Edgar Rice Burroughs (l875-l950) is known as the Grandfather of American Science Fiction. He predicted the invention of radar, sonar, television, teletype, the radio compass, the automatic pilot, homing devices on bombs and torpedoes, genetic cloning, living organ transplants, antigravity propulsion and many other concepts deemed totally fantastic in his time. His soaring imagination, coupled with the sure instinct of a master storyteller, assures him a position of honor among American writers of the twentieth century.

    -- George T. McWhorter -- Curator, Burroughs Memorial Collection / Editor: BURROUGHS BULLETIN

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Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) was one of the great pioneers of modern Science Fiction, being one of the first writers to consistently popularize extrapolations of the then-current science of the early Twentieth Century. Much of his best SF occurred on the planet Barsoom, the wonderful alternate Mars created by his fertile imagination. Astronomically, he was describing Mars the way a lot of astronomers described it at the time and his picture of a dying Mars with the ochre dead sea bottoms, canals, exotic landscapes and an atmosphere factory which provided an artificial atmosphere were almost plausible.

ERB was also one of the first to explore essentially alien beings and their psychology and this was possibly his most lasting impact on science fiction. The John Carter stories are characterized by incredible scientific inventions, a disregard for the laws of nature as we know them, and a somewhat male chauvinistic barbaric world. Despite elementary plots which require constant suspension of disbelief and characters who are shallow and predictable, the series has made immense contributions to the field of serious science fiction.

Because of the sensationalist approach of the Burroughs stories, he may never be appreciated as a great author by professors of English, but Burroughs has made his mark on a potentially more influential group of people: the deans of modern science fiction writers, who have looked to Burroughs for inspiration and, at times, material. References to John Carter and Barsoom abound in current fiction. Many famous authors have cited the Burroughs works as profound influences upon their style and perception of science fiction: Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Carl Sagan and a host of  lesser-known writers.

Although the SF novels of ERB often have been accused of being weak on science, a careful study of his body of work, especially in the Barsoom and Amtor series, turns up an incredible array of scientific predictions -- the fruition of which we now take for granted. We present here a three-part St. John Barsoomian art gallery with descriptions of the many inventions and future technologies prophesized by Mr. Burroughs in those long ago, early years of the Twentieth Century.

...continued in Part II ~ ERBzine 248