John Carter of Mars (collection)

John Carter of Mars  

dust-jacket of John Carter [and the Giant] of Mars
Author(s) Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Coleman Burroughs
Country United States
Language English
Series Barsoom
Genre(s) Science fiction novel
Publisher Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
Publication date 1964
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Preceded by Llana of Gathol

John Carter of Mars is the eleventh and final book in the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is not actually a novel but rather a collection of two John Carter of Mars stories.

The first, "John Carter and the Giant of Mars", is a juvenile story penned by Burrough's son John "Jack" Coleman Burroughs, and claimed to have been revised by Burroughs. It was written for a Whitman Big Little Book, illustrated by Jack Burroughs that was published in 1940 and then republished in Amazing Stories the next year.[1]

The second story, "Skeleton Men of Jupiter", was first published in Amazing Stories in 1943. Intended as the first in a series of novelettes to be later collected in book form, in the fashion of Llana of Gathol, it ends with the plot unresolved, and the intended sequels were never written. Several other writers have written pastiche endings for the story.

The first edition of John Carter of Mars (a title that Burroughs never actually used for any book in the Barsoom series) was published in 1964 by Canaveral Press, fourteen years after Burrough's death.

Contents

Stories

Reception

This book is not highly regarded by fans of the Barsoom series and is generally considered something of an afterthought. However, in the book Master of Adventure: The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Richard A. Lupoff, the editor of the 1964 Canaveral Press edition of John Carter of Mars, writes that it is interesting for its contrast between "real" Burroughs (Skeleton Men of Jupiter) and "ersatz" Burroughs (John Carter and the Giant of Mars).

Copyright

The copyright for this book has expired in Australia, and thus now resides in the public domain there. The text is available via Project Gutenberg Australia.

Popular media

John Carter of Mars is an alternate title for a movie based on the character, scheduled for release by Disney on 9 March 2012. Although the titles closely match, the film is based on earlier novels.

References

  1. ^ Bleiler, Everett Franklin; Bleiler, Richard (1990). Science Fiction, the Early Years. Kent State University Press. p. 101. ISBN 0873384164. 

External links

Preceded by
Llana of Gathol
Barsoom series
John Carter of Mars
Succeeded by
none