S&L Podcast - #204 - Annihilation is Not the End

[David H.]

AndrewP wrote: "I don't think Gutenberg has them all (11 books + a collection of short stories). The Burroughs estate bought back some of the copyrights and has made some of his books really hard to find."

Project Gutenberg (US) only has the first 5 books (pre-1923).

Project Gutenberg (Australia) has all 10 books plus the 2 stories that make up the usual 11th book.

I don't know if the Burroughs estate actually bought back some of the copyrights (I haven't really heard of such a thing), it's just that Australia and other foreign Gutenberg-like sites have different copyright term limits.

Legally, those in the US aren't supposed to download anything from Gutenberg Australia. ;)

[John (Taloni)]

Crikey, mate, that's correct!

But FWIW if the estate would make it easy to give them money, I would. There's no need to sell 100 year old SF for new-book prices. Make a big ebook collection for $10 and put in some illustrations. I would gladly give them my money.

[AndrewP]

Yeah, the copyright situation is a total mess.

I did find 12 available on a single website but only to read online and not download.

http://www.barsoomian.net/

No idea where this website is located so not sure how legit it is.

@John (Taloni) Yeah, an illustrated edition like the ones Del Rey did for Conan would be awesome!

[David H.]

AndrewP wrote: "I did find 12 available on a single website but only to read online and not download."

It's not really "12," though... "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" and "The Skeleton Men of Jupiter" are usually collected as the 11th book/collection "John Carter of Mars."

Apparently Burroughs' son actually wrote the Giant of Mars story, which I didn't know till now.

[John (Taloni)]

I read about ten pages of "John Carter and the Giant of Mars" and lem'd it, laughing at the writing. Too bad about "Skeleton Men of Jupiter" as it seemed passable for later Burroughs. I hear there are pastiche extensions of what Burroughs wrote but considering the twists Burroughs usually did, I didn't think those would reflect his actual intent.