A Princess of Mars (1912)

Any Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB) book is an instant trigger for déjà vu to my adolescent self, whether it is a mention of the author as an influence to a modern author, a sighting of one of his tattered pulp fiction paperbacks in a used bookstore, or through an actual re-read of one of my favorite titles. I’m not alone, at least in generations adjacent to mine. No less of a towering figure in modern fantasy and fiction than Michael Moorcock has this to say in the forward for this edition:

“I hope you enjoy this extraordinary labour of love. A Princess of Mars is over a century old and I’m quite certain it will last at least another century. It has the vitality of a true original and it is that wonderful quality we continue to celebrate.”

My brothers and I had a whole bookcases lined with ERB paperbacks along with R.E. Howard, Moorcock himself, John Norman (I know…), Le Guin, Tolkien, Herbert, Wolfe, Asimov, McKillip, and McCaffrey. There was Tarzan, of course, and John Carter of Mars, some Mucker, Venus, Pellucider, and other titles. I don’t read a lot of the genre anymore; when I do it’s usually because my daughter talks me into something or when I go back to one of the authors of my younger reading life for a comfort read.

A Princess of Mars, and the followup, Gods of Mars, are two of my favorite ERB titles, along with the first few Tarzan and a couple of the dozens of subsequent Tarzan titles. I don’ t remember where our collection of the many Tarzan novels stopped but it was well into the teens or maybe twenties. I also don’t remember if I read or had all of the Mars books. Those paperbacks are sadly no longer in my possession and any reading list I kept back then has been lost. I would love to still have them for the covers if nothing else. We had the Ballantine paperbacks for most, if not all, of our ERB titles, and those covers are instantly recognizable to me.

Rereading books you loved at other times in your life is always interesting. Can they still hold your interest? Do they still hold up? What stands out that maybe you didn’t notice or can’t remember from a read forty years ago? A Princess of Mars grabbed me right away once again. Like a lot of first books in what later became series, you can really feel the author’s inspiration and joy in creating a new character and world. Even as a teen I laughed at some of the stretches ERB made in his books and some of the “mistakes” he made in understanding science or geography or zoology. In this book, however, he did a credible job of using the little we know of Mars and building technology, culture and society, and a world around it. The effects of gravity, explaining the lines as canals, the manufacture of air, population control, and the additional elements that allowed for technology not discovered on earth were credible. Some of the plot devices, like Carter forgetting that he knew the door combination for the atmosphere factory until the last minute were harder to believe than his “science” fiction devices.

Based on what seems like a natural modern human desire for the fountain of youth, I found it interesting that he made Martians basically immortal but voluntarily (with a little push from society when necessary) “ending” their lives in a pilgrimage to the land of the dead at the age of one thousand. And, of course, using warfare to keep population at a level the planet could carry seems a tad immature and problematic and maybe influenced by the hopefully never-to-be-repeated heyday of eugenics that was a thing in the U.S.A. in the early 20th century.

One of the “funnier” passages that struck me in reading the book again was this one:

"The [farm] labor was performed by convicts, prisoners of war, delinquent debtors and confirmed bachelors who were too poor to pay the high celibate tax which all red-Martian governments impose."

Not a fan of forced labor but thought it was funny that bachelors were being punished for being celibate and thrown in the mix. At least I think that was where he was going with that.

All of this rambling about pulp fiction brings me back to the main point of this review and blog, and that is how glad I am to see some of my favorites getting some form of fine press treatment. Since there are always too many private press books and too little budget, I doubt I would choose to spend thousands of dollars on a letterpress Burroughs with handmade paper, newly commissioned woodblock illustrations, and hand-bound in leather. So it’s nice to see ERB Books doing a very nice book at this price point. It compares nicely with the some of the editions I own by Subterranean Press and Centipede Press. And it blows away the quality of what I used to think of as a collector’s edition: my Easton Press edition. That book literally looks like it was done using a photocopier to enlarge a paperback edition’s pages. And the illustrations pale in comparison to this profusely illustrated edition.

The illustrations here are a combination of illustrations by Schoonover that I believe originally appeared in the McClurg first edition, and others by Frazetta, Abbett, Whelan, Manchess, and Miller that have appeared through the years. In addition, new artwork was commissioned for the edition along with copious black and white illustrations that are embedded into the text. If you have followed this blog long, you probably know that embedded illustrations and ornaments are a particular favorite of mine. The Ballantine paperbacks of my youth were illustrated by Gino D’Achille and are my favorites. Alas, they are not included here but it was a joy to see so many other artist interpretations of ERB’s work.

