Burroughs Books

I won't rehash the plot; plenty of reviewers here tell what the story is about. I will say, though, that this book begins the career of Edgar Rice Burroughs and that it's success leads the author to create Tarzan, Pellucidar, and many other stories. And more Barsoom! John Carter, Confederate veteran, fights, runs, leaps, loves, befriends and brings the races of dying Mars together when he isn't busy waging war or rescuing maidens. Actually, he brings the races of dying Mars together WHILE waging war and rescuing maidens. One can clearly see how Tars Tarkas begat Chewbacca, and how John Carter himself begat Flash Gordan, Luke Skywalker, and Superman... yes, Superman.
And the second book, _The Gods of Mars_, is even better!

Purchase was smooth, delivery prompt and well packaged. The book's condition was excellent for its age.

I read plenty of pulp fiction, sword and sorcery, etc. when I was a foolish young teenager (and even before). Years later, I reread some of them and was disappointed, even appalled. Had I enjoyed reading such dreck? Imagine my delight when I finally read "A Princess of Mars" and found it just as fun as the first time! Don't get me wrong. There is nothing profound here, no literary brilliance for the ages or anything like that. The "science" of the science fiction here is often questionable, though it helps to keep in mind that some of the sillier-sounding things were not so far-fetched when it was written. But if you want a good, clean, fast-paced adventure you can do a lot worse than this, and the numerous sequels. There is little excess verbiage, unlike most modern action novels I've tried, and you will probably tear through this and want more.

One thing I'll point out is the airship warfare depicted in the novels. Today it sounds quaint. Before they were displaced by airplanes, the airships really were terrors of the skies, just as lethal as the book depicts. Imagine those cute Goodyear blimps overhead, raining down fire and death instead of running ads, and you will have some appreciation of the potential of airships in a world without heavier-than-air flying machines.

Take a brawny Virginian adventurer, and get him to the Red Planet. Have him captured by aliens. Let there be a beautiful woman with an exotic name for him to fall for. Add a castastrophic failure of technology that could doom the planet except for the slim chance that John Carter, our hero, can save the day.

Not to mention the odd battle or war.

Mars rocks....even in 1912
I just finished read A Princess Of Mars by Mr. Burroughs. Its amazing to note that he wrote this in 1912. The science sounds plausible and for those items where he can't nail things down he has the 9 rays of the sun to account for anti gravity and an atmosphere generator to overcome the problems of Mars atmosphere. As for John Carters transport to Mars, I don't know if future novels attempt to explain that but I am going with the initial transit due to something in that cave where the knock out / paralysis gas (?) overcame him. After that he is transported back one can assume in much the same fashion as Star Trek like transporters. Perhaps its all due to some mad scientist sort of overlord trying to utilize heavy gravity earth man to kick start a stagnant society. He is perhaps called back and returned due to a tracking implant within his body. Obviously at the height of Martian culture hundreds of thousands of years ago they may have achieved nuclear power but I am willing to overlook that that has been lost or perhaps become culturally unacceptable knowledge In the end if you respect the story and are a little awed at his guesses, mad and otherwise, at building his novels Mars back in 1912. Mr. Burroughs was at the dawn of flight and we only had inklings of the power of radium and there weren't even diving tanks for scuba diving yet..
I loved the wireless guided explosive bullet rifle, enjoyed the enormous flying battleships powered by antigravity, the mention of powerful telescopes that inform them of the Earth and in a couple of ways that shall go unmentioned I dug the well nigh impregnable fortress for the atmosphere generator.
This is a fast paced novel and within the first 30 pages much has happened and you know a number of things about mars. So hang on tight and enjoy the ride and though written in 1912 you will be impressed.

Yes Mr. Burrough made a few mistakes with addresses and name spellings but overall I was impressed with how he made all the information flow together so well. This was a huge task to take on and I was surprised how good of a job was done. I did have to dock a star due to the amount Mr. Burrough relied on Alvin Karpis's word for word retelling of events that happened so long ago- it gives the book a bit of a fiction feel to it at times. Overall this was a very good read.

This book has a lot of details and is very good. Don't expect this book to tell you lots and lots about the gangsters of the era... it's more of a detailed account of the FBI and how they got organized. Again, lots of details, making it slow reading, but very good material!

