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THE MAD KING
Part 1: "The Mad King" ~ working title: "The Mad King of Lutha" written October-November 1913
Part 2: "Barney Custer of Beatrice" started writing September 1914

READ THE E-TEXT EDITION

PUBLISHING HISTORY (USA)

PULP
"The Mad King": All-Story Weekly: March 21, 1914
    Fred W. Small front cover ~ Modest Stein B/W headpiece
"Barney Custer of Beatrice": All-Story Weekly: August 7, 14, 21, 1915
    W.C. Fairchild cover art on first installment ~ no interiors
FIRST EDITION
McClurg: September 18, 1926 with corrections made in second state edition ~ 365 pages ~ 1st Ed. Print Run: 5,000 ~ Total: 55,000 ~ Heins word count: 93,000
    J. Allen St. John dust jacket and same illo for frontispiece
REPRINT EDITIONS
Grosset & Dunlap: 1927 ~ 365 pages
    J. Allen St. John dust jacket and same illow for frontispiece
Grosset & Dunlap: 1940 wartime
    J. Allen St. John dust jacket and no interiors
Ace paperback: April 1964 and reprint ~ 255 pages
    Frank Frazetta cover and title page art
Ace paperback:  third reprint, larger size ~ 252 pages
    Frank Frazetta same cover and title page art
Ace paperback ~ 252 pages
    Boris Vallejo cover art ~ Frank Frazetta title page art
For detailed information, see Robert B. Zeuschner's
Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Bibliography (ERB, Inc., 2016).
Click on www.erbbooks.com or call 214-405-6741 to order a copy.
The Mad King
Life as a gentleman-farmer in the once-wild West was hardly exciting enough for an adventurer and master swordsman like Barney Custer. So when he had the chance to make the long voyage to the land of Lutha, he took it and there encountered more adventure in a few months than most people find in a lifetime. A crumbling kingdom, a black-hearted regent and his diabolical cohorts, a beautiful princess trapped in a dark and dismal dungeon, sinister plots and harrowing escapes - this is what Barney Custer found and this is what awaits the reader when he begins this tale of romantic adventure from the pen of master storyteller Edgar Rice Burroughs -- compete with swordplay and intrigue, a beautiful princess in need of rescue, a courageous American hero, a throne in danger, evil conspirators, derring-do and narrow escapes.

"December 3, 1913
Received from The Frank A. Munsey Company
Eight Hundred Eighty Dollars in payment for one novelette entitled
"The Mad King of Lutha" of which I am the author and sole owner
and I hereby sell it to The Frank A. Munsey Company, with first serial rights.
Edgar Rice Burroughs"

COVER GALLERY

Pulp Covers
See the ERBzine ERB Pulp Gallery
www.erbzine.com/mag2/0222.html


March 21 Cover  from the Dennis Kesler Collection

All-Story: August 7, 1915 - Barney Custer of Beatrice 1/3

J. Allen St. John: Mad King - FP same as DJ


The French edition of 1937 (Paris, Hachette)
Translates: "King In Spite Of Himself"



Paperback Covers
Frazetta Ace PBAce reprint edition: Frank Frazetta artAce Edition: Boris Vallejo art

The Mad King
Frazetta cover painting (click)


An Analysis of ERB's The Mad King
by R.E. Prindle
www.erbzine.com/mag14/1454.html
Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Zenda, Graustark, Lutha, Barsoom, Jasoom And Other Improbable Places
The Hillmans Visit Beatrice, Nebraska

THE EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS / BERT WESTON / BEATRICE CONNECTION
www.erbzine.com/mag51/5161.html



Lutha In The Time Of Barney Custer
J. G. Huckenpohler


AN OUTLINE OF LUTHANIAN HISTORY
by J. G. Huckenpohler


From Philip Currie's ERBivore Fanzine No. 6 ~ August 1973
http://www.erbzine.com/mag51/5107.html

.
Source ERB-dom 12
Two THE MAD KING panels created for the 1963 World Science Fiction Convention Art Show.
Early art by Mike Royer before he became well known in the comics field.
This was around the time he created an illustrated WIZARD OF VENUS booklet as a Pacificon II souvenir.



Burroughs Bulletin No. 11
The Mad King Issue
 www.erbzine.com/mag52/5211.html
. .
Click to read editor George McWhorter's Bibliographic Notes on the book.



Sometime in early 1923, ERB advertised the story as "available" for newspaper syndication.
Unfortunately, there is no known record of its appearance in any newpapers.

London's PENNY MAGAZINE published the story as an eleven-part serial entitled
"The King and the Woman" (March 4-May 13, 1922)



Gridley Wave #106 ~ July 1991


Click for full-size sample page
Just one of 20 online comics from Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.
Splendid serial adaptations of ERB novels adapted by top writers and artists.
Read them all every week for only $1.99 per month from:
www.edgarriceburroughs.com/comics



THE MAD KING SUMMARY AND COMMENTS
By John Martin
ERBzine 6787: INTRO and CONTENTS
ERBzine 6788
BK I: CHAPTERS 1-6
ERBzine 6788a
BK I CHAPTERS 7-12
ERBzine 6789
BK II: CHAPTERS 1-8
ERBzine 6789a
CHAPTERS 9-16



Click for full-size splash panels


Web Refs
ERB C.H.A.S.E.R. Online Encyclopedia
Hillman ERB Cosmos
Patrick Ewing's First Edition Determinors
John Coleman Burroughs Tribute
Novel Summary by Bruce Bozarth
J. Allen St. John Bio, Gallery & Links
Edgar Rice Burroughs: LifeLine Biography
Bob Zeuschner's ERB Bibliography
J.G. Huckenpohler's ERB Checklist
Burroughs Bibliophiles Bulletin
G. T. McWhorter's Burroughs Bulletin Index
ERB Life and Legacy Daily Events in ERBzine
Illustrated Bibliography of ERB Pulp Magazines
Phil Normand's Recoverings
ERBzine Weekly Online Fanzine
ERB Emporium: Collectibles ~ Comics ~ BLBs ~ Pulps ~ Cards
ERBVILLE: ERB Public Domain Stories in PDF
Clark A. Brady's Burroughs Cyclopedia
Heins' Golden Anniversary Bibliography of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Bradford M. Day's Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Bibliography
Irwin Porges: The Man Who Created Tarzan

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