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Map of barsoom3/17/2023 The reason for this is quite simple – Burroughs wrote The Princess of Mars in 1917 when almost nothing was known about the actual surface of the planet. While several dozen maps of Barsoom have been published at various times and places – Burroughs created the first himself – none have been able to reconcile the real and imagined versions of the planet with any great success. He would then launch himself into a career as one of the great science fiction/fantasy authors of the early 20th Century. Cavalry at Fort Grant, Arizona Territory before receiving a medical discharge in 1897. As a young man, Burroughs would serve as a trooper in the 7th U.S. Garcia.Ībove: John Carter creator Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) in his office with another of his wildly successful creations Tarzan. Garcia.Ībove: A detail of the main portion of A Geographical Chart of the Planet Barsoom. In 1963 when this map was created Mars was still that canal-crossed planet that captured Percival Lowell’s imagination some 80 years earlier.Ībove: A detail from Larry Ivie’s map of Barsoom depicting Burroughs’ hero John Carter along with one of the huge multi-armed green Martians to the left of Carter’s and at right Carter’s ever faithful pet calot named Woola. Naturally, this process has met with mixed results at best given the ever-changing amount of knowledge available on Mars itself. The map is in many ways the culmination of John Carter fans attempts at overlaying Burroughs’ Barsoom (the name given by Burroughs’ Martians to their home planet) with the geographical features of the real planet Mars. 11 inches by 17 inches, Source: Collection of Edward T. This map comes from a copy of the second printing.Ībove: Larry Ivie’s map of Barsoom (Mars) which was included as a supplement in The Reader’s Guide to Barsoom by David G. The unsigned the second printing also produced in a very limited run. Signed first printings can sell for upwards of $500.00 USD. Two editions were published with the first numbering 500 copies of which 200 were signed and numbered. Perhaps it is best to describe the Guide as quite rare. An unbound 84-page “fanzine”, the Guide is something of a “Holy Grail” for Edgar Rice Burroughs fans and is not commonly encountered in today’s collector’s market. This 11 inch by 17-inch map was included as a supplement to The Reader’s Guide to Barsoom and Amtor by David G. This map was intended to illustrate the locals visited by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter in his adventures which began in A Princess of Mars. Returning to the Red Planet – or more properly one man’s vision of that same Red Planet, I present to you A Geographical Chart of the Planet Barsoom as beautifully drawn by Larry Ivie in 1962. And it has a great aesthetic.A Map of Barsoom: Or Mars as John Carter knew it. In many ways it is the best way to tackle the subject as it is very illustrative and conceptual without trying to be too precise in any way. So I was pleasantly surprised to find this map of Barsoom from Punch Magazine 1956. Since working on Warriors of the Red Planet and attempting to make sense of all of this in order to make a useful and semi-accurate map I've become a bit of a connoisseur of Barsoom maps, gathering from wherever I can find them. So combining this knowledge a lot of interpretation has to be made. To further complicate matters, no accurate map of the actual geography of Mars could even begin to be constructed until 1971 with Mariner 9, and it took decades to map out the planet in any detail. This resulted in locations and distances that don't match up when plotted out on a map. Given the way the original books were written ERB didn't adhere strictly to an accurate map and instead chose to go wherever the narrative took the story.
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