Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote four romantic mysteries, the last being Marcia of the Doorstep, the book you hold in your hands. Written in 1924 and the longest novel he ever wrote (at 125,000 words) it has remained unpublished until now.

It is a novel of blackmail and society high and low, of shipwreck and a desert island, of Broadway and Hollywood, of stunt flying and coyote hunting, all intertwined  with the life of a "doorstep baby" who grows up to be a fine young lady and falls in love with her own brother.

Mingled in with all this are unmistakable reflections of the author's own life and experience, from being a business failure to cruising the Pacific.

The story is full of Burroughs' own ideas and ideals, providing him with a forum for his political and social beliefs. Like all of his other stories, it too is full of coincidences and melodrama.  Once again Edgar Rice Burroughs instills autobiographical characteristics in his characters. Marcus Aurelius Sackett displays his own penchant for investing in faulty business ventures. Clara Sackett is most assuredly based on his wife Emma, who always endured his erratic fortunes with grace. Marica's sweet disposition must certainly be based on his daughter Joan, who at one time wanted to be an actress.

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FAVOURITE QUOTES
Selected by India Boone Grow

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…the sweet silence of companionship and understanding without which there can be no domestic felicity. (26)

Time, that measurable aspect of duration that is protracted by sorrow and abridged by happiness… (35)

To be young and broke presents, ofttimes, elements of comedy, but to be broke and old is tragedy, unadulterated. (40)

I have heard many men announce their honesty…but never an honest man. (54)

If!  If!  That epitomization of lost opportunity. (65)

If necessity is the mother of invention, poverty, she is the parent of achievement. (72)

Maybe it sounds good to some; but a world in which all were equal, especially financially, would be about as dull and impossible as the orthodox Christian conception of Heaven. (113)

…she was still young enough to be susceptible to the appeal of masculine beauty – which would indicate her age might be anywhere between twelve and one hundred. (121)

Real people – regular people – whether rich or poor are just themselves always.  There’s never any pretense about them. (125)

We might be the only object in an illimitable universe, sailing on and on through endless eternities, upon a shoreless sea. (128)

…there are many women who demand as a right the exclusive attentions of all men with whom they come in contact, and are irritated if these fail to be accorded them. (132)

…bad habit is a matter of moral fiber, that may be strengthened by self denial and efforts of the will or weakened by selfish indulgences.  (156)

One does not take the time to analyze the characters of those in whom one has no interest… (157)

A dead grandparent…may have been the greatest scoundrel of his time.  Because we happen to know his name is no assurance of his virtue. (158)

A woman’s knowledge of love is a part of her – it is born with her.  A man acquires his by experience. (162)

The full knowledge of love lies asleep in every man – when the right woman passes, even though her passing is as the passing of angels on wings of light, it thunders through his consciousness and love awakes a full grown giant. (162)

-- curiosity is not exclusively the prerogative of woman. (339)