This collector-quality edition includes the complete text of the first of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Martian Novels" in a freshly edited and newly typeset edition, commemorating the 100th anniversary of his first published story.
With a generous 6x9 page size, this Summit Classic edition is printed on hefty 60# bright white paper with a fully laminated cover featuring an original full color design. Additional material created and presented for Burroughs' fans, new or old, are an original retrospective essay, "In The Shadow of The Moons of Mars," commenting on the life, work, and widespread and lasting influence of the author, a biographical sketch of Burroughs' life, and a detailed bibliography of his work.
This, the first of dozens of popular tales spun by Burroughs, is the story of the romance between John Carter, mysteriously transported to Mars from the Arizona desert, and Dejah Thoris, the "Princess of Mars" for whom the tale is named.
In Edgar Rice Burroughs' trademark style, former Confederate officer John Carter is thrown into a series of non-stop adventures at breakneck pace, with the earthling pitted against a variety of Martian men and beasts, finding adversaries and adventure on seemingly every page and finding a few friends - and the love of his life - in the course of this epic adventure.
"Barsoom" is the native name for the Mars imagined by Edgar Rice Burroughs, a dying world where the oceans have gone dry and the atmosphere is dissipating, precariously maintained by a massive atmosphere plant, a world where a race of giant green men with four arms roam dry seabeds and vast ancient ruins mounted on reptilian steeds, while a race of coppery-skinned red men maintains an oddly barbaric culture and scientific civilization in sprawling cities and travel in flying cars.
If any of this sounds vaguely familiar but you've never read what has over the years become known as Edgar Rice Burroughs' science fiction "Martian series" it's not surprising. Burroughs didn't "invent" planetary romance, lost civilizations, islands populated by dinosaurs and primitive men or any of the kinds of fiction he wrote. But he literally re-invented adventure fiction across the board and his indelible stamp on the work of writers, filmmakers, television producers and scientists is still apparent a hundred years after his first published story.
Burroughs is known the world over as the creator of Tarzan, the Ape Man. Tarzan became a cultural phenomenon almost immediately upon his appearance, but before Tarzan there was John Carter of Mars. Burroughs' first published work originally appeared in serial form with the title "Under the Moons of Mars" in 1912. Like many of Burroughs' pulp magazine serials, the story was later published in book form by Chicago publisher A. C. McClurg. The original McClurg version re-titled the story as "A Princess of Mars," the name by which it has been known ever since.
Burroughs' first three Martian novels, "A Princess of Mars," "The Gods of Mars" and "Warlord of Mars" form a cohesive trilogy that will ultimately leave the mighty John Carter as the most powerful warlord astride a fantastic, savage planet. Summit Classic Press editions of these three novels are available as individual titles, and they are also available from Summit Classic Press in a single large format omnibus edition titled "John Carter, Warlord of Mars," ISBN-978-1475021660.