This is a great book. Author infers in his introduction that this was a labor of love and it shows in his writing. At over 500 pages, it shows the relationship of the five major criminal gangs of the 1933-34 time period. Those were the Barker Gang, Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson, and Dillenger. With the exception of Bonnie and Clyde (who were strictly small time), all knew each other and helped in raids. None of these people were glamourous since they all murdered people. Dillenger killed three policemen. Bonnie, Clyde, and Baby Face Nelson were psychopaths. Why people had admiration for them is beyond me, but the times were hard and many felt banks were as crooked as those who robbed them.

This book also details the rise of the FBI and how Hoover interferred with the progress of investigations. Purvis was mildly incompetent. Why some of these gangsters roomed the streets was due to FBI leads not being followed up. In the end, the FBI became more professional due to this crime wave. Hoover went on to become the Crime Dictator for forty years.

This is a great book and is very readable. For those interested in the Great Depression and the fall of the bank robbers, this is a treasure trove of information. Highly recommended.

A very interesting book. Let's you know exactly what happens back in the old days. Good reading.

For history buffs, this is a find! I could not put this book down! WoW, loaded, just packed with information on the PUBLIC ENEMIES! With all the fuss now, with Johnny Depp starring in Public Enemies, based on this book, I am sure this will be THE book everyone will have to read. The movie is coming out in 2009. Filmed in the Midwest; Wisconsin, Indiana, etc, and even at Little Bohemia, in Northern Wisconsin, where the Feds goofed up bigtime and J.Edgar Hoover covered, or at least tried to cover up their blunder, when innocent citizens were gunned down, instead of the "gangstas". You will love this, you won't want the book to end, it covers all of them, Johhny Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, Ma Barker and her gang, Machine Gun Kelly. It's all here, and of course, Bonnie and Clyde. You will be right at the scenes, even when they met their bloody early demise, and most of them went out shooting their tommy guns. The author did a magnificent job of researching his subjects. You won't be disappointed spending a weekend reading this one!

In the 1990s, the pride of Russia's space program was its aging space station, Mir. So much had changed as the Soviet Union broke apart, with nothing more apt to bring the changes home than the launch facilities' being located, now, in a separate and independent country. Yet that space program's culture remained the same, and the American astronauts who volunteered to serve tours of duty aboard Mir found it alien not just to U.S. culture - but, far more tellingly, to that of NASA. Especially to NASA post-Challenger, where every employee was encouraged to speak up about safety concerns.

It wasn't that way aboard Mir. The cosmonauts (two members of each three-person crew), working on a bonus and fines system, knew they had to stay aboard and keep the station operating no matter what. Even when their own rule book said it was time to get aboard the attached Soyuz capsule and abandon ship, after the first decompression of an occupied spacecraft in history, they refused to leave. Leaks of toxic coolant, fires, even complete power losses that shut the station down - leaving it in absolute darkness during the night phase of each Earth orbit - nothing convinced the cosmonauts it was time to go home ahead of schedule. Were they just plain wrong? Was their ground control, which expected this of them and made it absolutely clear this was the case, heartless and out of touch with the reality those aloft were facing? So it often seemed to the series of American astronauts, a varied lot who for the most part "volunteered" for this duty because each knew it was his or her only chance to fly.

Author Burrough brings out the facts in often exhaustive detail (so exhaustive that even this lifelong space program junkie sometimes had to slog through chapters while wondering, "Is this going somewhere? Really, is it?"). His research is meticulous, his sources impeccable, and his conclusions - when they're finally reached - wind up being the reader's own, because that is exactly what his writing achieves. For that reason, I'm calling this book a winner. Its only faults are being a bore at times (there really are passages I swear only an engineer would find interesting!), and switching tenses in a haphazard manner that's sure to drive readers who notice such things crazy.

This book is an excellent look at life on board an aging space station. The author does an amazing job conveying all the problems on board including the relationship between the cosmonauts as well as the problems with TSUp (the Russian "mission control"). What also makes the book even more exciting are the transcripts of the communication between the cosmonauts and the ground team in Russia. We really get a sense of actually being in the station and going through the chaos along with the cosmonauts. One of the best accounts of life on board a space station. Highly recommended.

NASA these days is nothing like what I expected. I thought an astronaut had to have balls. You know, as in courageous. Apparently that is no longer the case. NASA is now just another bureaucratic monstrosity that is more about paperwork and kissing butt than exploring outer space. I read in despair about how everyone must act like a little girl if they want to fly into space. That is, they must be cute, pretty, obedient little cyphers. They must have a half dozen college degrees and have a clean record that reveals a predictable, risk-adverse character. They must also get on the good side of some fat bureaucrat who is in charge of the place. Yes, Abbey, I'm talking about you, you fat henpecked b*tch.

