Thuvia Maid of Mars (Paperback)

1920. After a rambunctious youth and series of short-lived jobs including door-to-door salesman, accountant, a peddler for a quack alcoholism cure and finally pencil sharpener wholesaler, Burroughs found his calling as writer. As the story goes, one of Burroughs' duties was to verify the placement of advertisements for his sharpeners in various magazines. These were all-fiction pulp magazines, a prime source of escapist reading material for the expanding middle class. Burroughs spent time reading those magazines and decided he could write those stories just as well. He was lucky his first time out and sold Under the Moon of Mars. The Tarzan series followed this and Burroughs was now a full-fledged writer. The fourth book in Burroughs' Martian series, the story is about Carthoris falling in love with Thuvia, princess of Ptarth, who was rescued by John Carter from the Therns. Thuvia is stolen away by Astok, Prince of Dusar, Ptarth's rival. Carthoris follows her across Barsoom and rescues her, encountering some strange and fascinating creatures. Thuvia, unfortunately, is already betrothed to Kulan Tith, Jeddak of Kaol, ally of Helium. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.