A PRINCESS OF MARS

The Unauthorized, Unexpurgated Version

by

Edgar Rice Burroughs

(as “rediscovered” by Nobilis Reed)

To My Son Jack

INTRODUCTION

There are, no doubt, some readers who will find the story before you to be an abomination. Some will ridicule it as revisionism, or dismiss it as nigh on plagiarism. After all, the figure of John Carter stands tall in the history of Science Fiction, an archetype of the pulp hero, a man of particular morality and focus. To cast him in any other light invites strong criticism. And perhaps those criticisms would be justified.

But imagine if you will, a discovery. You are browsing some ancient book shop, or picking through the dusty documents of an estate sale. Imagine, further, discovering an envelope containing a stack of typewritten pages, a story you thought you knew well, only to discover, on closer scrutiny, that there was something else there, something you perhaps had not seen before, that caused you to look at it in a whole new light. It is my hope that it is in this frame of mind that the gentle reader will approach this book.

Differences between this manuscript and the one which was originally published are presented in italics.

Sincerely,

Nobilis Reed

FOREWORD

To the Reader of this Work:

In submitting Captain Carter's strange manuscript to you in book form, I believe that a few words relative to this remarkable personality will be of interest. My first recollection of Captain Carter is of the...