No wonder NASA is no longer breaking ground with its manned missions. It is now run like a freakin' accounting firm, complete with effeminate sissies who pass for men and plenty of loud-mouthed spoiled brats who enjoy being women.

This is an excellent, informative book, and I ate it up. And it is no wonder that space exploration has stagnated in the past 30 years. Every successful company needs to be initiated by a strong man with balls. But down the road, it is inevitable that the women move in and make everything complicated. Rules are made, rules are made, rules are made, etc. Layer after arbitrary layer. Risk is abhored and chased away. Then you end up with today's NASA, where a character like Abbey must have his butt kissed if a man wishes to ride the space shuttle. What ever happened to daring? Why do we let the soccer moms take charge and mess it all up???

This is a very well written and very well researched book. I was very much drawn into the story from the beginning of the book until the last page. Burrough did in depth interviews with about everyone associated with the program and conveys his interviews into a cohesive, interesting and very intriguing story . . . it was hard to put down!

This is a great book, very entertaining! You'll feel like you are really there, floating around in the space station.The book goes into a lot of behind-the-scenes personality clashes between astronauts/cosmonauts. Tells the story of the Mir and International space stations.

Once I started reading this historical account of life as a hobo, grifter and thief from the turn of the last century, I just couldn't put it down. It was very well written and an interesting telling of life on the road, riding trains and the experience of someone who lived his life on the very edges of regular society. It gives the reader a clear picture of what that experience was like. Although the author is essentially anonymous, using a fictious name, there are glimpses of his real life when he mentions cities, institutions and real people that he visited and knew. A very worthwhile book.

as far as im concerned its the best piece of hobo literature out there. jack black is an amazing writer and it shows. he doesnt try to get your sympathy and is just documenting his life and those surrounding him in a fantastic matter that you think he had spent 20 years on this book.

My son, who this book was purchased for, enjoyed this book very much. Thank you.

This is an amazing story that drags you into this guy's lonely world. Sexy, it ain't. It's a man's, man's world. It's obvious this guy did some hard time getting all the details down. I guess living it would allow you plenty of ammunition. After reading I had acquired a whole new paranoia regarding breaking and entering. It's depressing and lonely and stark. This is a book that needs to live on and on.

I thought this was a tip-top book. Blacky's adventures out West and in Canada around the turn of the century were very intruiging. I just wish there were more books written by him and not so much of a mystery of what happened to him later in life. Or maybe that's what makes him so appealing. I agree with several others about the "extras" at the end of the book. Especially his article that appeared in Harpers. That could've have been written today.

William Burroughs creates the world he wants to live in... where sodomy and illicit drugs are plentiful, too say the least, and reality exists only in your beliefs. Composed of seemingly unrelated story lines (no spoilers here), one plot surrounding the violent takeover of Spanish territory by a cult of young renegade pirates, another centered on a Noir-esque globetrotting Private Eye and his... assistant... investigating a young boy murdered in a mysterious ritualistic manner involving hanging and, well, ejaculation. Throw in an inexplicable plague-like disease, time travel, gay sex and Burrough's patented deadpan narrative, you've got yourself an epic. This is what happens when Beats read history books strung out.

Fierce symbolisms that rips out the guts of whitebread America. The most profound gem is Burrough's prediction of the AIDS crisis. He was able to capture in this book the symptoms he saw develop in the homosexual underground years before it was announced to the world at large.

This is the most accessible William Burroughs novel ever written. It has more structure, cohesion and plot than most of his other works, so if you are a first time Burroughs reader this is the one to go for...Burroughs is a genius and a prophet of 20th Century literature. His writing pushes the boundaries of imagination,sexuality, social interaction and time. He is an alien soul injected into the dead body of a homosexual junkie. He started shooting up as a 1 yr old baby and by the age of 2 he was having anal sex with other babies in nightclub toilets. His stream of consciousness will transport you to planets and worlds that transcend human experience but also unveil the instincts that drive us to the edge of depravity and extinction. William Burroughs is in love with humanity and he knows how to show it. After all he did shoot his wife in the head xxx

I can't say that I want to "Be Like Burroughs" because there were some instances in this novel Cities of the Red Night (and others) where I thought he was on the verge of losing his mind. The stories span from homo-erotic pornography to violent surrealism but his talent was obvious. There are political messages on the nature of freedom and individualism, however an average reader could easily be distracted by but all of the surreal imagery and sexual situations. Yet I recommend that you read Naked Lunch first before reading this book.

