unobtrusively annotated, comprises the first three books of the series, which combine as a trilogy to tell the story of Captain Jack Carter's adventures among the many strange civilizations of a dying planet. About the Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs came to the craft of fiction writing late in life, after trying his hand at a wide variety of trades and business ventures. By the time he sat down to write his first novel, A Princess of Mars, he had been a high- plains cowboy, a U.S. Cavalry soldier, an industrial gold miner, a railroad policeman, a door-to-door salesman, a store owner and a serial entrepreneur. Then one day, while working as a wholesale representative for a going-nowhere pencil sharpener maker, Burroughs decided to while away some of the extra time by getting started on a crazy story to submit to one of the pulp fiction magazines. The result was A Princess of Mars - and the launching of the literary career of one of the most prolific, successful authors in history.