BarsoomEdgar Rice Burroughs' Golden Age Science Fiction Series
Author of almost seventy novels. Creator of a cultural icon. War correspondent. Namesake for a Martian crater. Not bad for a guy who flunked the West Point entrance exam and once worked as a pencil sharpener wholesaler. In 1911, Edgar Rice Burroughs was married with two kids and working as a pencil sharpener wholesaler. Burroughs apparently spent his free time reading the popular pulp magazines of the time, and — as so often seems to be the case with writers — decided that he could do better. And he did do better. Much much better. His most popular creation is immediately recognizable: Tarzan. What began as a serialized novel Burroughs cannily transformed into a media empire (comics, movies, lunchboxes, Halloween costumes). Anyone else remember the Saturday morning cartoon from the 1980s? Burroughs could have stopped with Tarzan and relaxed for the rest of his life. Instead, he went on to write books for some six science fiction series, as well as a host of adventure tales and more "serious" literature.
The focus of this article is not on Tarzan but one of those other series: Barsoom. Home of savage, sword-wielding green men and black-bearded, lemon skinned Arctic men and black-skinned First Born and treacherous bald white men and beautiful red-skinned Princesses. You know. Mars. My first introduction to the Barsoom series was quite a few years ago. I would have been ... eleven? Twelve? It was on a visit to the ancestral farm, and I was digging through my uncle's pile of old paperbacks. One caught my eye: a half-nude muscular man carrying a slender mostly nude woman while gigantic ugly aliens loomed over them. For whatever reason (parental disapproval?), I never read that book or any of the others in the series that I found that day. But that image stayed with me and I vowed that someday I would read that book. Someday finally came when I found a single volume copy of the first three books at Barnes and Noble. The Martian Tales Trilogy* contained A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars. A second volume, More Martian Tales, continues the series with Thuvia, Maid of Mars and The Chessmen of Mars. The prolific Burroughs went on to write The Master Mind of Mars, A Fighting Man of Mars, Swords of Mars, Synthetic Men of Mars, and Llana of Gathol through the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, but only the first five have fallen into public domain.** The Barsoom tales are pulp Golden Age sci fi at its best. Familiar with the millennial babies in Planetary? Well, John Carter is their template. A Virginia gentleman and Civil War veteran, he has no memory of his childhood, nor does he age: instead, he is perpetually thirty years old, watching one generation of his family after another fall to dust. With the war over and no prospects, Carter sets out to Arizona in hopes of striking it rich. Instead, he is chased into a cave by Native Americans and is mysteriously transported to far distant Mars. (Note to the ladies: his clothes didn't go along for the trip.) Thanks to that planet's lesser gravity and air pressure, Carter is proportionally stronger and faster on Mars than on Earth. Carter finds Mars — known as Barsoom to the natives — to be a dying, savage, war-riven world. The gigantic green Tharks, who love nothing more than to torture and maim their enemies, wander across the dry seabeds, making war on one another and on the (more civilized) red men. The red Barsoomians, soldiers and scientists, live in great cities and maintain the complex machinery that preserves Mars' thin atmosphere and precious aqueducts. The bald, white-skinned Therns make their home at the southern pole and consider themselves to be living Gods. The dark skinned First Born live in great caves and raid the Therns in their great black ships. The isolated lemon-skinned, black bearded men live behind a great wall of ice at the northern pole. After much intrigue, slashing of swords, daring escapes, misunderstandings, duels, protestations of undying love, epic battles, epic treks across an epic landscape — need I go on?? — John Carter weds Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, his one true love and soul mate.
Of course, the story doesn't end there. Carter eventually returns to Earth, handing over a manuscript about his adventures to his (much distant) nephew. But ten years pass before he can return to Mars again ... and in the meanwhile, his son is born, evil men rise to threaten the realm, and his beloved wife at last gives up all hope of his return and consigns herself to the afterlife .... Except that the paradisiacal afterlife of the South Pole turns out to be a lie perpetuated by the First Born, and Carter once again finds himself fighting alongside old friends and new to save his wife, and countless others who have been enslaved. Now, I should take a moment here to correct a misapprehension on your part. Dejah Thoris does not equal damsel in distress. This is one tough princess. Consider that she is the sole survivor of a crashed Helium vessel, is taken prisoner by savage Tharks, treks across Mars with John Carter, raises their son alone for ten years, is captured and enslaved by the First Born, is locked away in a prison for half a year with a woman who wants to murder her and has no way to escape, is kidnapped and hauled away to the North Pole of Mars, fights alongside her adored husband to overthrow a vicious tyrant — and survives. If Carter is the precursor to so many great film and comic heroes, than Dejah Thoris anticipated Princess Leia, Wonder Woman and Zoe Washbourne. Nor is she the only strong female character in the series. Sola is the only green Martian to show Carter any kindness; among her people that is considered a weakness, and she risks much to be his friend. Thuvia of Ptarth, enslaved by the Therns, comes to Carter's aid when he finds himself trapped at the South Pole; she is key to their escape. When she is captured by the First Born, Thuvia finds herself befriending Dejah Thoris; the two of them find the strength to live until they are finally liberated and reunited with their loved ones.
The Barsoom books are classics. The fact that they were written nearly a century ago is part of their appeal. They feel ... antique ... retro-futuristic. Here we have a Civil War veteran slashing away with swords on an alien world, or buzzing around on a tiny flier powered by "Martian rays," or exploring the magnificent ruins of a long dead people, or marveling at the great machinery that keeps Mars' atmosphere intact. Here is the antecedent to so much that we now take for granted in science fiction and adventure tales. As much as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings paved the way for modern fantasy, so Burroughs' Barsoom series laid the foundation for the works of Lucas, Heinlein, Bradbury and many many others. Treat yourself to a classic. Thrill to the adventures of John Carter and Dejah Thoris. Go play on Mars. *One major complaint about the Barnes and Noble edition: it is riddled with typos. Lots and lots of typos. If another edition is planned, please, folks, another edit! **There is also something called John Carter of Mars (1964), published fourteen years after Burroughs' death. Unfortunately, I can't find any information on it. Anyone?
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