The other sections are all reasonably complete, I think few if any characters or concepts of any importance in the series aren't touched on. It's rather amusing (the "real" Burroughs of the books is last heard from in 1969 at the age of 114!) and puts one to mind of Philip Jose Farmer's "Wold Newton" concept, stitching together all kinds of fictional characters with vast lifespans into one consistent literary universe. Section XI is a bio of the "Edgar Rice Burroughs" to whom most of the stories in the books are told, with asides about his activities involving Tarzan, David Innes, Carson Napier, etc. I would have liked to see a chronology of the events in the books included in section I. Similarly the illustrations scattered throughout by Neal MacDonald are really lovely, but just don't come off well in this format. There are maps in sections II, though they are just simple hemispherical ones with little detail, and aren't well reproduced and are too small to be terribly useful. XI - "Edgar Rice Burroughs": A Brief Biographical Space VIII - Quotations, Proverbs and Expletives VI - The Languages, Religions and Customs of Barsoom I - A Brief History of pre-Carter Barsoom I think the chapter format works fairly well, given the small paperback edition that I believe is the only way this book was published, though I tend to usually prefer a strict alphabetical "encyclopedic" format in such exercises. The book is organized into several chapters, each of them offering a guide to various aspects of the Barsoomian world created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 11 books published from 1912-64, and all previously published in magazine form. The book looks to be out-of-print now, but I don't know that it's been superseded by anything better and you can easily get it used cheaply here or elsewhere. My paperback copy of this book dates from 1980 and has a Michael Whelan cover that I think might be taken from one of the Burroughs books. A must read for the ERB fan and to the John Carter of Mars fan in particular! It's unbelievable how much research the author did to write this book. The biography takes the fictional ERB through all of his novels until he's well over a 100 years old!! He knew Tarzan, Lord Greystoke and Jason Gridley. He's the one that is John Carter's nephew. It is a biography of a fictional Edgar Rice Burroughs. I thought it would be pretty boring but it was great fun to read! It took my mind back into the books that I enjoyed so much and to how the characters were connected to each other throughout the book series. One chapter is a long list of characters' names with descriptions. I picked up the ebook version and decided to give it a try. I've had the paperback version for several years but it looked too much like it would be like trying to read a dictionary. This book is an excellent addition to the collection of any fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars books. And I most enjoyed the biographical sketch of "Edgar Rice Burroughs," the nephew of John Carter, who received the stories of the heroic Earthman's adventures on Mars/Barsoom.Ī definite must for fans of Edgar Rice Burroughs, compiled by John Flint Roy (1913-1987). There's information on the religions and customs of Barsoom and also the planet's flora and fauna. It includes the geography of "Barsoom" and a biographical dictionary of all the characters in the series as well as a general glossary. This book is a great reference work for the series. The first book of the Mars series, "A Princess of Mars," was published in 1912 (in "The All-Story" magazine) and is considered to be one of the true classics of science fiction. While I've always preferred Tarzan to John Carter of Mars, I know many ERB fans believe his 11-book Mars series is superior to his 24-book Tarzan series. It was Edgar Rice Burroughs who motivated me to read and helped to make me a reader! Then, while in grade school, I was able to acquire the 40 cent paperback books that were being published. I'm a lifelong fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950)- since I was a child- and became acquainted with ERB's most famous creation, Tarzan, through films and comics in the 50s. I'm very happy to give this book, first published in 1976, a full 5/5 stars.
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