John Carter of Mars (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions)

In 1912, after many failed business ventures, the thirty-five-year-old Burroughs published his first story, “Under the Moons of Mars,” in the pulp magazine All-Story. It was so successful that he turned soon thereafter to writing full-time. He would write nearly 70 novels and numerous short stories before his death in 1950. Although best-known for his immensely popular Tarzan series—he later bought an estate near where the films were shot in Southern California that he named Tarzana—Burroughs didn’t confine himself to a single genre, also writing medieval romances, westerns, and mainstream novels.Among his many science-fiction works, Burroughs wrote eleven novels in the John Carter of Mars series, the titular final installment of which was published fourteen years after his death in 1950.