The Chessmen of Mars

About Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1875, to a prosperous family. His father was a civil war veteran. Burroughs attended several private schools, concluding with the Michigan Military Academy at Orchar Lake. Here he later became an instructor and assistant commandant. During the First World War, he served in the Seventh Cavalry and Illinois Reserve Militia, and in 1900 he married Emma Centennia Hulbert, with whom he had two sons and one daughter. Burroughs tried his luck at several different occupations, including railroad policeman, advertising agency partner, and office manager, none of which were successful, and the family lived near poverty.

The turning point came when Burroughs started to write for pulp fiction magazines at the age of thirty-five. In 1912, Burroughs's first true success came with the publication of Dejah Thoris, Princess of Mars in All-Story Magazine, which introduced his popular, invincible hero of Mars, John Carter. The Martian series eventually reached eleven books. Later that same year, Burroughs wrote his best-known book, Tarzan of the Apes. This was the start of his longest and most successful series, which eventually reached twenty-four books. Other popular stories from Burroughs's pen include the Carson of Venus books, the Pellucidar tales, and The Land That Time Forgot, a total of some sixty-eight titles.

In 1913, Burroughs founded his own publishing house, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., which still publishes his works today. Burroughs-Tarzan Enterprises and Burroughs-Tarzan Pictures were founded in 1934. Burroughs also found time to dabble in politics and was elected mayor of California Beach in 1933. During World War II, at the age of 66, he served as a war correspondent in the South Pacific and wrote columns for the Honolulu Advertiser. Burroughs died of a heart ailment on March 19, 1950.