One of the most widely read authors of the twentieth century, Edgar Rice Burroughs did not begin writing until age thirty-five. He was born in Chicago on September 1, 1875, and his formal education ended with graduation from the Michigan Military Academy in 1895, after which he enlisted in the U.S. Cavalry in Arizona. He subsequently worked as a gold miner and shopkeeper in Idaho, a factory worker in Chicago, a railroad policeman in Salt Lake City, a mail order manager for Sears, Roebuck, and a door-to-door salesman and speculator.

In 1911, while waiting for his pencil-sharpener salesmen to report in, Burroughs began drafting an adventure story on scraps of paper. The result, "Under the Moons of Mars," sold for four hundred dollars and launched Burroughs on his professional writing career.

Writing with audacity, imagination, and lightning speed, Burroughs soon produced a historical novel about the thirteenth...