Swords of Mars Disguised as a mercenary warrior, John Carter sought to break the power of the Assassins of Zodanga. Spying on their councils, the Warlord discovered a plot to kidnap his beloved Dejah Thoris. But it was to late to save her. She was already in space, on the way to Thuria, Barsoom's nearer moon!

There was no reply to my call of "Koar! " Yet, though all was silent, and there were no faces at the many windows of the strange castle on Thuria, I could have sworn that eyes were all around, watching us. We had crossed half the distance from the spaceship to the castle door when the silence was shattered by a terror-ridden scream. "Escape from this horror place while you may!" It was the voice of Dejah Thoris. I halted, stunned-and then invisible hands seized Swords of Mars us, tearing our weapons from our grasp.

www.edgarriceburroughs.com

"To Florence With All My Love Ed"

Burroughs created that acrostic message to Florence Gilbert Dearholt in SWORDS OF MARS, using the first letter of the Prologue and each of the twenty-four chapters. He wrote the novel in November and December, 1933, which was on the brink of his separation and divorce from Emma. "Blue Book Magazine" serialized SWORDS in six, monthly installments, beginning in November, 1934.

Meanwhile, Ed Burroughs and Ashton Dearholt (Florence's future ex-husband) remained close friends and even entered into a new business partnership. Ashton had developed a romantic attraction to a young actress, and the four of them often socialized together. Ed and Emma were divorced in November, 1934; he and Florence announced their engagement in December. (See the "Edgar Rice Burroughs Bio Timeline, 1930-39" at ERBzine: http://www.erbzine.com/bio/years30.html.)

Although Florence was – or certainly soon became – aware of the acrostic, it seems that the public may not have caught on until Irwin Porges' Burroughs biography was published during the 1975 ERB centennial. Porges writes that the acrostic was "revealed in [my] interviews with Ed Gilbert [Florence's brother] and Florence, October 9, 1968 and May 23, 1969." (Porges, p. 763, note 18)