Edgar Rice Burroughs - A Timeline of Pulp Sword and Planet Yarns
I'm not sure what started it, but at the age of 19 while I was just starting to try figuring out what to do with my life, I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs. Particularly the Barsoom series. I think it was one of those things where I just happened upon it in the library, or maybe my dad had bought the Joe Jusko Burroughs card set, probably on sale and I probably liked the artwork. Between him and Michael Whelan, who did all the book covers for the Del Rey reprinting, they really shaped the Barsoom of my mind. Truly, if the John Carter movie had followed their lead, I would have enjoyed it more. But that's another topic.
At any rate, these cards got me to check out Burroughs and after reading the first book, I was hooked. I started to work through the books in the Barsoom series, picking up some at the library, and others at the used book store. It was during these trips to the second hand store that I discovered Burroughs had written more than just Tarzan and John Carter. I recall one trip got all 5 of the Venus books into my hands, and others got me the Pellucidar series and eventually all of the Mars books. Now you can get almost all of his work, a good chunk of Otis Kline's and a few others for free in Kindle or on Gutenberg (and Gutenberg Australia...if you're in Australia)
What struck me as cool though, was how Burroughs linked his stories together. Pelludicar has a Tarzan crossover, and Pellucidar's Jason Gridley crosses over into the Venus stories a bit as well as Barsoom. So they're all connected. Burroughs created the shared universe decades before Marvel comics did, and like a century before the Avengers movies thought of it. That to me was so cool, that his adventures all took place in the same literary universe. I suppose all writers do it to a point, why not?
Once I get more than a first book done, you can bet I'm going to connect them where it makes sense to.
At any rate as I was discovering Burroughs, and later longing for more I discovered Den Valdron's work. Den wasn't content with Burroughs' characters sharing their own universe, but he picked up on clues in many other works that in fact, these many other books could have also taken place in Burroughs' universe. Just on the sly.
And his previously linked article page breaks down all of these stories and how they fit into Barsoom, with some small modifications. It's flippin' amazing.
Now all of it doesn't work, some of it take with a grain of salt, but on the whole, if you read these other books as if they are part of the same universe, can help give you the feeling of a larger universe, lending to a larger more expansive space opera. Without Den's articles, I would never have rediscovered Lin Carter or his Burroughsian work. I never would have picked up Leigh Brackett, Farley or Otis Kline.
So it is to him and his articles that I am indebted to here for the below construction. I apologize on the formatting, I copied and pasted it from Excel and blogger doesn't give me a table function or an attach option. So try pasting it into Excel yourself and see if it works.
Basically, what I did was go through his articles (seriously, Den, dump those articles into word, format it and throw it on Kindle, I'll buy it for $3), take a quick look at some of the actual books mentioned and I threw them into a loose timeline. Take this with a grain of salt. I put them in the order that they should have happened, more or less, not when they were published. I don't consider it complete, or authoritative so feel free to modify it to suit your reading needs. I probably will/would modify as I read through the books just to get things right. I haven't read a lot of the Carter or Brackett stuff, so that could be totally off base, and meshing Burroughs with some of the authors was hard. I suppose you could mix it up more if you desired, but for now I put it in the order listed.
I mainly only included stuff directly related to Mars and the solar system at large that was a good tie in. I didn't include Tarzan, because there's so many, and I've read exactly 2 of them. He doesn't really need to be on this list, overall. I put it on the list also if it was unique, like the Caspak stuff or Pellucidar.
At any rate, enjoy.