Burroughs knew what he was talking about. This book along with the Place of Dead Roads was the final, most complete and coherant summation of the Burroughs vision/nightmare. Just by virtue of his personal style these books mix utopian essay, apocalyptic nightmare, gut wrenching horror, and valid cultural criticism. As far as experimental fiction goes, you won't find any more readable, in the Burroughs canon or anywhere else. A word of caution: these books are for thinking people; they are not brain dead entertainment with cutesy characters or happy endings. It is not easy reading. Burroughs regards the natural condition of humaity and civillization as ultimately dark and depraved. Few people want to believe that, and those who do may have a hard time coming to grips with such a pessimistic conclusion about human nature. Such a vision provokes and challengues us all. Those brave souls who, though cold, disoriented and terrified choose to light a candle with trembling hands and willingly descend the staircase into the forsaken cellar of Burroughs' mind will not return unscathed or unrewarded.

This is the book in which Tarzan gets Jane. (No, he didn't get her in the first book...only in the movie.)

Interesting love triangle, made all the more interesting by Tarzan's wild adventures, some of them believable, some of them totally unbelievable, all of them capivating, exciting,and filled with action.

You always know Tarzan, as other "good guys" of this age and genre, will win in the end, but sometimes you wonder how and if he will ever get there.

Every chapter is like reading/watching one of the old serials movie theaters used to run between shows in the double featue on Satudays.

Fun read. Good read. Go for it. You will feel like a kid again---and take it from this old man---that ain't all bad!!!!!

Conquer My Heart

Interesting tales within a story coming to an end. Tarzan gets bored in Paris and takes a job as an under cover agent to spy on a military person suspected of treason. The soldier is committing treason to cover a mistake. This spy game leads Tarzan back to the road of savage ape when a new enemy throws him overboard. Herculean strength once again saves Tarzan and he unites with Arabs who help rescue him and then a Waziri tribe that goes with him to find riches beyond a man's imagination. The city of Opar nearly costs the ape man his life, but he leaves with the knowledge of a secret exit/entrance and a high priestess that loves him. Due to a shipwreck, Tarzan discovers Jane has been taken to the deadly city of Opar. Of course he rescues her and finally they a married to live happily and with great wealth in England as Lord Greystroke. Some of the story bogs down in tedium writing. Once again I must say, this classic would not make it in the modern brick and mortar publishing world.

This book is total crap, and begs the question, how on earth did Edgar Rice Burroughs become so revered in american literature? Following The eloquently beautiful and mystifying "Tarzan of the Apes", this seems almost slapstick silly; a spoof of what should have well been left alone. The outlandish coincedences are obscene to put it mildly.

1. Tarzan meeting Jane Porter's best friend Hazel Strong upon the High Sea's
2. Tarzan being thrown overboard literally in the middle of nowhere, only to be find himself back on his native island, washed up upon the exact shore within mere feet of his beloved dwelling.
3. Tarzan arriving just in time to kill "Numa" before the lion makes dinner of a sickened, weary Clayton and frightened Jane Porter.
The list goes on, but enough.
The original "Tarzan of the Apes" will always remain one of my favorite literary pieces of all time. Burrough's "The Land That Time Forgot" was also wonderful. How he managed to stretch out the Tarzan saga through so many sequels is beyond me, but somehow I will probably find myself grueling through the next in the series while simultaneously shaking my head and wondering why.

Tarzan decides it is best if he leaves Jane, and returns to Africa. He falls in with a couple of dodgy noble types, and ends up having some Arab adventures, joins the Waziri tribe, and eventually ends up reunited with Jane in Opar.

The only problem he has is that one of the powerful women of Opar wants his body, and is not too happy Jane has prior claims.

Revelation of his position, marriage and return eventuate.

It was ordered for my daughter. When children show an interest in worthwhile reading, one doesn't hesitate to supply them with what they want.

A slightly jealous Princess Of Mars stormy aviatrix skipout. Please return.

Which, when it seems that Tara of Helium is in trouble, the smitten young noble from Gathol rushes off to do.

The competent young Princess does ok for a while, but meets a strange race of basically, heads, that use headless bodies to get around.

