In 1911, at the height of speculations about life on Mars spurred by the observations and theories of the amateur astronomer Percival Lowell, Edgar Rice Burroughs began his career as a writer. He became one of the most prolific and widely read authors of the twentieth century. This American adventure writer is best known for his Tarzan books, but he also wrote a series of adventure novels that unfolded on the richly alien world of Barsoom, the Martians' own name for their planet.
The eleven Barsoom novels featured a gentleman adventurer named John Carter. While facing certain death at the hands of Apache warriors in the Arizona desert, Carter projected himself across space on the power of his imagination to the desiccated surface of the red planet. He wandered the spired and ancient cities of Barsoom, navigated the planet's life-giving canals, tried to save the stunning and buxom Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, and battled everything from fifteen-foot warriors called Tharks to four-armed white gorillas intent on his demise.
The Barsoom novels were pure fantasy, but they brought Mars to life for many readers. Some readers, like astronomer Carl Sagan and novelist Ray Bradbury, found enough inspiration for entire careers. As Bradbury put it, John Carter "seized off to Mars by impossible dreams,...and changed America's scientific territory forever."