Pulp Solar System Timeline Book Author Approximate Date of Event Ancient Era ? Ancient Past Sword of Rhiannon Brackett Ancient Past Down to a Sunless Sea Carter after time travel Ancient Past Flame of Iridar Carter Ancient Past The City Outside the World Carter Ancient Past Warriors of Mars Moorcock Ancient Past Blades of Mars Moorcock Ancient Past Barbarians of Mars Moorcock Pulp era 1865 - 1945 1866 A Princess of Mars Burroughs 1870 Gulliver of Mars Arnold 1886 Gods of Mars Burroughs 1886 Warlord of Mars Burroughs 1897 The Crystal Egg Wells 1898 Thuvia Maid of Mars Burroughs 1898 Chessmen of Mars Burroughs Barsoom 1899 Mars The Homefront Effinger Earth Proper/Moon 1899 LXG 2 Prelude Moore Pellucidar 1899 First Men in the Moon Wells Venus 1899 War of the Worlds Wells Jupiter and its Moons 1899 War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches Various Events mentioned 1903 At the Earth's Core Burroughs 1913 Pellucidar Burroughs 1916 The Land That Time Forgot Burroughs 1916 The People That Time Forgot Burroughs 1916 Out of Time's Abyss Burroughs 1917 Mastermind of Mars Burroughs Delivered in 1925 1920 Swordsman of Mars Kline delivered in 1930ish 1920 Outlaws of Mars Kline 1923 Aelita Tolstoy 1925 Tanar of Pellucidar Burroughs reported in 1928 1926 Tarzan at the Earth's Core Burroughs 1926 Back to the Stone Age Burroughs 1926 Land of Terror Burroughs 1926 Radio Planet Farley 1928 Pirates of Venus Burroughs 1928 Lost on Venus Burroughs 1929 A Fighting Man of Mars Burroughs 1929 Planet of Peril Kline 1930 Prince of Peril Kline 1930 Port of Peril Kline 1933 A Vision of Venus Kline 1933 Swords of Mars Burroughs 1937 Carson of Venus Burroughs 1937 Out of the Silent Planet Lewis 1938 Synthetic Men of Mars Burroughs 1939 Llana of Gathol Burroughs 1940 Escape on Venus Burroughs 1940 Wizard of Venus Burroughs 1940 John carter and the Giant of Mars Burroughs 1940 Perelandra Lewis 1940 Mentioned in Moon Maid, contact with Mars. 1945 That Hideous Strength Lewis 1964 Maza of the Moon Kline 1967 Solid contact with Mars, Moon Maid. Commerce of ideas 1943 Skeleton Men of Jupiter Burroughs 1972 Jandar of Callisto Carter 1972 Black Legion of Callisto Carter 1973 Sky Pirates of Callisto Carter 1975 Mahars of Pellucidar Holmes 1975 Mad Empress of Callisto Carter 1975 Mind Wizards of Callisto Carter 1975 Lankar of Callisto Carter Ylana of Callisto Carter Renegade of Callisto Carter 1979 Journey to the Underground World Carter 1980 Zanthodon Carter 1981 Hurok of the Stone Age Carter 1981 Darya of the Bronze Age Carter 1982 Eric of Zanthodon Carter 2015 First Mars to Earth Trip 2025 Moon Maid Burroughs Trade with Mars established? 2100 The Moon Men Burroughs 2408 Red Hawk (Moon Men pt ii) Burroughs Colonial Era Suggested dating starts in the 1960's, but can go up to 2100's - 2300's ? Down to a Sunless Sea Carter ? Martian El Dorado Carter ? The Valley Where Time Stood Still Carter ? The City Outside the World Carter ? Down to a Sunless Sea Carter Before Time travel ? Black Amazon of Mars Brackett ? Eric John Stark: Outlaw of Mars Brackett (People of the Talisman and Secret of Sinharat) ? Coming of the Terrans Brackett ? Nemesis from Terra Brackett ? Beast Jewel of Mars Brackett 2150 The Man Who Loved Mars Carter approx date
At any rate, these cards got me to check out Burroughs and after reading the first book, I was hooked. I started to work through the books in the Barsoom series, picking up some at the library, and others at the used book store. It was during these trips to the second hand store that I discovered Burroughs had written more than just Tarzan and John Carter. I recall one trip got all 5 of the Venus books into my hands, and others got me the Pellucidar series and eventually all of the Mars books. Now you can get almost all of his work, a good chunk of Otis Kline's and a few others for free in Kindle or on Gutenberg (and Gutenberg Australia...if you're in Australia)
What struck me as cool though, was how Burroughs linked his stories together. Pelludicar has a Tarzan crossover, and Pellucidar's Jason Gridley crosses over into the Venus stories a bit as well as Barsoom. So they're all connected. Burroughs created the shared universe decades before Marvel comics did, and like a century before the Avengers movies thought of it. That to me was so cool, that his adventures all took place in the same literary universe. I suppose all writers do it to a point, why not?
Once I get more than a first book done, you can bet I'm going to connect them where it makes sense to.
At any rate as I was discovering Burroughs, and later longing for more I discovered Den Valdron's work. Den wasn't content with Burroughs' characters sharing their own universe, but he picked up on clues in many other works that in fact, these many other books could have also taken place in Burroughs' universe. Just on the sly.
And his previously linked article page breaks down all of these stories and how they fit into Barsoom, with some small modifications. It's flippin' amazing.
Now all of it doesn't work, some of it take with a grain of salt, but on the whole, if you read these other books as if they are part of the same universe, can help give you the feeling of a larger universe, lending to a larger more expansive space opera. Without Den's articles, I would never have rediscovered Lin Carter or his Burroughsian work. I never would have picked up Leigh Brackett, Farley or Otis Kline.
So it is to him and his articles that I am indebted to here for the below construction. I apologize on the formatting, I copied and pasted it from Excel and blogger doesn't give me a table function or an attach option. So try pasting it into Excel yourself and see if it works.