Then, off to another isolated Martian region that likes to play nasty games of the local chess variety, having pieces duel to the death instead of just be taken.

Evil rulers, nasty old taxidermists, lost passages and rebellion are all to be found here.


3.5 out of 5

In this novel, Burroughs introduces Tara of Helium, daughter of John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom. Although superficial at first, Tara in time grows up and becomes a very interesting heroine. Unfortunately her coheadliner in the book--Gahan, Jed (king, not prince) of Gathol--is a shallow, impulsive wussbag who falls in love with her as soon as he sees her and spends the rest of the book obsessing over her. While Gahan does engage in some great feats to save the Princess, he is too stupid for the reader to really identify with. (Hello! If everyone seems not to see you after you've just walked into a walled city when you're clearly not one of the locals and are being surreptitiously marched into a prison, it might be time to rethink strategy for entering the city.) Despite the clod of Gahan as hero, though, Ghek the kaldane more than counterbalances him and provides a freshness and zest to the narrative it would otherwise lack. The game of jetan is well described and intriguing, as is Manatorian culture. While he does become likable by the end, Gahan is a major irritant in the story. Had he been someone I could identify better with, I'd have given the book five stars. Four seems appropriate though, given the other narrative strengths.

"Surprise, surprise, surprise!" --as Gomer Pyle used to say on 60's television. What? You don't remember Gomer Pyle and Sarg? ("Gohooh-OOLLLLL-EEE" and "PIE-yull!") What DO Gomer Pyle and Edgar Rice Burroughs have in common? Here it is; you don't remember Gomer unless you are my age or older (baby boomer) and most of you don't remember Burroughs. Or didn't read him. So science fiction authors have been flagrantly mining Burrough's best book for simply decades and it still is going on.

This book is RICH in ideas, images, creative notions, science fiction achievements and has been the inspiration for "homage" by many of the greatest sci-fi and fantasy authors I can name. So I am going to do name some names, and then give you a sample of the prose from the book, so you know what to expect when you read it.

Madeleine L'Engle stole IT for her superb "A Wrinkle in Time." IT is in here. The goal of the Kaldanes is to make a giant brain to control the planet. A subterranean control brain--ah, didn't the Original Star Trek swipe that in what is arguable the WORST EPISODE EVER (Spock's Brain.)

The symbiotic Kaldane and Rykor--these spidery nasty heads were used in a different form by several authors, including Heinlein who made them into the Puppet Masters in the book by the same name, converted to humps on the back but quite similar in notion. And The Borg Queen of yes, Star Trek (Next Generation) pops her head onto a replaceable body. Hmmm. Where have I seen that before?

Even J.K. Rowlings makes use of monster chess in "Harry Potter"--and we find that the high point of "Chessmen is the game where live chess pieces fight for the princess and pieces duel each other to the death.

So if you love sci-fi and fantasy, you just HAVE to read "Chessmen"--possibly Burroughs' best Mars book. Just beware that the 1920's prose is a bit dense--an example:

Often he clambered over the body of a fallen foe to leap against the next behind, and once there lay five dead kaldanes behind him, so far had he pushed back his antagonists. They did not know it; these kaldanes that he fought, nor did the girl awaiting him upon the flier, but Gahan of Gathol was engaged in a more alluring sport than winning to freedom, for he was
avenging the indignities that had been put upon the woman he loved; but presently he realized that he might be jeopardizing her safety uselessly, and so he struck down another before him and turning leaped quickly up the stairway, while the leading kaldanes slipped upon the brain-covered floor and stumbled in pursuit." (One sentence.....!!!)

Basically, the spoiled princess Tara of Helium spurns a lover, gets lost, ends up in a terrible place (the Kaldanes' domain), gets rescued while being fought over by handsome heroes and damnably handsome but gruesomely vile foes. With a game "Jetan"--which is live chess and very creative. A fantastic trip.

This is the fifth book in Edgar Rice Burroughs "Mars" series. This time around, the stars are John Carter's previously unmentioned daughter, Tara; and her love interest, Gahan. This is probably the best book in the series. Tara and Gahan discover some lost cities of Mars, and fall in love. Fans of early science fiction should enjoy this book.

Burroughs' Martian Series is worth remembering and rereading from time to time. I first read these books well over 50 years ago and they, and this book, have lost none of their charm. For the student of SiFi and S&S, these are a must read. Granted, the style is certainly different than todays books, but this is a plus. We need to read and remember it. That being said, these books are just simply fun to read. Recommend them highly.

