Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs was a failure at nearly everything until, at age 35, he decided to try writing. Working in a dismal office job, he began reading pulp magazines and famously thought, 'I could write stories just as rotten.' The result was 'A Princess of Mars,' serialized in 1912 under a pseudonym, which introduced the world to John Carter, a Confederate veteran mysteriously transported to a dying, warlike Mars. Its success was immediate. Two years later, he created an even more enduring icon: Tarzan of the Apes. Burroughs didn't invent adventure, but he perfected a specific, potent formula—swift pacing, clear heroes and villains, and exotic, vividly imagined settings. He was a relentless businessman, founding his own publishing company and fiercely protecting his characters. Tarzan became a multimedia sensation decades before the term was coined, spawning countless films, comics, and radio shows. While critics dismissed his work, millions of readers devoured it. His tales of a feral lord in the jungle and a swordsman on Mars offered pure, undiluted escapism during turbulent times, laying foundational stones for the entire science fiction and fantasy genres and proving the immense power of a well-told adventure story.