Edgar Rice Burroughs  (1875-1950)

We admit it freely. ERB is one of our main inspirations. We just hope he'll forgive us for what we've done in the as yet unpublished chapter "Misfits of Mars". We know you will, once you've seen Jane and X8.5 displayed in Martian costumes. Did I say displayed? I meant "displaying Martian costumes". Obviously. Honest.

One of the many likeable things about Edgar, is that he started writing fairly late in life and then went on to earn oodles of money. His first serial, "Under the Moons of Mars" (later republished as "A Princess of Mars") saw print in 1912, when the author was 36 and barely making a living from selling pencil sharpeners. One critic has described it as "a fantastic product of frustration and daydream". We like that, too.

Here's some ERB novels of special interest to WHIO readers:

A Princess of Mars  (1917)

No library is complete without it. Here's the great-grandmother of all buxom space princesses, still young and bouncy in this the first book of the John Carter series. Travel to Mars. Fight four-armed gorillas. Flirt with oviparious women. Hooray!

The Land That Time Forgot : Commemorative Edition  (1918)

Ze efvil Krauts are at it again! Courtesy of a dastardly Unterwasserbootkapitän, the hero and heroine get a one-way ticket to a forgotten island. Here dinosaurs roam and Neanderthals play, a women is still a woman, a man is a half-ape, volcanos erupt in steamy jungles and.... uh, where was I going? Anyway, buy it! (This edition also contains the "sequels", "The People that Time Forgot" and "Out of Time's Abyss": Although originally published as a trilogy it's really one story, and was republished in one volume already in 1924.)

Beyond Thirty   (1916)

Perhaps better known as "The Lost Continent", this one is a must for WHIO readers. As we all know, WWI continued until European civillisation was completely obliterated. Thankfully, the crafty Americans stayed out of the fray, so ice-cream and apple-pie are still around. But everything beyond 30 degrees west longitude (the "thirty" of the title) is barbarian, largely depopulated land. This little book has some really strong imagery that must be experienced to be believed. Lions stalking through the ruins of London is only the beginning... So what are you waiting for? Click that link!