I enjoyed reading this book. If you like Burroughs work this is a definite read.

This books is a very sensible story of William Burroughs with his boyfriend Allerton in the 50's in the spectral corrupted Mexico City, where queers where sexually repressed and where the repression was another tool of control.
Burroughs give a comprehensible writing, more in the genre of Junky, where this is a straightforward telling with reality transposition, and with this tender and sad story of the end of the addiction of Burroughs and his sexual orientation and love story with this young boy which goes on a trip with Burroughs and ends on a really sad ending with tears streaming down from his face in the sound of the wind down the city streets and piano music in a feel of hardcore sadness.

What makes this novel so affecting, when it is, is due to the workmanlike approach of the writing -- it's very simple and blunt, but not boorish: there's a well of emotion running through the words, and some of the lines ("He felt a deep hurt, as though he were bleeding inside. Tears ran down his face.") are piercing. The novel reads like a druggy travelogue into Mexico; we get this dusty sense of watering holes, where our main character lusts after boys in his incompetent way, and formulates theories on how to acquire a rare drug. He's a crotchety old bugger, full of useless information, in love with Allerton, a boy more beautiful and refined than he, who allows himself to be bought; out of loneliness or indifference, it's not clear. (You understand why Allen Ginsberg appreciates the novel so much.)

Burroughs is witty in his way (there's a great line about Allerton being untalented at removing people from an occupied space in his life), but because his writing is so permeated with drunks and lascivious characters, you sometimes wonder whether his wittiness is apparent even to him. There is one uproarious scene where he refers to "she-Jews" and then backs up and says, "I must be careful not to lay myself open to a change of anti-Semitism." And he includes an idea for a new dish, a pig cooked on the outside but still alive and twitching on the inside. But of course he makes it clear that his writing is very much planned -- he includes an observational point of questioning if someone really understands what you've told them. Like that, Burrough's is working emotionally subtly; his descriptions of sex, too, are quiet and understated, if included at all. There are some dream sequences that anticipate Burroughs' later novels, but for the most part this is fairly straight-ahead storytelling. Steve Buscemi apparently wants to make a film of it, and if you've seen his "Trees Lounge" you may get a feel for what the novel is like.

Queer is an unfinished novel set in Mexico City in the late 1940s, where "Lee" (Burrough's surrogate) is trying to "kick the Chinaman all the way out". In the introduction, Burroughs, tries to explain his emotional state:

"When the cover is removed, everything that has been held in check by junk spills out. The withdrawing addict is subject to the emotional excesses of a child or an adolescent, regardless of his actual age."

Lee bares a raw neediness that is all too human; he is a grown man in the throws of a schoolboy's infatuation. He makes a fool of himself struggling to impress an indifferent youth named Allerton, who acquiesces occasionally enough to egg Lee on. However, these moments of devil-may-care outrageousness are when Burrough's incredibly dark humor steals the book. For those of a certain bent, Queer contains several "cackle-out-loud moments" in what Burroughs calls his "routines" - free association storytelling of thoroughly perverse nature. The phrase "Corn Hole Gus' Used-Slave Lot" should convey enough, without giving away the punch lines.

It seems as though this book might be about sex, but I found it to be much more about desire. For sex, but also for reciprocity. For that reason, even those who are not "queer" may well enjoy it. Burroughs' cast of characters and scenes in the early part of the book show an underside of Mexico City that is likely long gone. And don't skip the introduction. Burroughs' stories about campesinos are almost too savagely silly to believe.

A book of unreciprocated feelings, and longings amplified by withdrawel and junk sickness. This is a much more intimate and personal look into the life of William Burroughs than his other stuff. It takes place after he accidentally killed his wife, and he is sobering up and facing all of the demons and guilt previously dulled by the drugs.

This book was banned for a long time, the homosexual relationships and longings aren't grotesque exaggerations with shock value in mind like some of his other stories, they are very human and almost universal innocent boyish longings for affection.

He develops these "routines", funny stories he uses that show off his sarcasm and absurd sense of humor when he wants the attention of the room. All of the stories are hilarious and really show off his talent as a writer, but the people around him generally could care less or they just don't get it. So he is trapped always in a foreign land suspicious of everyone searching endlessly for islands of sanctuary.

Burroughs claims in the introduction that just reading the words and putting it down is very painful for him, but he did it so that he could move forward. A very intense time in the life of a brilliant and fascinating character.

