John Carter of Mars (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions)

Born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 1, 1875, into a well-to-do family, Edgar Rice Burroughs was given an aristocratic private education. But though he tried his hand at several business ventures, he was drawn more to an itinerant life of adventure than to a life in the boardroom.

In 1912, after many failed business ventures, the thirty-five-year-old Burroughs published his first story, “Under t...