There are lots of other “extras” that come with this “manuscript” edition, including a preface by Jim Gerlach that guides you through the manuscript edition and an introduction by Robert B. Zeuschner that discusses the early manuscript. At the end of the book, there is a section of preliminary and proposed sketches for the book over its history and as well as biography of the various illustrators. The edition closes with a section on the edits to the 1917 manuscript. And if you are into other extras and ephemera, you get a whole portfolio of facsimile letters and correspondence, including the first check in payment for the manuscript, a medallion, and replica of the pen ERB used. Finally, the book comes in a very nicely done clam-shell box.

As a side-note for letterpress fans, they did do a letterpress edition of Back to the Stone Age in 2015 using the original plates from the 1937 edition that included one of the plates with each edition. Although that one ERB title I haven’t read, I would have been sorely tempted if I had known about it back before it sold out. I’d say if you’re an ERB fan, you’ll be hard pressed to find nicer editions that what ERB Books is putting out right now. The upcoming Tarzan of the Apes looks equally impressive and I would again gladly upgrade my Easton Press edition to the ERB Books Artist edition.

AVAILABILITY: Copies of the manuscript edition of A Princess of Mars are still available at the ERB website for $200. There are plenty of photos (I tried not to be redundant) and much more info available there as well.

This review complete with photos is available on my blog at www.thewholebookexperience.com

In post-Civil War Arizona John Carter has found a gold rich mine. His partner sets out to buy machinery to let them work it properly, but as he leaves the mine site he is set upon by a party of Apaches. Carter sets out to rescue him, but is too late, he does however manage to locate the dead body and free it from the clutches of the “evil injuns”. In doing so he himself is perused and, getting lost, ends up finding refuge in a cave. There he is overcome by something, and finds himself transported, naked, to the surface of the planet Mars.

He meets up with various Martians. Red ones and green ones. Intelligent ones and beast. None of them even half as civilised as a proper human of course.

And, he meets with the princess of the title.

Okay, so they say you should never judge a book by its cover, but I’m going to give you a moment to glance at that cover image. Take it all in. Now, make a judgement call. What do you think this book is like?

If you answered pulp adventure of the swords and sorcery variety with an unbelievable hero who saves the day and gets the girl, well, you’d be right. And if you further speculated that there was plenty of violence and that “the girl” in question was often to be found in distress, that means bonus points for you :)

It isn’t terrible. But it isn’t good. And it is full of dodgy colonial white-man knows best sentiment. Which might give me a topic for my coursera course, we’ll see. Oh, and anti-Bolshvevik sentiment. But if you can ignore all that then, yes, it does have plenty of adventure and derring-do, so if you are looking for that sort of thing, this is the book for you.

As for me? Well, I have to admit that I am sortof interested in reading more about the adventures of John Carter, and I’m definitely interested in the film that came out recently enough. It got a bit hammered in certain sectors but most people seem to say that it is a fine bit of entertainment too. So we will keep an open mind. ( )

No-nonsense sci-fi swashbuckler. Being human on Mars apparently gives our hero John Carter an edge in fighting (some gravity thing) - and boy, does he fight to save the fair princess. Enjoyed it thorouhgly. ( )

Meh. Tarzan was much better than this. I want to continue that series, but I don't think I'll bother with any more volumes in this one.

Addendum: After having seen the movie I now conclude that it is far superior to the book. Pretty much everything I found annoying and wrong in the book is changed in the movie and the movie also actually gives the story a plot. I'm actually considering reading the sequel now just to see how they might handle a movie version of that. ( )

My husband is a big John Carter of Mars fan and his enthusiasm drove me to read some of the books in the series. He listened to the CDs, I read the paperbacks he had collected as a kid. We discussed what was going on as we were reading the books together.

I liked this book. It's not something I would have picked up on my own, but having someone excited about sharing this book with me made it fun to read. The writing is a bit old fashioned, sure. A little wordy perhaps and not tightly edited but that was before TV. People needed/wanted good, fun entertainment. A Civil War veteran waking up on Mars after exploring a cave for gold? What could be better??

Glad I read it. And the movie was very true to the books. Wish it had gotten better reviews! I was hoping for a sequel but that doesn't look like a possibility. I think the negative reviews might have been from people who hadn't read the books. ( )