Well researched, embellished with the author's gorgeous photos, this book is a joy to read. It is a biography and more!

The World of John Burroughs is a very readable biography of this great naturalist and writer. It is also refreshment for the eyes. Many photographs help portray the land and people that helped to shape this man. As a great grand niece of JB, I highly recommend this book for its accuracy and beauty.

John Burroughs, the naturalist and philosopher, was a best-seller in his day (the late 19th century and early 20th), a Thoreau without rough edges and politics. If he has enjoyed a revival in recent years it is probably due to Ed Kanze's stunningly written and attractively presented biography, "The World of John Burroughs,'' published by Abrams in 1993, and now out of print. The good news: Sierra Club Books has come out with this paperback version. Some of Burroughs is dated today, and as Kanze notes, he published some mediocre essays along with the good stuff. But much of Burroughs' nature writings are brilliant in their painstaking observation and solid prose:

"Most persons think the bee gets honey from the flowers, but she does not: honey is a product of the bee; it is the nectar of the flowers with the bee added. What the bee gets from the flower is sweet water: this she puts through a process of her own and imparts to it her own quality."

Kanze, like a good conversationalist, leads the reader gently through Burroughs' life and writings. Burroughs was a real 19th-century figure: He consorted with the literary likes of John Muir and William Dean Howells and in later life was a favorite of Teddy Roosevelt and Henry Ford -- not to mention the Vassar girls who visited him at his rustic Hudson Valley hideaway, Slabsides. (Burroughs' private life was, in a word, difficult, and Kanze is unstinting in dealing with the birth of his one -- illegitimate -- child.) It is not surprising that Kanze is a naturalist himself and has been a museum curator. The book has the feel of a nature walk or a good museum exhibit, in which a subject not readily familiar to the reader becomes fascinating with the help of a terrific guide. There are well-chosen historical photographs and the luminous nature photography of the author, each photo chosen for its relevance to one or another passage from Burroughs' work. Particularly moving are the photos of Burroughs in Slabsides; paired with Kanze's own color photos of the house's preserved interior.You find your eye traveling back and forth from the old photo to the new, to see the same fireplace stone here, the unpeeled birch desk there.

There is a lot more to the story of John Burroughs than what is included here. We need to understand the social and historical context in which Burroughs lived and wrote, and Kanze does not help us.

This large-format table-top picture book provides a wealth of photographs of John Burroughs but a very light and brief biography of the man. There is not much text. Great illustrations, but for details on JB's life go elsewhere.

I loved this book. I loved the first three books. Yeah you wonder why they don't just shoot each other instead of swordfights to the death and the whole backdrop of how he gets to mars is odd today but the sense of wonder and the audacity of the ideas he keeps throwing at you page to page is just fantastic. The tech is odd but must have seemed astounding at the time. Kept in context this book is truly amazing. Compared to today the descriptive tech and the swordfights are odd but the rush of ideas, cliffhangers and all make this the King of cliffhangers.
I AM SURPRISED HOW MUCH I REALLY RECCOMMEND THIS BOOK TO OTHERS. THANKS TO DAD FOR RECOMMENDING IT TO ME.

Burroughs' creative peak was clearly in the timeframe when he wrote this. He had begun three of his four primary series and was rapidly gaining fame and fortune because of his breathtaking tales of adventure and romance. This displays no flagging of his creative juices. Burroughs takes Carter from one end of Mars to the other with some amazing creations on display in the interim. Here Carter has matured and but for two slips, betrays none of the stupidity usually associated with pulp heroes. (Unfortunately Burroughs made up for Carter's intelligence in later books by having Gahan of Gathol and Tan Hadron of Hastor become just shy of braindead.) With all the wonders on display in the book, though, one major flaw shines through: the ending. For those who have not read the book, you may want to look away at this point. Right after a spectacular extended fight scene which must leave the reader breathless, Burroughs has Carter face Thurid and Matai Shang in what one would expect to be the tour de force finale when good conquers evil and makes all well in the world. Only--well, it doesn't quite happen. Thurid and Matai Shang are running like scared rabbits when Carter catches them just as they turn against each other. Then someone else saves the day. Why Burroughs ended the book this way will always mystify me unless he really felt the butchery Carter would wreak on these two villains would offend sensibilities. The bloody deaths of both Thurid and Matai Shang at Carter's hands would have made for a great passage in the book. Instead, a literal deus ex machina appears to rescue our superman hero. If not for this anticlimactic scene, the book would deserve five stars. Ah, well...

