB's Barsoom series--that I wanted to pass along.

The article dives into such topics as what ever became of Tan Hadron? and the continual evolution of the White Ape (why was it the only creature on Barsoom for which ERB never came up with a snazzy Barsoomian moniker, as he did with the banths and calots, etc?)

I always wondered about more simple things like why didn't Thuvia (there's that book again!) get an intro like almost all the others (Warlord being the exception and that could use at least an afterward).  How about the poor schlub who got his mind transferred into the body of a synthetic man...on purpose?

There's probably a lot more about Pellucidar as well.

I feel we sometimes overthink these things.  Tan Hadron may have been dropped because he no longer served a purpose for ERB.  He wasn't thinking about people seventy-five years later trying to unravel mysteries--he was trying to come up with something new and exciting for his next novel. 

Now, that's not to say he didn't take up a secondary character and wrap a novel around them, or subvert a major character to minor role.  He most certainly did, possibly to bolster new characters with one who was familiar?  Who knows. Barney Custer of Beatrice, Nebraska is an example.  He appears in The Eternal Lover where he plays second-fiddle to his sister, Victoria, but Barney also takes the lead in The Mad King.  It's worthy to note that in The Eternal Lover, even Tarzan and Jane take a backseat to the love story of Nu and Victoria.

But, did ERB do this because that secondary character was the best choice for the new novel, or because he already had the shell of a character and it was easier to use it, than to come up with a new background?  Reconstituted characters, so to say.  So he takes this guy who didn't do much in this other novel, for whom he'd already worked out the guy's or gal's background, and sticks him in as the new hero.  It saved him a bunch of time doing character creation.

Since we're on the topic of Thuvia, do you think she ever--you know--lay in her silks and furs with Carthoris, pining for what might have been with JC?  That confliction might explain the personality changes noted in the article that took place between Gods of Mars and Thuvia, Maid of Mars.

[johnnypt]

Mar 11, 2019 10:11:15 GMT -5 ChrisLAdams said:

Mar 11, 2019 9:26:50 GMT -5 johnnypt said:

Since we're on the topic of Thuvia, do you think she ever--you know--lay in her silks and furs with Carthoris, pining for what might have been with JC?  That confliction might explain the personality changes noted in the article that took place between Gods of Mars and Thuvia, Maid of Mars.

Talk about a "let's not go there" moment! 

Reminds me of the explanation Spielberg gave for the lack of a sequel to ET-"He arrived, had this crazy adventure, and went home.  His story was done."

[ChrisLAdams]

Mar 11, 2019 10:28:34 GMT -5 johnnypt said:

Talk about a "let's not go there" moment! 

It's just that every time the three of them are together, you can almost see Thuvia's quick, furtive glances at JC. 

Carthoris excuses himself to the bathroom, JC looks around, sees the two of them are alone, and is like, "Oh, boy.  Here we go."