Basically, what I did was go through his articles (seriously, Den, dump those articles into word, format it and throw it on Kindle, I'll buy it for $3), take a quick look at some of the actual books mentioned and I threw them into a loose timeline. Take this with a grain of salt. I put them in the order that they should have happened, more or less, not when they were published. I don't consider it complete, or authoritative so feel free to modify it to suit your reading needs. I probably will/would modify as I read through the books just to get things right. I haven't read a lot of the Carter or Brackett stuff, so that could be totally off base, and meshing Burroughs with some of the authors was hard. I suppose you could mix it up more if you desired, but for now I put it in the order listed.
I mainly only included stuff directly related to Mars and the solar system at large that was a good tie in. I didn't include Tarzan, because there's so many, and I've read exactly 2 of them. He doesn't really need to be on this list, overall. I put it on the list also if it was unique, like the Caspak stuff or Pellucidar.
At any rate, enjoy.
Pulp Solar System Timeline Book Author Approximate Date of Event Ancient Era ? Ancient Past Sword of Rhiannon Brackett Ancient Past Down to a Sunless Sea Carter after time travel Ancient Past Flame of Iridar Carter Ancient Past The City Outside the World Carter Ancient Past Warriors of Mars Moorcock Ancient Past Blades of Mars Moorcock Ancient Past Barbarians of Mars Moorcock Pulp era 1865 - 1945 1866 A Princess of Mars Burroughs 1870 Gulliver of Mars Arnold 1886 Gods of Mars Burroughs 1886 Warlord of Mars Burroughs 1897 The Crystal Egg Wells 1898 Thuvia Maid of Mars Burroughs 1898 Chessmen of Mars Burroughs Barsoom 1899 Mars The Homefront Effinger Earth Proper/Moon 1899 LXG 2 Prelude Moore Pellucidar 1899 First Men in the Moon Wells Venus 1899 War of the Worlds Wells Jupiter and its Moons 1899 War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches Various Events mentioned 1903 At the Earth's Core Burroughs 1913 Pellucidar Burroughs 1916 The Land That Time Forgot Burroughs 1916 The People That Time Forgot Burroughs 1916 Out of Time's Abyss Burroughs 1917 Mastermind of Mars Burroughs Delivered in 1925 1920 Swordsman of Mars Kline delivered in 1930ish 1920 Outlaws of Mars Kline 1923 Aelita Tolstoy 1925 Tanar of Pellucidar Burroughs reported in 1928 1926 Tarzan at the Earth's Core Burroughs 1926 Back to the Stone Age Burroughs 1926 Land of Terror Burroughs 1926 Radio Planet Farley 1928 Pirates of Venus Burroughs 1928 Lost on Venus Burroughs 1929 A Fighting Man of Mars Burroughs 1929 Planet of Peril Kline 1930 Prince of Peril Kline 1930 Port of Peril Kline 1933 A Vision of Venus Kline 1933 Swords of Mars Burroughs 1937 Carson of Venus Burroughs 1937 Out of the Silent Planet Lewis 1938 Synthetic Men of Mars Burroughs 1939 Llana of Gathol Burroughs 1940 Escape on Venus Burroughs 1940 Wizard of Venus Burroughs 1940 John carter and the Giant of Mars Burroughs 1940 Perelandra Lewis 1940 Mentioned in Moon Maid, contact with Mars. 1945 That Hideous Strength Lewis 1964 Maza of the Moon Kline 1967 Solid contact with Mars, Moon Maid. Commerce of ideas 1943 Skeleton Men of Jupiter Burroughs 1972 Jandar of Callisto Carter 1972 Black Legion of Callisto Carter 1973 Sky Pirates of Callisto Carter 1975 Mahars of Pellucidar Holmes 1975 Mad Empress of Callisto Carter 1975 Mind Wizards of Callisto Carter 1975 Lankar of Callisto Carter Ylana of Callisto Carter Renegade of Callisto Carter 1979 Journey to the Underground World Carter 1980 Zanthodon Carter 1981 Hurok of the Stone Age Carter 1981 Darya of the Bronze Age Carter 1982 Eric of Zanthodon Carter 2015 First Mars to Earth Trip 2025 Moon Maid Burroughs Trade with Mars established? 2100 The Moon Men Burroughs 2408 Red Hawk (Moon Men pt ii) Burroughs Colonial Era Suggested dating starts in the 1960's, but can go up to 2100's - 2300's ? Down to a Sunless Sea Carter ? Martian El Dorado Carter ? The Valley Where Time Stood Still Carter ? The City Outside the World Carter ? Down to a Sunless Sea Carter Before Time travel ? Black Amazon of Mars Brackett ? Eric John Stark: Outlaw of Mars Brackett (People of the Talisman and Secret of Sinharat) ? Coming of the Terrans Brackett ? Nemesis from Terra Brackett ? Beast Jewel of Mars Brackett 2150 The Man Who Loved Mars Carter approx date
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