Edgar Rice Burroughs

[tmal]

Just finished the first 5 volumes of the John Carter of Mars saga. I had not read them since I was a kid, maybe fifty years go. The first novel is over one hundred years old, and it is still a great read. It is still a page turner. Everyone knows Tarzan but I think the John Carter stories are even better. Anyway, if your looking for adventure that was read in the Golden Era, this is my recommendation

 

[Touchofevil]

I read The Mucker a number of years back; it was as good as I remembered. It has been around forty years since I read the John Carter of Mars series.

 

[Edward]

I've never actually read any ERB; I've sene plenty of the films and bits inspired by his writings. I seem to be the only person who quite enjoyed the John Carter film. I really should pick up some of the books. I imagine that by niw it's easy to find a nice, hardbound edition of complete series?

 

[MikeKardec]

The Rider and The Mad King are two of my favorites, or at least they were years ago. The Rider is sort of a more compact version of The Mad King and both are a bit of a rip off of Prisoner of Zenda but both are good stories nonetheless. The Rider was written first, I believe. It's very interesting in The Mad King to see someone writing about the events leading up to and then immediately following the outbreak of WWI. ERB did not have all his facts straight but I doubt anyone did at the time. Both, fun, non scifi titles. There is a terrific ERB bio complete with his sketches of exotic animals and locales, it's a door stop, easily capable of killing medium sized rodents, but interesting in its array of contents.

Born in 1875, ERB's military history, though slight, was interesting. He served with the storied 7th Cavalry at Camp Grant, AZ in the days when "Broncho" Apaches were still raiding from across the border in Mexico (Camp Grant previously the site of a horrible massacre of Apaches by local settlers and other tribes ... and, not without precedent, the Camp Grant soldiers tried to defend the Apaches) ... this background shows up in ERB's few westerns and in A Princess of Mars. Much later he was a war correspondent (possibly the oldest) during WWII. Weekly I drive through his city Tarzana, CA.

 

[tmal]

Edward: You can get them almost anyplace. I got the first five stories in one volume at B&N. In the era they were immensely popular so yard sales and such would be a good place to check out too. The best part of the John Carter film was Dejah Thoris. Good casting by Disney.

 

[Edward]

I'd probably need to order in a new collected volume here - I don't think they were quite as common in the UK back in the day. Definitely worth a look, though - I've found a lot of really nice hardbound editions of various stuff over the last few years. I like to keep all my books, so it's worth having something that looks nice on the shelf.

 

[DNO]

I've never actually read any ERB; I've sene plenty of the films and bits inspired by his writings. I seem to be the only person who quite enjoyed the John Carter film. I really should pick up some of the books. I imagine that by niw it's easy to find a nice, hardbound edition of complete series?

Nice to know someone else enjoyed the film. I get strange looks when I mention that I quite liked the John Carter movie. It inspired me to read the first of the John Carter books but I never went beyond that first novel.

 

[Benzadmiral]

My father introduced me to Tarzan when I was about 10. Plenty of blood & thunder, action, cliffhangers at the end of nearly every chapter; and I still remember elements of the language he created for his "great apes." He was a true storyteller -- one who tapped into some unconscious archetype of men living among animals in the jungle, etc. The name "Tarzan" and the character are, I think, known all over the world.

Burroughs wasn't a prose stylist to imitate today, no, but he knew how to hook a reader and keep him hooked.

 

[greatestescaper]

Not only John Carter, or Tarzan, Burroughs also wrote "The Land That Time Forgot", and it's sequel, "The People That Time Forgot".

 

[BriarWolf]

As a pulp nut, the John Carter stories have a special place in my heart. I've read some Tarzan and Pellucidar as well, but they never grabbed hold of my heart the way Barsoom did. I did enjoy the film, which surprised me; I honestly felt Disney's Carter was a bit too angsty compared to the books, where Carter is often so sure of himself it gets him into trouble. I did quite like how they fleshed out (metaphorically, quiet you) Dejah Thoris as a character, and her actress played the part well.

 

[Blowtorch]

Coincidence- just last night I ordered myself a copy of Tarzan, with Frazetta artwork on the cover as a (huge) bonus