"Do you know where we are going?" she said.
"To solve the mystery of the eternal hereafter, I imagine," I replied.
"I am going to a fate worse than that," she said, with a little shudder.
"What do you mean?"
-- _The Gods of Mars_

In a delightful article, "Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Fate Worse than Death," Richard D. Mullen (1969-70) gives a detailed table of Edgar Rice Burroughs novels from 1911 through 1915. In them, he lists the times and circumstances in which a heroine is threatened with rape (the "fate worse than death") and how she is saved in the proverbial nick of time. (As you may know, an Edgar Rice Burroughs heroine is frequently unclothed but always pure and virtuous.) For those readers interested in such statistics, there are 76 cases recorded by Mullen.

In _The Warlord of Mars_ (_Argosy_, 1913-14), there are at least three such incidents recorded for our moral edification. In each case, Dejah Thoris is the threatened heroine. In the first case, she is threatened by the yellow Martian king Salensus Oll (even his name is oily). In the second instance, she is kidnapped by the white Martian Matai Shang, his brave but ruthless daughter Phaidor, and the black Martian Thurid. And in the third case, she is menaced by a band of yellow Martians, who plan to preserve her "as a plaything for [the] nobles" (151).

Mullen states that in each case, Dejah Thoris is rescued by the stalwart John Carter. This is certainly true of the first and third cases. But it is not strictly true in the second case. Carter certainly _attempts_ to save her, but he is not really very effective. It is disagreement and double-crossing among the villains that really preserves the honor of the Princess. (Burroughs heroines are frequently rescued by the hero, or they may save themselves. On rare occasions, the menacer may have a change of heart. Sometimes Providence-- in the form of lions, earthquakes, or passing pterodactyls-- may lend a hand.)

All of the previous incidents occur in the latter chapters of the novel. But the sharp-eyed reader may have noted that I said that there were "at least three" fate-worse-than death scenarios in _Warlord_. There is in fact a fourth one as well, and it is truly remarkable. Near the end of chapter one, Matai Shang and Thurid, on friendier terms than they are at the close of the novel, are in a boat plotting how to make John Carter's life more miserable. Unbeknownst to them, Carter is following in another boat and listening to them. They have Dejah Thoris prisoner. Thurid generously allows Matai Shang first turn: "You shall have your way with her before another day has passed" (15). Carter refrains from slaying "the vile plotters" (16) only because they are the only ones who can lead him to Dejah Thoris. And then... _Matai Shang never gets around to having his way with the princess for the next twelve chapters_! This is not quite a record in Burroughs's novels. In _The Gods of Mars_, we learn that Thuvia has been a slave to the white Martians for 15 years without being molested. Still Dejah Thoris's good fortune is certainly worthy of comment.

One final note. The female speaking in the quote above is _not_ a virtuous heroine. It is the imperious, willful, sometimes villainous Phaidor who will attempt to kill Dejah Thoris on several occasions. Perhaps some future Burroughs scholar will compile a list of Not So Nice Girls who are menaced by the fate worse than death.

I must admit to having sort of cut my teeth on the stories of John Carter and this author. Here the tale continues. I enjoy SiFi and enjoy pulp fiction. Here we have some of the best of both. The author's imagination is without match and his characters truely jump off the page. I first started reading the John Carter series well over fifty years ago, and must admit to going back ever few years and rereading the entire group. This is one of my favories. Recommend this one highly.

First written in 1914, this series of John Carter novels is perhaps the start of the science fiction writing about Mars. Ray Bradbury traces his Martian Chronicles to reading these as a child. This is high on action and around every turn there is a life-threatening event across the Barsoom landscape. John Carter "the prince of Helium" must fight with his beloved "pet" Woola, "As large as a Shetland pony, with hideous head and frightful fangs, he was indeed an awesome spectacle, as he crept after me on his ten short, muscular legs; but to me he was the embodiment of love and loyalty". One review called John Carter "a natural man", which seems appropriate. There is the undying love for Dejah Thorus and the final sly "Why not?" as he draws her close after the triumphs. Carter is a man of courage, and that word spoken from an unknown ally, leads him out of the tortuous Pit of Plenty. This might be considered the third of the trilogy started with "A Princes of Mars" and continued with "The Gods of Mars", but in fact there were 7 more John Carter stories.